In the rapidly advancing
AI is enabling HR to meet these growing demands — and not a moment too soon. Specifically, a subset of AI we call adaptive intelligence is blazing the path to scalable,
The adaptive intelligence branch of AI is marked by technology that evolves in real time alongside its users. What truly sets it apart is an ability to foster emotionally-responsive interactions between employees and the technology platforms with which they engage.
Like many of its AI cousins, adaptive intelligence has the potential to augment human HR capabilities and help deliver on every HR team's ultimate goal: more meaningful engagement with employees. In fact,
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Employee benefits present a golden opportunity to pursue more meaningful engagement. That's because data consistently shows employees are uncertain about their benefits packages. Businessolver's 2025
There are bright spots within the data, however. For instance, AI-powered personalization is significantly improving employees' confidence and satisfaction with their benefits decisions specifically at the time of enrollment. During the 2025 enrollment period for our clients, 79% of employees reported feeling confident in their benefits election when personalized decision support at enrollment helped guide them to right-fit benefits.
Of course, enrollment is only a single moment in the overall employee benefits journey. Adaptive intelligence is poised to transform many others along that journey. Here are five ways that AI is helping HR drive down costs while improving the employee benefits experience.
1. Virtual benefits assistants respond immediately and with empathy
One of the most exciting skills adaptive intelligence presents in benefits administration is the ability to train virtual benefits assistants to recognize and respond to certain emotions, such as stress or overwhelm, frustration or nervousness. They can even ask contextually relevant questions to simulate an empathetic human-to-human conversation.
Virtual benefits assistants are available to employees 24/7, every day of the year. They do not feel stress or burnout; they can support employees whenever and wherever they need help. The data we've gathered across more than 18 million users in our platform shows that 90% of the time, virtual benefits assistants are able to resolve employees' benefit issues the same day. This equates to a whopping 4,000 hours of time saved for both HR teams and employees.
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2. Concierge-level personalization for every employee
More than half of the 1,370 HR executives
Employees can struggle to understand how complex benefits offerings relate to their unique circumstances, and this leads to the underutilization of valuable programs. Here again, adaptive intelligence can make a measurable difference. Take, for example, wellness programs – a powerful, but often underutilized resource shown to
AI helps drive more recognition – and value – out of benefits for both HR and their employees. Our clients see better steerage at enrollment and right-fit utilization year-round, supporting a better wellbeing experience despite benefits confusion. This proves that employees don't have to be benefits experts to get real value out of their benefits. They just need the right support in place to help them make decisions and build familiarity.
3. Intelligent listening enables quick pivots for service delivery and support
For decades, HR and its contact center partners recorded and transcribed interactions between employees and benefits representatives. Traditionally, this has been executed as a spot-check strategy to get a feel for the average experience. With the help of AI, every call can be recorded, transcribed and analyzed to give a fuller scope of employee interactions. With the integration of adaptive intelligence, those same transcriptions can be more deeply analyzed, becoming powerful sources of insight that can be more quickly acted upon.
This intelligence gives HR teams a new line of sight into patterns of employee concerns and even sentiments, putting HR in a position to proactively address issues with data-backed strategies. If, for example, employees are asking more frequently about mental health coverage or childcare assistance, employers can refine their offerings and enhance communication strategies to make information clearer. Adaptive intelligence can also identify emotions and sentiments in aggregate, providing HR with deeper insights into overall employee well-being and satisfaction.
4. Healthcare jargon becomes accessible answers to benefits questions
Advanced language processing capabilities mean adaptive intelligence can summarize complex text into succinct, plain language — a much-needed solution to the overwhelming complexity of benefits information. Traditional benefits plan documents can be dense and difficult to navigate, forcing employees to sift through pages of text to find the answers they need. This is the last thing anyone with a change of life circumstance wants, particularly if they are under stress.
With AI-powered search and summarization, employees can ask a question in natural language — such as "What are my 401(k) contribution limits?" — and receive an instant, summarized response that highlights the most relevant details, along with links to relevant documents for verification. During the 2025 annual enrollment, 92% of all AI-powered search queries on our platform saw an immediate success rate. This means employees have more confidence in their benefits decisions and benefits teams can refocus their time on more strategic initiatives, like employee appreciation or preparing for plan start dates.
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5. The 'eyes' of AI save thousands
Another power of adaptive intelligence is helping computers understand the visual world. In the context of navigating employee benefits, new capabilities in computer vision are dramatically streamlining benefits administration.
One key application of computer vision in benefits is spending account claims and document verification. AI-powered systems can instantly analyze receipts, invoices and benefit-related documents, automatically approving eligible claims and flagging others for review. Computer vision also can handle more complex tasks such as dependent verification. Instead of HR teams manually reviewing documents, adaptive intelligence can "read" and verify these records autonomously, ensuring only eligible dependents are added.
The impact of this innovation is substantial. Our analysis shows dependent verification services alone saves clients an average of $500,000 annually in unverified dependent costs.
A new reality is here — one in which employees no longer have to struggle with complex plan documents or wait for answers. Adaptive intelligence is making the employee benefits experience easier and faster, without losing the human touch.
Across the entire benefits experience, adaptive intelligence removes frustration and replaces it with clarity and confidence. As HR finds new, creative ways to put this evolving technology to work, employees can look forward to a benefits experience that is more reflective of their individual needs and reinforces their unique value to the organization.
