May 29, 2025
During this year’s annual conference, employers, industry partners and other thought leaders came together to discuss approaches and strategies for tackling the most pertinent trends in employer-sponsored health and well-being. These issues include solving ongoing cost concerns, validating the impact of well-being programs, improving outcomes through leveraging data and technology, addressing chronic conditions effectively and reimagining vendor partnerships.
The following annual conference summary offers a closer look at insights uncovered pertaining to leveraging technology and data to drive population health improvements.
Overview
Employers continue to leverage technology and data in innovative ways to enhance health outcomes, manage costs and improve employee engagement. The rapid evolution and expansion of virtual health, data access, data analysis and artificial intelligence (AI) has presented opportunities for significant transformation in many aspects of health care. On a broad scale, these technologies hold the promise of identifying insights in large datasets to drive a more effective strategy. On a human scale, they supercharge what’s possible in personalizing health care, unlocking insights for individuals on what will most likely work best for them. Still, employers remain mindful of the legal, ethical and trust implications of embracing AI in health applications.
At this year’s conference, employers and partners highlighted practical applications of technology to elevate health care access and improve outcomes. Speakers emphasized that technology should be leveraged to deliver patient-centered health care experiences that meet evolving consumer expectations, rather than creating a less “human” system.
How Employers Are Leveraging Technology and Data
- Utilizing AI for smarter health care and benefits management: AI-powered tools are rapidly being integrated into benefits administration and clinical delivery, offering more precise and efficient ways to manage large, complex datasets and personalize care. Multiple employer speakers reported success in using AI to enhance predictive analytics, personalize interventions and streamline health care navigation. Speakers reinforced that AI must be paired with trust-building efforts, including transparent communication and employee education on how data is used, to drive meaningful participation from employees.
- Enhancing primary care through technology: Employers are partnering with providers leveraging data analytics and AI for many reasons, including to address primary care resource constraints. AI is reducing administrative burdens for many primary care providers and is concurrently improving data analytics capabilities, making it easier to proactively manage employee-patient health. These changes have the potential to streamline primary care providers’ time, allowing them to reach patients when they need support and expand their capacity in a resource-constrained environment.
- Creating comprehensive well-being dashboards: Employers are using data dashboards to assist them with vendor management and accountability, benefits strategy, reporting to leadership and identifying gaps and opportunities for targeted interventions. What data is included in dashboards varies based on the intended audience, but technology is making it easier to draw conclusions from connections across multiple datasets. Some employers mentioned being able to see patterns by looking at data on employee turnover, life and disability claims, leave of absence for mental health, social determinants of health (SDOH) and benchmarking data.
- Adopting digital health platforms: Employers are utilizing digital solutions designed to support employees across a broad spectrum of health conditions, including many that were considered only for in-person treatment until recently. These digital solutions must have robust data analysis capabilities and a willingness to share data with employer clients and their other vendors, as well as the ability to meaningfully consider or implement AI as a tool to improve their approach.
Tips for Elevating Your Data Strategy
Leverage Pilots:
- Use pilot programs to evaluate digital and AI-driven solutions on a subset of employees before scaling broadly.
- Collect early user feedback to help provide insight into effectiveness of pilot solutions and secure leadership and employee buy-in.
Implement AI Responsibly:
- Ensure responsible use of AI-powered tools by assessing and addressing potential challenges such as employee trust, transparency and inclusion.
- Create internal committees to evaluate responsible AI deployment with representatives across multiple departments such as HR, finance, business operations and others.
- Be transparent with employees to build confidence and demonstrate value while maintaining trust.
- Thoroughly vet the use of AI by partners, with a particular focus on participant/patient-facing technology applications.
Strive for Strong Integration of New Technology with Existing Infrastructure:
- Coordinate implementation of any new technology within your existing vendor ecosystem.
- Avoid bringing on a new partner unable – or unwilling – to coordinate and share data with other benefits partners. Innovation without integration is unlikely to serve employers and their employees very well.
- Challenge vendor partners to collaborate on technological integration to serve the needs of the employer and their participants; make this a contracting requirement for all vendor partners.
Safeguard Data and Privacy:
- Collaborate with technology providers to secure employee data and maintain compliance with applicable data protection regulations [e.g., General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe].
- Establish clear standards for data privacy and governance.
Relevant Resources
- 1 | Thought Leadership Series: Vendor Accountability
- 2 | Webinar: We Are the (Well-being) Champions: Data and Employer Success Stories to Inspire Your Strategy
- 3 | Webinar: Taking a Moonshot Approach to Benefits Innovation
- 4 | Innovation Showcase Recap: Leveraging Data to Drive Benefits Strategy
- 5 | Holding Vendors Accountable for Results and Assessing the Impact of Program Interventions

2025 Annual Conference Insights: Leveraging Technology and Data for Improved Outcomes
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