What is AI?

In our previous blog, we discussed why there is so much hype about artificial intelligence or AI. In this blog, we’re going to drill down into the question: what exactly is AI? Let's start by thinking about this at the core level. At the center of AI technology is the foundation model. An AI foundation model refers to a highly advanced computer program that has undergone extensive training by being exposed to a massive amount of written information from various sources. This training allows the program to grasp intricate patterns and relationships within language, making it incredibly proficient in comprehending and generating human-like text and other outputs.

In essence, it's as if this program has read countless books, articles, and websites, gaining a deep understanding of language and context. This understanding serves as a strong base upon which more specialized AI applications can be built. These applications might include tasks like creating natural-sounding text, summarizing lengthy documents, translating languages, and even answering questions with detailed responses.

The AI Foundation Model

For developers and researchers, an AI foundation model is like a toolbox filled with advanced tools that can be customized and fine-tuned for specific tasks. This saves them from having to create an AI system from scratch, accelerating the development of various AI-powered applications.

On the face of it, this seems very simple. However, the reality is that when these models are trained they can understand a vast data set that is much larger than humans have the time or capacity to think about. And that training is so important because it means that they can perform complex tasks and make our lives a lot easier.

For example, let’s think about the medical field - how can AI assist doctors? One application is diagnosing diseases. AI can look at every scan that has ever been recorded in a matter of hours, whereas this same exercise would take a human being years to complete. Further, where humans are limited to what the eye can see, AI can review scans at the pixel level. So, AI can focus at a much more granular level than humans can in identifying the source of an injury or a disease. 

As it relates to the brokerage industry, the key is to train that AI foundation model on benefits. More specifically, the model must be trained on clients' unique benefits programs in addition to understanding general benefits knowledge. That way, the foundation model can be trained to be smart enough to answer very niche questions about any specific plan parameter that an employee may come to you with. So, while there are tons of different applications here, the key is to make sure that we're training the model with the right data so that it can answer the right questions.

At the end of the day, certain day-to-day tasks are necessary to manage benefits programs. But let's be honest, these tasks are often repetitive. They can be frustrating, and they're altogether very time-consuming. If we can train the AI model to handle these manual tasks, our time can be freed up to focus on more value-added activities.

And the more you do with AI, the more the model learns. And the more it learns, the better it performs. AI models in the benefits industry are already functioning well, but they are getting better at an astonishing rate. The potential benefits of AI increase exponentially as the models get smarter.

So, what do we think AI will mean for the employee benefits brokerage community specifically? To some extent, the answer to that is a moving target, but we’ll explore that question in more detail in the next blog.

Want to elevate your employee benefits experience? Schedule a demo of the PlanYear full-lifecycle benefits solution, powered by AI.