Health Insurers Tout New AI Tools, Vow to Embrace Tech Responsibly

Jun 20
Jun 20, 2025

This month, both Cigna Healthcare and Independence Blue Cross unveiled new artificial intelligence (AI) tools aimed at helping members get better customer service from their health plans. One expert says such announcements signal that payers are ready to go all-in on the technology — but they also aim to do so thoughtfully.

“AI has been now embedded long enough that they’re starting to see some benefits out of it, so it’s not surprising that they’re going to start making more and more visible announcements,” says Ashraf Shehata, national sector lead for health care and life sciences at KPMG. “Maybe a year ago, we were talking about what it could be. Now, organizations are starting to see some metrics and data” on AI’s utility, he adds.
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Leslie Small

Leslie has been working in journalism since 2009 and reporting on the health care industry since 2014. She has covered the many ups and downs of the Affordable Care Act exchanges, the failed health insurer mega-mergers, and hundreds of other storylines spanning subjects such as Medicaid managed care, Medicare Advantage, employer-sponsored insurance, and prescription drug coverage. As the managing editor of Health Plan Weekly and Radar on Drug Benefits, she writes and edits for both publications while overseeing a small team of reporters who also focus on the managed care sector. Before joining AIS Health, she was a senior editor for the e-newsletter Fierce Health Payer, and she started her career as a copy editor at multiple local newspapers. She graduated with a dual degree in journalism and political science from Penn State University.