- Key insight: Discover how AI is shifting benefits advisory from reactive guidance to anticipatory, data-driven interventions.
- Expert quote: WTW's Amy Sung says AI frees consultants to focus on organizational design and actionable recommendations.
- Forward look: Prepare for agentic AI to reshape broker-client workflows and benefits strategy deployment.
Source: Bullets generated by AI with editorial review
From boardrooms to water coolers, there's no escaping the topic of artificial intelligence —
Breathtaking advances in this technology are streamlining labor-intensive and research-heavy tasks
Case in point: WTW's AI-enabled assistant, Expert, which draws on its human capital consulting, as well as research, trend data, white papers, regulatory briefings, best practices and case studies. The tool provides context-specific insights that are aligned with WTW methodologies and areas of expertise, explains Amy Sung, WTW's work and rewards global growth leader.
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For example, she notes that in a job leveling engagement, organizations often spend significant time drafting job descriptions and reviewing role structures. Expert can generate initial drafts based on relevant inputs, enabling teams to focus their efforts on refining content, aligning roles to career frameworks and advising on broader organizational design. It also can be used for drafting time-consuming employee communications and surveys.
Similarly, when benchmarking employee benefits policies and designing benefits and compensation packages, employer clients typically conduct detailed reviews to assess competitiveness and compliance.
"Expert can help surface potential gaps or inconsistencies more efficiently, allowing consultants to spend more time developing actionable recommendations and advising clients on implementation," Sung says.
The latest iteration of AI also harnesses firepower in anticipating the employee benefits experience rather than operating on assumptions and reactions. Meet Sofia, Businessolver's enhanced AI approach to helping brokers, HR teams and employees anticipate problems before they arise and decision-making becomes stressful.
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She serves as the connective intelligence that has operated across Businessolver's technology and services for nearly a decade, equipping clients with predictive analytics, dashboards, real-time insights and benchmark data to act swiftly and confidently.
"Anticipation is empathy in action, delivered at scale," according to Rae Shanahan, chief strategy officer for Businessolver, whose HR and benefits tech platform has more than 19 million users. "It's what happens when people expertise and service are paired with intelligence that knows when, where, and how to help."
Sofia's agentic AI intelligence layer provides both personalized and anticipatory real-time benefits support. An agentic capability means that autonomous systems can establish goals and take independent actions to achieve objectives without continuous human oversight. It was built to enhance rather than replace human support.
"She understands the nuance of employee intent and eligibility by interpreting employee intent, eligibility and context across millions of real-world interactions, and this makes her capable of delivering real-time, 24/7 benefits support when employees need it most," Shanahan explains.
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User experiences show that issues are genuinely solved and not just deflected. For example, 91% of Sofia chats are resolved the same day, while 85% remain resolved after seven days. When a situation requires human support, Sofia routes the interaction to a live service professional and provides that agent with full context and insight.
"This sets up human conversations to address issues faster and just be more effective all around," she says. "It creates a more informed, connected experience for everyone involved."
By using real-world signals and pattern recognition across eligibility data, interactions, timing, and behavior, Sofia can spot confusion or health risks before they become problematic. For employees, it might include recognizing when someone in a physically demanding role shows early signs of musculoskeletal risk. Sofia can proactively guide them to physical therapy or preventive care benefits available through their employer before an injury or claim occurs.
For HR teams, Shanahan says anticipatory insights bring to light troubling patterns such as low utilization of certain benefits or spikes in employee questions around a specific topic. Sofia helps translate those signals into action. That might mean adjusting communications, prioritizing education or evaluating whether the benefits package is fully supporting employee needs. In short, she notes that anticipatory benefits mean less downstream stress and much more confident decision-making for the entire organization.
"What's powerful about Sofia is that she grounds a broker's recommendations in real-world signals," Shanahan observes. "She gives brokers and advisers visibility into patterns that are otherwise difficult to see across a portfolio of clients. Brokers have a clearer window into employee support needs and adoption trends, which helps them identify exactly where a client might need more targeted education or a shift in strategy."
