Newfront shared its latest AI application in Washington

Last Thursday Newfront’s Vice President of Engineering, Lin Yuan, joined seven industry representatives on Capitol Hill to discuss, demo, and debate the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in American business. 

The appearance before the Congressional Artificial Intelligence Caucus was organized by Bloomberg Beta, the venture capital arm of Bloomberg L.P. Bloomberg Beta funds a wide range of start-ups focused on the future of work and was one of Newfront’s earliest backers. As an early participant in the regulatory conversation around AI on Capitol Hill, Bloomberg Beta hopes to educate lawmakers on the benefits and risks of AI using tangible examples from companies it invests in. 

Although the presentation was formally addressed to the Congressional AI Caucus, the subject matter drew attention from across Capitol Hill. Attendees included members of the Caucus, select members of Congress, representatives of various Congressional offices, White House employees, and staff from federal agencies. 

The Congressional AI Caucus was formed at the end of March and is co-chaired by Representatives Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH) and Jerry McNerney (D-CA). The stated remit of the Caucus is to, “...inform policymakers of the technological, economic and social impacts of advances in AI and to ensure that rapid innovation in AI and related fields benefits Americans as fully as possible.” 

Newfront has recently deployed an AI-Powered Benefits Assistant with a select clientele. Read our case study.

Yuan introduced Newfront as the modern insurance brokerage leading digital transformation in business insurance and employee benefits. Introducing her demonstration, she described the situation HR professionals often find themselves in:

Some 85% of respondents in a recent employee survey revealed they didn’t understand their employee benefits nor their total rewards, not to mention the difference between the two. To solve this problem, Newfront built an AI-powered benefits chatbot that uses a cutting-edge Large Language Model (LLM). When trained on a company’s employee benefits manual, the Newfront “Benefits Assistant” can be deployed to answer questions from employees on their benefits. 

Yuan then demonstrated how the Benefits Assistant works. She launched Newfront’s internal Slack channel on a large screen, and proceeded to ask the Assistant a series of questions about the company’s benefits. To showcase the flexibility of the application, Yuan first asked a general question followed by a more probing question on the same topic. She asked questions about emergency room coverage, x-rays, as well as differences between FSA and HSA plans. The Benefits Assistant provided the correct answers to each question within seconds and provided links to the sections of the hundred-page benefits manual where it found the answers. 

Yuan also asked a question about moving to another state and how that might affect her medical coverage. Yuan knew the LLM hadn’t been trained on information about moving from state to state, which was beyond the scope of the benefits manual. The Assistant helpfully responded that it couldn’t provide a specific answer and referred the question to the company’s HR team. Beyond the speed and accuracy with which the Assistant fielded the initial questions, this was an important feature demonstrating that the Assistant had been carefully trained not to exceed the scope of its mandate. 

Following the demonstration, Yuan revealed a powerful piece of data. In pilots with select clients, Newfront estimates the Benefits Assistant alone could save HR staff 4 weeks a year, time they would otherwise spend manually answering employee questions in Slack and email. 

In her closing thoughts, Yuan noted that Newfront’s breakthroughs with AI depended on its ability to combine domain expertise in insurance with LLMs as well as access to rich client data. Newfront has developed this capacity through its structured data platform, technology innovation, and roster of veteran insurance industry subject matter experts across a range of industries. 

Lastly, Yuan noted that any AI application had to be deployed responsibly, with human-in-the-loop guardrails, data privacy controls, and considerable testing before deployment.  

About Newfront 

Newfront is transforming the delivery of risk management, employee experience, insurance, and retirement solutions by building the modern insurance platform. Transparent data delivered in real-time translates into a lower total cost of risk and greater insights. Newfront makes insurance work for you. Headquartered in San Francisco, Newfront has offices throughout the country and is home to more than 800 employees who serve clients across the United States and globally.