AI ‘Digital Worker’ cuts month-long task down to 10 minutes

• New Mexico uses an AI-powered chatbot to help process newborns into the Medicaid system.
• That experience could help pave the way for how AI will transform workforces everywhere.
• The state employs 30 “digital workers” to tackle repetitive tasks, freeing up staff for larger tasks.

How will artificial intelligence change the workplace as we know it? Already using AI for years, New Mexico’s experience reduced one process that previously took a month to 10 minutes. After turning it into a task of , it may point the way.

Multiplying these time savings across the enterprise, and even across the economy, gives us a glimpse of the scale of change that AI can bring.

For example, when a child is born in Santa Fe or Albuquerque, a complex bureaucracy kicks in.

Here’s how it used to work: Hospital workers enrolled eligible newborns on Medicaid. To do so, they struggled with paperwork, including physically filling out forms and mailing or faxing them to administrators in New Mexico. State caseworkers then painstakingly enter that information into a database. This process can take up to a month.

But since 2020, state welfare departments have ventured into the brave new world of AI. Working with vendors such as IBM and SS&C Blue Prism, the state has automated the process. So now, when a child is born, a human can use her AI-powered chatbot to quickly register that information and automatically port it to the state database. It takes about 10 minutes.

The process, called “Babybot,” has been implemented in 10 hospital organizations in New Mexico and border states such as Texas and Arizona. (New Mexico residents who are eligible for Medicaid coverage in New Mexico and live in rural areas near the border can obtain medical services in neighboring states.) Numerous midwifery centers, Indians Health Service clinics, and Indian Health Service hospitals are also using the “babybot” process.

And that’s just one of several tasks being carried out by some 30 “digital workers” currently employed by the state. The New Mexico Department of Human Services told insiders that it expects the combination of bots and automation to save more than 100,000 hours of human labor each year.

So far, the state says the time savings haven’t translated into job cuts. It’s just that human employees are no longer busy with paperwork and can instead focus on bigger things. And as states look to hire developers and other tech-savvy workers to help program and direct AI projects, AI could ultimately create some new jobs.

The New Mexico Department of Human Services is expanding its use of automation to other areas. Adding a new process to index bounced emails this year and considering incorporating technology with features like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, said the division’s Customer Innovation her director, Shanita Harrison. Told.

“I think ChatGPT is cool and opens your mind to possibilities,” said Harrison. “We can strive for something as automated as ChatGPT.

Of course, it’s not just New Mexico. ChatGPT and other generative AI tools are capturing people’s consciousness, drawing attention to how businesses and government agencies are already using AI tools to streamline communications and speed up tasks.

In New Mexico, “digital workers” are programmed to perform various tasks and are given time to complete those tasks. But the bots are programmed by contractors, i.e. humans. Harrison said the state is now looking to hire a full-time app developer to join the agency to fill those roles.

“We didn’t cut the full-time workforce we budgeted for automation,” she said. “We are here to serve New Mexico residents, and we know that requires a personal touch.”

New Mexico vendors include a number of tech companies, including IBM with Watson Assistant, which provides AI for “babybot” processes, Salesforce, and SS&C Blue Prism.

Blue Prism’s technology helps capture information from bot interactions and port it into state qualification systems. SS&C Blue Prism’s Brad Hairston says the process, known as robotic process automation, helps speed up structured and repetitive tasks.

“Companies need to automate more and more complex processes. They need digital workers to read bills, they need digital workers who can work on predictions, they need digital workers who can detect some business patterns. It has become,” he said. An IBM representative declined to comment.

Meanwhile, New Mexico also uses another process called “smart bots” to enroll in various state benefit programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which helps low-income people buy groceries. Residents’ questions are answered.

Users can ask the bot specific questions such as “When is the SNAP renewal date?” Or you can ask general questions like, “I need help with energy assistance,” Harrison said. The “smart bot” process also uses IBM AI technology and is said to run on the Salesforce platform.

She said human workers are still key to managing state services, as they are the ones who frequently interact with residents to deal with more complex inquiries.

“If there’s a problem and the AI ​​can’t understand what you want, it connects you to a real agent,” she said.