Get Ready to Feel Good and Laugh More: ChatGPT is Shaking Up Employee Wellness !

Say Hello to Happier and Healthier Employees

This Spring Majesco is launching the world's first generative AI insurance platform majescoGPT that will streamline the entire business processes from underwriting through claims, driving innovation and transformation within the insurance industry.

Would you believe me if I said chatbots could help you become healthier?

Ten years ago, you probably wouldn't have.

Today, you've probably heard about ChatGPT, the latest advancement in artificial intelligence chatbots that can recognize human dialogue and generate human-like written responses to a wide range of written queries.

 At first, platforms like this seem like cool toys to play around with. However, if you know how to leverage ChatGPT, you can use it to learn more about your health and simplify wellness routines.

 Now, let's review some examples of how ChatGPT can help promote employee health and wellness.

Health Education

Health and well-being education is a lifelong process. Keeping up with the latest health research, nutrition guidelines, and practices can be challenging.

 To support employees along this journey, 85% of large companies offer wellness programs in at least one area of weight management and behavioral or lifestyle coaching.

However, some companies can't afford to provide employees with proper wellness programs and education, leaving them without the support they need.

As of right now, ChatGPT can't fully replicate the effectiveness of a professional wellness program. Despite this, it can provide employees with instant access to relevant health and wellness topics and resources for nutrition, exercise, stress management, disease prevention, and more.

 By providing accurate and up-to-date information in a user-friendly format, ChatGPT can support employee health development and help them make informed decisions about their health.

Wellness Coaching

It's well-known in the employee benefits insurance industry that AI chatbots can coach customers to better understand their coverage.

 For example, Sun Life's AI chatbot, Ella, uses predictive analytics and intelligent-based technology to nudge plan members about key product offerings, cost savings opportunities and alerts them to take action on meaningful dates like enrollment.

Similarly, employees can use ChatGPT to understand their health better and achieve wellness goals through coaching and data-driven recommendations.

For instance, employees can enter their health data, such as exercise habits, sleep patterns, and heart rate, into the ChatGPT platform. ChatGPT can then analyze the health data and inform employees about the risks associated with their health metrics and habits.

Moreover, based on the findings, ChatGPT can suggest solutions such as exercise routines, dietary recommendations, breathing exercises, and more to improve employee well-being and mitigate health risks.

I asked ChatGPT if it's healthy to sleep for 6 hours a night, and this was its response:

"According to the National Sleep Foundation, adults should aim for 7-9 hours of sleep per night. Sleeping less than 7 hours regularly can negatively affect your physical and mental health, including increased risk of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and depression."

Mental Health Support

For employee benefits insurers, increased plan member mental health illnesses are causing more mental health-related and disability claims. Claims paid out to support mental health have increased by 75% since 2019, and health insurers processed nearly $600 million in claims related to mental health in 2021, up 45% since 2020.

 ChatGPT is a valuable tool to help employees find mental health-related resources and learn more about their conditions.

 For example, employees can use ChatGPT to get behavioral health support, including screening for mental health illnesses, coping strategies, and connecting plan members with professional resources for additional support.

 I asked ChatGPT how to treat a mental health illness, and it provided links to the following websites for help:

●      National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)

●      Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)

●      American Psychological Association (APA)

●      Mental Health America (MHA)

●      Your health insurance provider.

While ChatGPT can't fully replicate the services of a professional therapist, it can assist employees in finding mental health services and learning more about their conditions, which may provide them with the preliminary support they need.

Chronic Disease Management

According to the 2022 Benefits Canada Healthcare Survey, 58% of plan members reported being diagnosed with at least one chronic condition.

 However, chronic diseases like high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes are often preventable and can be improved with a healthy diet and lifestyle.

 ChatGPT analyzes various wellness blogs, magazines, cookbooks, etc., enabling the platform to obtain abundant knowledge about healthy habits and skills that employees can use to improve their quality of life and prevent chronic illnesses.

 For example, suppose you're trying to eat healthier but don't know how to create a healthy meal plan. In that case, you can pinpoint healthy meal plans by adding search terms like "healthy," "vegetarian," or "weight loss," and ChatGPT will generate a meal plan for you.

Furthermore, although it's not a replacement for a personal trainer, you can also create fitness plans and narrow searches by adding terms like "cardio," "strength-based," and "flexibility." By adding these details, ChatGPT can create fitness plans and workout splits based on your fitness goals.

Wellness Challenges

Wellness challenges and programs can influence people to improve their habits through gamification tactics and incentives for healthy behavior. However, committing to a wellness challenge can be difficult if you don't know where to start.

While ChatGPT can't replicate the effectiveness of a professional wellness program, it can help employees learn how to facilitate wellness challenges such as step challenges, healthy eating challenges, etc.

  I asked ChatGPT how I could get started with a wellness challenge, and it said to take the following steps:

●      Find a challenge that interests you and aligns with your personal goals.

●      Set achievable goals that consider your fitness, diet, and lifestyle.

●      Create a plan, such as deciding how many steps you want to take each day and how you will track your progress.

●      Stay motivated by enlisting a friend to join the challenge, or use a tracking app to monitor your progress and celebrate achievements.

●      Stay consistent by sticking to your plan and regularly tracking progress.

Additionally, while ChatGPT can't provide monetized incentives, it can inform and encourage employees about the intrinsic rewards of wellness challenges such as improved health, personal growth, feeling accomplished, etc.

Current Limitations of ChatGPT

Like most AI-based chatbots, there are some limitations to ChatGPT.

 For instance, while ChatGPT can comprehend and generate text based on patterns and relationships with data, it does not have the common sense reasoning that humans possess. As a result, ChatGPT may not always understand the text's context, which can cause inappropriate or unhelpful answers to user queries.

Suppose someone opens up to a ChatGPT-like program about their mental health struggles. While the solution can offer resources to help the user, it can't understand emotional intelligence or the gravity of a mental health illness, preventing it from understanding the broader context of the conversation.

ChatGPT can't generate anything new or innovative on its own. Therefore, the workouts and wellness plans it recommends can be generic and lack creativity, making the suggestions ineffective or redundant for users.

ChatGPT: The Future of Wellness and Health Coaching?

While ChatGPT can support employee health and wellness through coaching and education, its responses are based on general information. It can't account for the unique complexities of an employee's history and goals that professional wellness coaches can.

 However, in the future, AI language models like ChatGPT could incorporate multimedia, recognize and respond to verbal requests, and support medical researchers in analyzing data and identifying new patterns in health and disease.

 Not everyone can afford to hire a personal trainer or professional well-being coach. However, anyone can talk to a chatbot about how to improve their health and well-being. 

How ChatGPT Can Promote Employee Health and Wellness

As an AI language model, ChatGPT can provide helpful information and resources on various wellness topics, including physical health, mental health, nutrition, fitness, and more. Whether you're looking for tips on how to manage stress, advice on how to eat healthier, or guidance on how to incorporate exercise into your routine, ChatGPT can offer personalized recommendations and insights to help you achieve your wellness goals.

Look for more employers, insurance companies and vendors leveraging ChatGPT to provide innovative solutions for happier healthier employees !