Seeking human empathy, health insurers turn to AI
Seeking human empathy, health insurers turn to AI
Modern Healthcare; by Nona Tepper; 3/27/25
When Florida Blue wanted its call center employees to demonstrate greater emotional intelligence when dealing with customers, the nonprofit health insurance company enlisted a tutor incapable of emotion. A generative artificial intelligence, or genAI, chatbot instructs 30 Florida Blue customer service representatives on how to behave like human beings when interacting with other human beings. The chatbot guides workers on human behaviors, such as when to slow their speech, when to hasten a call to its conclusion and what to recommend to policyholders. The company plans to expand this pilot program to its entire 1,600-person call center team this year. [Continue reading ... access may be limited]
Editor's note: Is this backwards? What happened to human kindness? Courtesy and core respect? I am a lifelong lover of new technologies. Still, I am surprised at this seemingly-backwards twist. For whatever works, may we learn and grow in "[behaving] like human beings when interacting with other human beings."