How AI can enhance benefit leader, broker relationships

• Key insight: Discover how AI enables brokers to evolve beyond administrative roles into healthcare navigators.
• Expert quote: Will Johnson - AI platforms should be "both high tech and high touch."
• Forward look: Prepare for AI-driven assistance reshaping account-management timelines and client conversations.
  Source: Bullets generated by AI with editorial review

For benefit brokers, well-trained artificial intelligence can assist in meeting the growing needs of their employer clients, especially in the healthcare space. 

As this area in particular becomes increasingly complex, benefit leaders are looking for broker partners who are present and proactive, according to Will Johnson, co-founder and CEO of Gyde, which is where he said expert-programmed AI assistance like his AI-native brokerage platform can help.

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Gyde's offerings include GydeOS, an operating system that helps brokers with administrative tasks such as managing their calendar and relevant product recommendations for clients, and Gia, an AI assistant that can conduct proactive outreach and manage inquiries and renewals, among other tasks. Officially launched in January, the company was born in part from Johnson's own experience navigating the healthcare system, and seeing what a valuable role insurance brokers play.   

"If we could build better tooling for this essential part of our healthcare infrastructure, not only could we help brokers deal with some of the administrative load they've seen increase over recent years, we may even be able to help them transcend their role to become a broader part of healthcare navigation, being an even stronger partner for the employers and employees that they service," Johnson said. 

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Growing disruption requires more work

As healthcare costs and plan options multiply, it is common for benefit leaders to find that what worked last year will not work going forward, Johnson said. He noted that the renewal process is one area where AI-generated guidance is valuable, as it can provide product suggestions based on the evolving needs of a client's workforce, rather than a broker spending hours searching and comparing. 

"[If we can] serve that information up to the broker in an automated way … they don't have to spend all of the account-management resources, time, etc., on that process," Johnson said. "[This allows them to] have richer conversations much faster. They can devote time to empathizing with employers and finding solutions in an automated way that previously would have taken weeks."

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Balance of 'high tech, high touch'

As sophisticated and helpful as some AI might be, it's most effective when paired with the right amount of human touch, explained Johnson. This means working alongside brokers so they understand how to use the technology and always searching for ways to improve, he added. Just as brokers must stay up to speed on the changing needs of their clients, Gyde's engineers are constantly looking for ways "to try to solve the problems that the employee benefits broker is dealing with on a day-to-day basis," he said. 

The goal is to make sure that the broker experience is improved so they can strengthen their relationships with and provide better service to benefit leaders and employees they work with, Johnson said. 

"You have to be both high tech and high touch, and ultimately, even during this fairly material paradigm shift and technology that we're all going through, the importance of human connection and being able to empower that both in our work with our partners, but also with their clients, is important," he said.