For benefit advisers, smart tech and AI are a stepping stone to better client service

The benefits world isn't always quick to embrace new technology tools, but according to adviser Ed Ligonde, that's to the detriment of benefits professionals everywhere — and their clients. 

"This industry has always been behind the eight ball when it comes to empowering brokers to do our job quicker, faster and better," says Ligonde, partner and market director at Nava Benefits. "We focus so much on making things easier for the client, but when we build technology to help us do our job quicker, that's a benefit for clients as well." 

In July, Ligonde's previous brokerage Nielsen Benefits Group was acquired by Nava Benefits, a tech-powered brokerage. The newly expanded organization is now focused on delivering streamlined, efficient employee benefits support with a human touch to midsize employers across the country. 

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"For brokers, tech helps with a lot of the work that becomes mundane — keying in census information, spreadsheets and client renewals, automating eligibility. That can be very time-consuming from a manual standpoint," Ligonde says. "So we need to take a two-pronged approach and build technology to help us better manage clients, better do our jobs, but also bring technology externally to clients to deliver a better employee experience." 

In September, Ligonde will join Employee Benefit News in San Diego at our new conference, Benefits at Work, to discuss the best ways to build and implement a successful benefits strategy. (If you haven't secured your spot, register here!) We recently caught up with Ligonde to check in on the merger with Nava, and to understand how technology can be a time-saving asset for brokers and employers everywhere. 

Since merging with Nava, you're now a tech-first organization. What does that mean for the way you and your team work? 
Nava has an amazing and incredibly smart team when it comes to building out a wonderful user interface that is easy to understand, and empowers HR and business leaders to help their employees better navigate their benefits. And it's not just an app — it's a two-way street in that employees can message and ask questions, and receive insight. Especially for younger employees that were born with a phone at their hip, it's helpful to be able to meet them where they are. And the fact that we're a broker doing that, it's a huge differentiator. 

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How does technology help you guide clients to understand what their own teams want and need as they build a benefits package? 
Every employer is different, and they're going to have different needs. Brokers and clients can build a strong partnership if they believe the same thing. We love to work with clients who want to spend the energy to educate their staff to build a comprehensive benefits program, but maybe they just don't have the bandwidth. That's where we can help them build an ongoing engagement experience around their benefits after open enrollment and before open enrollment. So you're engaging people the other 11 months of the year, and you can bring them technology to do that, and meet people where they are. Instead of guessing, just ask employees: How do you like to receive information? Is it text messaging? Is it via a mobile app? A push alert? Email? Slack? Carrier pigeon? 

The quantity of information is also very key. We're always on our phones, so bite-size pieces of information are easier to digest. We need to do that with benefits rather than sending two-page-long emails and expecting employees to understand. 

Everyone's talking about AI right now. What does it mean for benefits? 
It's another area that's going to empower us in what we do, even if it's writing content for a communication program — because you can lock in ChatGPT and say, give me 12 reference points based on these three benefits. 

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I can also see a lot of point-solution providers building it into their apps or programs to give quicker responses from a telemedicine standpoint, from a quality of care standpoint, and recommendations for clinical diagnoses. I also think AI will help personalize the journey for members. The key to getting people to become savvy consumers and understand their benefits is through personalization. So AI will continue to empower people, whether through telemedicine or diabetes management or an advocacy solution. 

Do you anticipate some of these new tech solutions really shaking up the industry, particularly within the adviser and broker space? 
Technology, to me, grows exponentially and not incrementally. We're all still trying to figure it out to see its place in our industry, and I think we're going to be at a crossroads here pretty soon on how best to leverage it. The good news is, it's not being ignored — people are accepting it, trying to understand it, and we're having conversations. That's the first step in making change happen. And I can see some pretty significant changes in the broker space in the next three years. 

For your clients who knew you as Nielsen Benefits Group, how are they reacting to you joining the Nava family and adopting this kind of forward-looking technology? 
We can't wait to start rolling out some of the Nava technology to them, likely in the new year. We're also going to help Nava build out more of the communication platform. Between their technology and our ideas, it will be a really nice solution that's pretty unique in the market. I'm really excited about that, and clients are really excited and kind of salivating.