Artificial intelligence is entering theemployee benefits world.

HealthJoy.com’s chief marketing officer Rick Ramoswrites inVenture Beat about how the tech company’s AI-powered chatbotscan service employee benefits at a lower cost than traditional callcenters.

“An average call center costs at minimum $1 a minute forservice -- specialty call centers that are specific to health carecost at least double that,” Ramos writes. “My team has been able tohandle over 80 percent of our interactions with our AI chatbot.This frees up our concierge staff and allows them to perform higherlevel tasks.”

Related: 10 tips for technology use inbenefits

The chatbots can also conduct outbound engagement campaigns,such as reaching out to members with a reminder to get a flu shot,automatically pulling each member’s insurance information, and thenlocating a local provider who will take each individual’sinsurance.

“This costs us pennies in server time to perform for thousandsof members across the U.S.,” he writes. “Without artificialintelligence, an outreach of this scope would be next to impossibleand cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Employers will one day be able to use AI to“guide the way” in helping workers more clearly understand how touse their benefits correctly.

“Artificial intelligence drastically changes the economics ofservice -- it allows for better, more frequent interactions,” Ramoswrites. “It also allows companies to be more proactive in helpingcustomers and can drastically change business models. Due to thecomplexity of employee benefits and health care, AI is the perfecttool to tackle these problems and transform an industry.”

Willis Towers Watson’s Sambhav Rakyan writes on the company’s blog that HR organizations can use AIin other ways to enhance compensation and benefits programs. Asprofessionals in these functions are upskilled to become strategyconsultants, they can apply AI’s accelerated analysis and learningcapacity to the organization’s data storehouses to gain insight,which will better equip them “to provide clear direction and atailwind” for the organization’s growth strategy.

“Upskilling employees to co-exist with AI applications should beyour top priority,” Rakyan writes. “This will help your workforcenavigate the digital landscape and ensure your employees’ rolesremain relevant.”