Booking an appointment with a provider often means confirming they’re in network, working through an automated phone menu and trading available times with a receptionist. But for some UnitedHealthcare and Aetna members, an AI agent is now handling that work.
Senior executives at both insurers have described their scheduling tools publicly in recent months as part of broader AI investments aimed at cutting administrative costs and simplifying how members get care.
“If I would usually schedule an appointment, I’d make a phone call, sit on hold, figure out my calendar, juggle my children. All that is gone, because Avery will do it for me,” Prianka Advani, senior vice president of AI delivery and telephony at UnitedHealth Group, said during a media event in June.
Avery is a generative AI assistant first introduced by UnitedHealthcare earlier this year. Members can use it through the company’s app or website to ask about benefits, costs and in-network providers, or even have it call in-network primary care providers to schedule appointments on the member’s behalf.
During a live demonstration, Ms. Advani showed Avery helping her find an in-network orthopedic surgeon and sending a referral request to her primary care physician, along with asking for her preferred appointment times and calling the physician’s office on her behalf. On that call, it identified itself as an AI assistant calling from UnitedHealthcare, gave the reason for the visit and the referral status, and then booked her an afternoon appointment.
“Our goal, using Avery as the digital companion and a voice companion, and powering our advocates behind the scenes, is to build trust with AI,” Ms. Advani said.
UnitedHealthcare has said it aims to expand the tool to more than 20 million commercial, Medicare and Medicaid members by the end of this year, falling under a larger plan at the company to spend a combined $3 billion on AI capabilities through the end of 2027.
Earlier this month at a healthcare conference hosted by Wells Fargo, Aetna President Steve Nelson also said his organization is now using agentic AI to schedule appointments on members’ behalf, though the insurer has not disclosed how many people currently have access to the tool.
“This is an agent doing this, and it’s incredibly efficient, and it’s really thorough, and it makes the experience for both the provider and the member dramatically better,” he said.
Mr. Nelson tied the tool to Aetna’s broader efforts to return the insurer to target margins following a period of financial turmoil at the company. In September, Aetna’s chief digital and technology officer, Nathan Frank, described the agent on the Becker’s Payer Issues podcast as part of a push to take administrative “homework” off members.
“Things like appointment scheduling, where we can use AI and agentic AI to actually go out there and schedule the appointment for a member. It makes it easier for them, but also makes it easier for the providers,” he said.
In March, parent company CVS Health separately unveiled Health100, a platform built with Google Cloud that uses agentic AI to help connect consumers with pharmacies, providers, insurers and pharmacy benefit managers. CVS has said the platform is designed to help people manage their health, get care faster and understand what it will cost.
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