A letter from our CEO: Anticipation is the new era of benefits 

For years, personalization—tailoring user content based on preferences, claims, and past choices—was the buzzword in our employee benefits industry.  

While personalization remains foundational technology, we need to address a growing truth: Personalization is not enough. 

Here’s why: 

1. Personalization is reactive. 
   It responds to what employees click, search, submit, and claim. It assumes people already know what they need—and can name it clearly—in the middle of real life. 

2. Click-based experiences mostly help the people who already know what to ask. 
   Personalization based on search behavior has its limitations—the employee who needs help often doesn’t know what to ask for in moments of stress, illness, or despair. 

3. Real-life scenarios don’t come with search terms or neatly packaged questions. 
   Instead, they show up as: 

• My paycheck looks different—did I do something wrong? 
• My child is sick at 2 am—where do I find care? 
• What does my plan cover—and how much will it cost? 
• I’m quitting—what happens to my coverage? 

4. Claims data is absolutely valuable—but by nature, it’s delayed. 
   It tells you what happened after someone needed care.  

5. 86% of employees are confused about their benefits.
   Our annual Benefits Insights report continues to show the value of personalization in helping employees choose and activate their benefits—but it hasn’t moved the needle on confusion.  
6. Employees are digitally savvy consumers—and they expect more than personalization. 
   Adoption and appetite for a digital benefits experience continue to rise. The new bar isn’t “tailor it after I click.” It’s an intelligent experience that anticipates what I need and guides me there before I think to ask. 

Personalization has its place in the benefits technology stack. But it’s not what’s next for our industry.  

We believe employees, HR, and our industry partners should not shoulder the burden of a confusing healthcare system in lieu of delivering results, driving positive outcomes, and enabling their workforce to be as healthy and happy as they deserve to be.  

So, at Businessolver, we’re shifting our definition of success to how our platform helps people avoid the scramble and confusion in the first place.  

Anticipation is the natural evolution of our benefits technology. 

That shift comes to life through Sofia—our AI engine. Since 2017, Sofia has evolved from a virtual assistant into the intelligence layer that powers the entire Benefitsolver platform. 

Sofia connects data and experiences across systems, so she can recognize when someone is asking for help—and when they’re drifting toward a need they haven’t put into words yet. It’s not prediction for prediction’s sake, but readiness and prevention: meeting people before the moment turns into a flood of tickets, escalations, missed deadlines, unexpected costs, and frustration. 

For example, instead of notifying an employee after a missed enrollment deadline, Sofia identifies risk signals weeks earlier and proactively delivers guidance, reminders, and support—reducing errors and stress before they occur. 

But anticipation isn’t just about prevention. It’s about in-the-moment strategy:  

• What plans are employees adopting this year? Track employee plan adoption and migration as it’s happening to anticipate costs and communications strategy.   
• Is my current benefits spend on track? View real-time billing and participation analytics to forecast annual spend and model the impact of future headcount changes.  
• Which emails and notifications are performing—and where in the journey? See employees’ entire interactive journey with campaign analytics that help forecast future actions.  
• How do employees feel about their benefits and service? Listen to calls as they’re happening and use sentiment analysis and kindness scoring to understand immediate issues and needs. 
• What actions are employees taking? Monitor real-time employee behavior and platform performance so you can respond quickly, adjust strategy, and anticipate what employees need next.  

This isn’t a “chatbot moment.” It’s a category shift—happening right now.  

Anticipatory insights will change what’s possible for HR leaders—putting them in the driver’s seat with real-time, dynamic data that reduces manual analysis, improves service outcomes, and enables strategic agility.  

As an F1 fan, I can’t help but relate this anticipatory shift to racing. F1 is hands down the most technologically advanced sport. Racers don’t win by looking in the rearview mirror; they act on real-time intelligence—speed, tire pressure, braking, and inputs that anticipate cornering efficiency. These metrics inform split-second strategy calls.  

Similarly, HR operates under constant pressure and motion. To win in an environment where healthcare costs outpace inflation and employee needs are ever-evolving, leaders require more synchronous inputs that get ahead of risk and reveal strategic opportunities.  

Anticipatory insights close the timing gap—helping employees and HR teams see what’s coming, recognize patterns earlier, and act with confidence. It’s a shift from event-driven support to an always-on, intelligent, and measurable enablement engine that helps employees and HR make better decisions in the moment. 

This context matters because anticipation isn’t just Sofia, a single feature, or system.  

Anticipation is empathy in action, at scale. It’s what happens when human expertise and service are amplified by intelligence that knows when, where, and how to step in, before a moment becomes a problem. 

To power anticipation, we’re reimagining benefits intelligence—bringing together a richer, more complete data set so employees, HR, and partners get the right information, support, and insights at the right time, including:

• Real-time user behavior and feedback: Live engagement cues, verbatims, and interest signals tied to each employee’s actions, preferences, and eligibility. 
• Social determinants of health overlays: Environmental, financial, and equity factors claims will never capture. 
• Household and lifestyle context: Life-stage triggers and gap analysis that reveal what’s changing—and what’s missing.
• Case and call intelligence: Where members get stuck, how they frame questions, and what they’re truly concerned about. 
• Consumer accounts and spending activity: Spending and saving signals that show intent before a claim ever appears.  

The era of anticipation is here 

To me, anticipation is more than foresight or prediction. It possesses an essence of optimism—of promise—built on a foundation of empathy. 

At Businessolver, our mission has always been to grow our business and delight our clients. A natural deliverable of that mission is a commitment to responsible and continuous innovation.  

I knew in 1998, when I founded Businessolver, that there was a better way to do benefits administration—and it all started with a singular aspiration—to simplify benefits. Back then, benefits administrators were buried in paper and still working on last year’s enrollment when the next AE season rolled around.  

The point is, we don’t have to accept the challenges of today—complexity, confusion, costs—as inevitable. We must act and think more creatively and proactively to meet them.  

Personalization is not enough.  

Anticipation is the next natural step in our mission to delight. And I’m genuinely energized by it—because in true “Solver” spirit (as we call ourselves at Businessolver) we’re never satisfied with “good enough.” We’re driven by what’s possible, and we’re constantly pushing toward what’s next. 

If you’ve stayed with me to the end, my one thing is this: We want to solve with you. This is a hard business, and there aren’t always thank-yous. But together, we can build a future of benefits administration powered by anticipatory insights and people—where HR teams get ahead of tomorrow’s problems and employees finally thrive. 

Because the end of the personalization era holds the promise of something much better—and we’re just getting started. 

Cheers, 

Jon Shanahan 
Businessolver President and CEO