We're living in an era where it's increasingly common to integrate AI with your daily life. ChatGPT is writing emails. Chatbots are responding to customer support inquiries. Microsoft Teams is producing automated meeting summaries. Social media feeds are filled with AI-generated images and videos. It's a time-saver, sure, but it's also a bit draining when everyone sounds the same and you can't fully trust what you're seeing.
Likewise, the healthcare world is no stranger to AI's influence. Customer support, fraud detection, prior authorization, care management, and so much more are all leveraging AI tools to create efficiencies in the healthcare system.
The real question is how can healthcare companies use AI to be high tech while still being high touch? Customer and provider experiences are more important today than ever. How can payers and providers be efficient and authentic at the same time?
Our expert panelists, Rich DeMarco (SVP & Chief Operating Officer at Delta Dental of Minnesota), Ylan Kazi (Chief Data & AI Officer at Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota) and Tim Deutsch (Chief Data Officer at Sentara Healthcare), along with our moderator, Rajat Relan, explored this topic and more in our recent Relevant Health Roundtable panel. Read on for a few key takeaways from our conversation.
Across individuals and organizations, there's a broad continuum of definitions for AI. As a way to level set, our panelists discussed how they define and use AI personally. Tim shared that he considers AI as a thought partner helping him to do things in a faster and more efficient way. Ylan believes it a technology that is capable of learning, thinking, and acting depending upon how we use it and apply it to our life and business. Rich reflected on the growth of AI from the 1997 IBM AI chess champion program to today's iteration of ChatGPT.
The group acknowledged that there are endless meetings about AI and AI vendors, in particular, where there's a lot of inherent skepticism about integrating AI into existing processes and the promise of AI vendors.
"The biggest trust issue isn't AI. It's that people don't understand insurance and how it works; it's too complicated. Hopefully AI can help with that," explained Tim.
How can we harness the power of AI to gain efficiencies without losing the authenticity that a human touch provides? The answer is in how we measure efficiency. Our panelists cautioned against thinking exclusively in terms of how quickly we're able to get things done; efficiency must be measured by how it improves the quality of care and the member journey as a whole.
In some cases, there's an opportunity to surpass what a human could do independently by leaning into AI for health and safety outcomes. "What gets lost in the AI safety discussion is just asking the question of whether AI can help reform a certain function. Why does it matter if it's an AI or human? You want what's best," related Ylan. As an example, recent studies indicate that the Waymo Driver is better than humans at avoiding crashes that result in injuries, despite the perception that a driverless car is inherently unsafe. It's likely that we'll see similar outcomes in healthcare, especially as the culture of AI grows and people become more comfortable with it.
The AI landscape is changing fast as new players, tools, and applications continue to surface. Rich believes he'll see suggested responses as a capability and service, where customer service agents will have everything they need served up to them by an agent and can spend their time pivoting to education.
Tim shared excitement for any application that will help the healthcare delivery side take the burden off providers and provide efficient, high-quality care.
Ylan helped us wrap up the conversation by displaying optimism for AI's impact on the customer journey. "[AI] helps us understand our member from the entire continuum of their life and to help us be proactive over the course of their life."
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