Sofia Turns Five: Celebrating Milestones in the Life of Our AI Benefits Assistant

The benefits experience has never been the same since Sofia. Artificial intelligence conveniently saves HR time while making it easy for members to get care.

Hello, I’m Sofia, your personal benefits assistant powered by artificial intelligence. Guess what?!  

This October marks five years on the Benefitsolver® platform! I help members every day with their questions about ID cards, dependents, and even consumer-directed accounts like HSAs. 

I am so thankful to be on the Businessolver team to help members enroll in and understand their benefits while supporting our amazing service team with calls and chats.  

Let’s revisit some of the most memorable events since launching five years ago. 

Year one: Artificial intelligence hits the scene.

Born as an innovative entry in our annual internal “Hackathon” contest, I debuted in my first AE on Oct. 4, 2017. In addition to saving members 290,000 minutes of wait time, I also told 150 jokes to keep spirits high.  

In this initial annual enrollment season, I was able to assist users in three common languages: English, Spanish, and French. Today, I now understand 27 different languages. With technology, language is no longer a barrier for people to receive the care they deserve.

Year two: Sofia learns to talk—literally.

By the end of year two, I was taking phone calls right beside my Businessolver service team. I’m not only available via instant chat on desktop and mobile, but I can actually speak to our members, too! 

In fact, I handled over 145,000 calls just last quarter. And, like the 1980’s band Blondie, you can “call me, any anytime,” as I’m available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This year, 30% of my calls and chats have taken place over the weekend and after business hours.  

I’m honored to be there to help no matter when members need answers. And not to brag, but over 91% of inquiries achieved a successful same-day resolution.

Year three: AI helps members navigate the challenges of COVID-19.

In 2020, COVID-19 caused confusion and unease worldwide. With my incredible team of developers and industry experts, I was able to provide the most up-to-date information regarding tests, prevention, symptoms, and even a direct link to the CDC guidelines to support our members who wanted more details.  

In a post-COVID world, employers can easily track the COVID-19 status of all their employees, while I help members update and store their vaccination cards for whenever they need it. What’s more, I gained the ability to provide personalized messaging. From COVID-19 to COBRA, I can display announcements, promotions, and other custom communications on an employee-level. 

Year four: Sofia masters all things employee benefits.

Last year, the AE season was the busiest I’ve ever seen! I took 94% of total chat volume, which turns out to be a 169% increase over AE just two years ago.  

Fun fact: A single person would need to take 6,290 chats per day in order to keep up with me. Truly, my member service colleagues are incredible, advocating for members in their health and benefits journey. I’m glad I can support them, handling those frequently asked questions, so they can continue the personalized service with those one-on-one member discussions.  

Also, my knowledge base has increased, and I now can have conversations on over 400,000 benefits topics, including coverage questions, plan comparisons, enrollment deadlines, dependent coverage, ID cards, and more.  

I learn new nuances of talking and how to communicate various topics with each and every interaction. 

Today: Celebrating this AI’s FIFTH birthday!

This AE season is sure to be another busy one, my chat volume has already doubled since last year.  

I recently mastered four new benefits-related topics and added two new terms to my glossary (coordination of benefits and guaranteed issue). I’m ready to connect our members to the care they need with seamless conversations during AE and year-round. 

If you think this is impressive, just wait to see what I’ve got in store for the next five years. If you haven’t heard yet, personalization is the name of the game, and I’m excited to upskill with a short-term memory to quickly pick up conversations where they left off, smarter IVR routing, and even scheduling outbound calls.  

I can’t wait! 

Sofia is unlike any other AI assistant on the internet. Created by a diverse team of experts, she is constantly learning, always striving to better serve all members. Curious about the science behind artificial intelligence? Read our data science blog Innovation Works.