- Key Insight: Learn how hyper-intelligent AI personalizes retirement planning at scale.
- What's at Stake: Failing to adopt AI risks misinformation, lower engagement, and talent disadvantage.
- Expert Quote: "Retirement complexity requires AI-driven personalization," says Rob Austin, head of thought leadership, Alight.
- Source: Bullets generated by AI with editorial review
If organizations want to maximize the impact of their retirement plans, AI can make the process more intuitive, actionable and impactful for every worker.
Fifty-six percent of employees are looking for help from their employer when it comes to saving for retirement, according to a study from HR technology and services provider Alight, with 65% seeking personalized communications from leaders based on their individual needs. But meeting these demands will be increasingly difficult without the help from hyper-intelligent AI tech tools.
"Retirement is so personalized," says Rob Austin, head of thought leadership at Alight. "You have to think of each individual person's salary, contributions and plan formula. When you add together the complexity of all that, it becomes really difficult to create communications that are modern and personalized, without using AI."
Read more: These AI tools are helping benefit leaders do their jobs faster and more efficiently
Austin says AI can improve the retirement process from the start by using more comprehensive predictive analytics. Intelligent tech tools can help benefit leaders analyze participant data, identify pain points in plan usage or design and suggest data-driven solutions to improve outcomes.
At the same time, AI is also transforming how leaders can then personalize engagement. For example, creating tailored resources on how small changes — like increasing savings from 4- 5% — could impact employees' retirement required a unique guide or video. But with AI, providers can now generate personalized, data-driven videos instantly, using avatars that walk individuals through their specific situations, making retirement planning more engaging and effective. Chatbots can even translate their information for employees where English isn't their first language, giving employees much more flexibility than before.
"AI can pick out the most important topics leaders should be discussing with each employee based on what's being impacted the most for each," Austin says. "Meetings can then be shorter because now they have some oversight built into AI agents that are forming informed decisions for individuals which ultimately ends up saving time."
Read more: Gen Z leads in retirement readiness due to better DC plan design
Staying on top of misinformation
According to Alight's findings, 75% of people are already using AI at work. This means that while it's up to benefit leaders to decide whether or not they want to adopt AI tools themselves, their employees are likely prepared to take matters into their own hands, leaving them open to scams and misinformation.
When employers take control, they can ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information employees are relying on. Still, Austin advises that leaders test the AI tool of their choice with a question they already know the answer to; if the output matches their expectations, it's worth investing in and if not, it's up to leaders to look into other solutions.
"Any new technology needs to be stress tested," Austin says. "But once you get comfortable enough with your AI tool and it's giving answers that you know are true, then you can trust it to give you the answers that you don't necessarily know. It's a lot of trust that leaders have to put into AI, but there are ways to verify that trust."
Read more: Nava Benefit's AI chatbot offers comprehensive support to benefit leaders
As AI continues to prove itself valuable in the workplace, the workforce's initial hesitation to adopt tools is waning, with more and more employees coming to expect support from AI to help them navigate complex topics and processes like retirement. According to Austin, this is movement in the right direction.
"The world is the oyster when it comes to AI," Austin says. "There's always going to be questions about data security and transparency in AI and while those are definitely non-negotiables, once we get ethical standards that protect employees' retirement information fully, there's no telling where AI can go [in this space.]"
