May 21, 2024

The pace of change related to health care technology has dramatically increased in recent years. While much of that change has been focused on improvements in care delivery, employers and their partners are looking to leverage advancements in technology that can improve benefits administration, build connections between large amounts of disparate health data, and ensure an overall positive employee experience. Discussions about leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) have quickly taken center stage in the debate on necessary innovation in care delivery and benefit administration. At the same time, AI-powered tools are associated with potential challenges, including but not limited to compromising employee trust. Employers must ensure that they adopt new technological tools responsibly, driving toward a more streamlined, connected and equitable health care ecosystem. At this year's annual conference, employers and their partners highlighted how they are leveraging technology in varying ways to help improve the employee experience and drive better engagement. Read on for actionable ideas.

How Employers Are Integrating Technology

• Piloting novel technology to ensure alignment: To test technology-based tools to see if they achieve their intended goals, some employers are using pilots to try out novel approaches with smaller employee populations before broader deployments. When working with newer innovators, employers report that vendors are often willing to co-create and tailor services to their specific workforce.
• Using AI to personalize the benefits experience: Employers are finding that AI can be a useful tool to recommend personalized actions that are calibrated for what will be most beneficial to employees and the most likely to be achieved. Using micro-recommendations allows employers to build trust in AI-powered tools and buy-in over time. As a result, when very important actions are required, employees are more likely to take them. As employers also look to amplify their efforts to address person-specific social determinants of health, targeted data and personalized outreach can increase the effectiveness of interventions.
• Coordinating new technology offerings with existing vendor partners: When considering new technology offerings, employers are looking to coordinate these novel technologies with existing vendor partners to avoid confusion for employees, seek employee feedback and secure leadership buy-in from the beginning.

Strategies Employers Can Use to Integrate Technology

• Pilot new approaches: Lean on pilots to test innovative approaches and build evidence among your employee populations. Early user feedback is anecdotal but can often quickly provide a sense of whether an approach will work at a larger scale.
• Use technology to help employees navigate benefits: Remove the burden of navigating when and where to use employee benefits and health care services by coordinating vendors behind the scenes. Technology is most useful when it is simplifying health and well-being experiences rather than adding layers of complexity. Do not put the burden on the end user to “figure out” new technology.
• Ensure data security of new technology: Employers should work with new technology partners to ensure that employee data is secure and the organization is compliant with data privacy laws and regulations.

Relevant Resources

• 1 | Artificial Intelligence: Evolve Thinking, Accelerate Health and Well-being
• 2 | 4 Key Elements of Employer-led Innovation in 2024 and Beyond
• 3 | Integrated Benefits Experience: Four Key Considerations for Employers
• 4 | Recap of Employer-only Sharing Call: Creating an Integrated Benefits Experience
• 5 | Leveraging Workforce Data for Health and Well-being Success: Guidance for Employers

2024 Annual Conference Insights: Integrating Technology into the Health and Well-being Ecosystem

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