The future of AI for HR: 5 ways it’s reinventing benefits and healthcare support

There’s been no shortage of hype around artificial intelligence (AI), but behind the buzz are tangible benefits already transforming how HR teams operate. In a recent panel, we spoke with:

• Mark Manara, Head of Startups at OpenAI
• Kareem Zaki, Partner at Thrive Capital
• Tim Schwartz, Product Lead for Benefits at Rippling
• Donald DeSantis, Co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Nava Benefits

Together, they explored how AI is reshaping healthcare, benefits, and the HR function, offering practical insights on where AI is driving impact today, where it’s headed, and what HR leaders can do to stay ahead.

The most important insight from the conversation? AI is not about replacing people—it’s about removing the friction that gets in the way of better decisions and better care.

AI for HR: 5 key takeaways for benefits leaders

Many HR professionals spend too much time managing complex plan documents, answering repetitive employee questions, and dealing with outdated systems. AI is proving most valuable when it’s applied to real pain points like these. In other words, the best use cases start not with the technology, but with the employee experience.

1. AI is making administrative burdens disappear

Administrative tasks have long been a pain point for HR and benefits teams. These include reconciling enrollment data with carriers, checking for billing errors, generating reports, and managing backend benefits workflows. AI is starting to replace manual processes in these areas by:

• Automatically identifying discrepancies between HRIS and carrier records
• Creating customizable reports from a simple text prompt
• Handling repetitive data validation and confirmation tasks behind the scenes

This shift not only reduces human error and saves time—it also improves accuracy and responsiveness for employees.

AI is also helping teams unlock insights that would’ve taken hours to uncover. Instead of spending time compiling data across systems, HR leaders can quickly understand what’s happening within their workforce and act on it—whether it’s uncovering the drivers of turnover or identifying early signs of employee disengagement.

With Nava’s HQ platform, we’ve seen firsthand how AI can streamline time-consuming backend tasks, helping HR leaders shift from reactive troubleshooting to proactive strategy.

And the need is real: Recent research shows that HR staff spend as much as 57% of their time on administrative tasks, leaving little room for strategic planning or people-focused initiatives

Bottom line: Less time on busywork means more time for strategic initiatives and employee engagement.

2. Benefits navigation is finally becoming accessible

Employees often feel overwhelmed by their benefits—and for good reason. Plan documents are long, dense, and hard to understand. Even basic questions like “How much will this cost me?” can feel unanswerable without HR’s help.

AI is changing that by enabling Q&A powered by each employee’s actual benefits elections. This means employees can ask:

• “What’s my copay for a PCP visit?”
• “Will I need pre-approval for physical therapy?”
• “How much do I pay for out-of-network vision services?”

And get a real, accurate answer—within seconds.

Uncertainty often leads to avoidance—employees skip care, defer appointments, or avoid using their benefits entirely out of fear of unexpected costs. AI can change this dynamic by offering fast, accurate answers that reduce anxiety and build trust in the system.

We’ve seen this firsthand through our Nava Benefits App, which provides personalized, AI-powered support that helps employees understand and navigate their benefits with clarity. The app not only answers individual plan questions, but also guides users through complex decisions like choosing between plans during open enrollment or figuring out the financial impact of a procedure.

This kind of decision support can be the difference between confusion and confidence—helping employees not just access care, but do so in a way that fits their health needs and financial situation.

Why it matters: When people understand and trust their benefits, they’re more likely to use them proactively, which improves outcomes and reduces financial stress.

3. The right approach to AI makes work more human

AI is often misunderstood as a depersonalizing force. But in reality, its most meaningful impact is in freeing people up to do the work they actually care about.

By offloading repetitive or low-impact tasks, like processing invoices or responding to routine support questions, AI enables HR and benefits professionals to:

• Spend more time supporting employees directly
• Offer thoughtful, personalized guidance
• Focus on strategic planning and the employee experience

AI also acts as a kind of “superpower” for HR, helping teams unlock real-time insights without digging through spreadsheets. It can flag potential attrition risks, identify struggling new hires, or highlight manager coaching opportunities—all with a speed and accuracy that wasn’t previously possible.

These are the kinds of insights Nava’s team is focused on surfacing through HQ, where AI is quietly working behind the scenes to power better outcomes.

Key idea: AI isn’t replacing the human touch—it’s making room for more of it.

4. Security and trust are table stakes

AI’s power comes with responsibility. Especially in healthcare and benefits, where personal and financial data is involved, HR leaders must hold vendors to a high standard. That includes:

• Data privacy: AI tools should never use employee data for model training or other undisclosed purposes.
• Contextual grounding: AI-generated answers should rely only on your company’s documents and data—not general internet information.
• Human controls: AI should be designed with clear handoffs to humans when accuracy or judgment is needed.

It’s also essential that your vendors maintain strong data protection practices—such as holding security certifications like SOC 2—and, where relevant, establish HIPAA-compliant relationships with AI providers (e.g., through Business Associate Agreements, or BAAs).

Equally important: tools should be designed to know their limits. In sensitive scenarios—like claims questions or provider eligibility—AI systems need clear rules about when to escalate, when to defer, and when a human needs to take over.

What to do: Ask every AI-powered vendor how they handle data, what guardrails are in place, and whether their tools are opt-in.

5. AI adoption doesn’t need to be overwhelming—start small

One of the biggest myths about AI is that you need a massive rollout plan to see value. In reality, the best results often come from small, well-scoped experiments that target a clear problem, such as:

• Reducing the number of employee questions routed to HR
• Improving accuracy in open enrollment elections
• Automating discrepancy resolution with carriers

These pilot efforts help build trust and internal alignment, while also delivering measurable value. Over time, HR leaders can scale their use of AI thoughtfully, based on what works.

And while the long-term potential is enormous, the current reality is still early-stage. Many teams are just scratching the surface—often describing themselves as “3% built.” But even at this early stage, the improvements are tangible, and momentum is building quickly.

Where to begin: Identify one place where your team spends too much time on manual work—or where employees often get stuck. That’s your AI opportunity.

Looking ahead: what to expect in the next 12–18 months

While AI’s capabilities are evolving rapidly, some changes are already on the near horizon:

• Faster, cleaner carrier integrations: Many of today’s benefit administration challenges stem from broken handoffs between systems. Expect AI to play a larger role in syncing data and resolving errors across HRIS, ben admin platforms, and carriers.
• Real-time insights for HR teams: AI will help HR leaders surface signals on employee performance, attrition risk, or engagement—without requiring hours of data wrangling.
• Voice-based support experiences: As voice AI becomes more sophisticated, booking a provider appointment could soon be as easy as asking a benefits assistant to “call and schedule my next cleaning.” Given the healthcare system’s heavy reliance on phone-based workflows, this development could have an outsized impact.
• More personalization during open enrollment: AI will be able to walk employees through plan comparisons and help them make financially sound choices based on their health history and preferences.

And AI adoption is quickly moving from experimental to expected. According to Gartner, 60% of enterprise organizations are expected to adopt a responsible AI framework for their HR technology by 2025—a clear sign that HR leaders are preparing to embed AI deeply into their employee experience strategies.

Focus on the employee experience

The clearest takeaway from the discussion? AI isn’t a distant future—it’s already improving the way HR teams support their people. But its value isn’t in the technology alone—it’s in how well it’s aligned to the real challenges employees face.

HR leaders don’t need to become AI experts overnight. But by asking better questions, starting with specific problems, and prioritizing trust and transparency, they can turn AI into a strategic advantage—one that improves access to care, reduces costs, and helps employees feel more confident using their benefits.

At its best, AI doesn’t just reduce workload—it reduces stress. When employees can ask a question and get a clear, trustworthy answer in seconds, they feel supported, not stuck. And when HR leaders can focus on meaningful work instead of fixing broken workflows, they build more resilient, people-first organizations.

The future of employee benefits is smarter, faster, and more human. And it starts by taking one thoughtful step forward.

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