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Every employer wants to believe their benefits package is making a difference. After all, it’s a major investment, not just in dollars, but in employee wellbeing, retention, and performance. However, it can be challenging to ensure the benefits in place are actually being used.

When employees don’t use the benefits offered, that investment quietly loses value. It’s not just about wasted money, though. Underutilized benefits lead to delays in care, unmanaged chronic conditions, burnout, and disengagement, which all carry a much higher cost over time.

Why Employees Are Unengaged

Many employees are overwhelmed by the complexity of their benefits. From confusing messaging to multiple portals, the typical experience feels fragmented and hard to navigate. When employees need support, it’s not always clear where to go or how to get started. In fact, according to a recent study, nearly 60% of workers say they don’t fully understand their benefits.

Layer in the daily demands of work and life, benefits take a back seat. This friction discourages action, especially in moments when someone is already stressed, unwell, or pressed for time. Most won’t dig through PDFs or log into various vendor sites. When employees don’t engage, organizations lose out on the outcomes those benefits were designed to support.

The Cost of Inaction

Preventive care tools, mental health services, chronic disease support, and condition-specific programs often go untouched, even when they’re fully covered. That means employers are paying for services that aren’t improving outcomes, and employees are missing chances to get healthier, faster.

Consider an employee with newly diagnosed hypertension. They may have access to a coaching program through their health plan or employee-sponsored wellness platform. However, if they never learn about it, or struggle to enroll, their condition may worsen. That leads to even higher claims, more sick days, and missed opportunities for early intervention.

Similarly, imagine a working parent juggling career demands while caring for an aging parent with diabetes. Despite having access to caregiver support resources and chronic care management programs, they remain unaware of these benefits, leading to increased stress, reduced productivity, and potential burnout.

For employers, the impact is compounding. Wasted benefits dollars are just the beginning. When people delay care or disengage from support, organizations take a hit on productivity, presenteeism, and retention. It also sends an unintended message that support isn’t actually within reach.

The AI Advantage in Benefits Navigation

Fixing this problem isn’t about overhauling benefits, it’s about removing friction and making support easier to access. This is where artificial intelligence is transforming the benefits landscape.

Traditional benefits navigation relies on static portals, annual enrollment materials, and generic communications that fail to reach employees when they need help most. AI-powered benefits navigation platforms change this dynamic entirely by delivering personalized, contextual guidance in real-time.

I’ve seen how AI can dramatically improve benefits engagement. Intelligent platforms analyze individual employee profiles, health data, and life circumstances to surface the most relevant resources at precisely the right moment. Instead of employees hunting through complex benefit guides, AI agents proactively recommend specific programs, guide users through enrollment processes, and provide ongoing support, all in plain language across the communication channels people already use.

The results speak for themselves: AI-driven navigation can reduce time-to-support from weeks to minutes, increase benefits utilization rates by up to 40%, and significantly improve health outcomes through earlier intervention and sustained engagement.

Driving ROI with Benefits

No matter how generous or innovative a benefits package may be, it doesn’t drive value if it sits unused. The real return comes from activation, helping employees access support early, take meaningful action, and improve their health outcomes.

Smart employers are recognizing that the future of benefits isn’t about adding more programs; it’s about empowering employees to use what’s already available through intelligent, AI-powered navigation that meets people where they are and guides them to the support they need.

That’s how we transform benefits from a cost center into lasting value for individuals, teams, and organizations alike.

About Arthur Lane

As Grokker’s Head of Marketing, Arthur Lane focuses on telling the Grokker story and ensuring Grokker leads the charge in the wellbeing benefits space.