Sources of data are expanding. While industries rely on databases, data warehouses, and data lakes, there are philosophies regarding new data platforms. As the lines are increasingly blurring between systems of record (internal administration systems), systems of engagement (self service portal), and even systems of insight (Business Intelligence), organizations must move away from traditional silos and rethink how they store this data.

Virtual assistants and bots, using neural networks, are finding homes in nearly every industry, and they are beginning to see some use and adoption in pension and benefits. We have seen the use of AI with the call center process to clean up the flow of customer support and as a way of reducing call center resourcing efforts without compromising on service to members. Additionally, more vendor solutions are implementing chatbots as a more effective form of communicating with members. On the horizon, we anticipate AI usage in calculating benefits and financial management as well as disability processing.

As technology advances more rapidly with a further emphasis toward self-service, interfaces are increasingly more critical. Understandable and intuitive interfaces enable members of any generation to keep up with new, evolving systems. We have seen usability become one of the most competitive battlefields for vendors as they upgrade their products.  

The global pandemic has fundamentally changed the workplace. Virtual and remote work is becoming more common, and more expected in many industries. With this change, both opportunities and new challenges arise. Because staff are not working on company networks with in offices with well establish security protocols, this needs be addressed through a variety of new processes, software, and hardware. Additionally, new communication technologies typically add complexity compared to live conversations. To address this, communication standards and protocols must be established and followed to “simulate” the live environment of an office.

As the industry warms up to the concept of a best-of-breed model, APIs will become strategically more important. It is critical to build APIs as part of the core architecture to ensure that new products can be integrated with the core application.