Artificial Intelligence, Human Purpose

How We're Using AI

From customer experience to clinical care, AI is already helping us improve the customer and clinician experience.

Across our organization, we're leveraging AI to improve how we deliver care and support our workforce. Our investments in AI-powered solutions are designed to enhance patient experiences, reduce clinician burnout, and increase efficiency in key areas. Guided by principles of responsible AI, we ensure that human expertise remains at the heart of our business.

Meet Sidekick

Our intelligent assistant, built with trust at its core.

Sidekick is our internal enterprise portal to AI, an in-house developed application providing team members with safe and secure access to a variety of AI capabilities, designed to support everyday tasks.

Sidekick is:

• Safe and private: Hosted in a protected environment built for health care
• Scalable: Already supporting 16,000+ users across the organization
• Purposeful: Built to reduce friction and free up time for creativity and problem-solving

Our teams can ask questions, create content, or generate ideas, all while maintaining strict compliance and quality oversight. Our workforce is trained on the appropriate use of these technologies, and we take a "human at the helm" approach in our use of AI including Sidekick.

Think of Sidekick as AI, protected and personalized for Highmark Health.

Ethical AI, By Design

Trust isn't a feature. It's the foundation.

We've developed one of the most comprehensive Responsible AI programs in health care, recognized across the industry and aligned with global standards.

Our Responsible AI Framework includes:

• Transparent governance: All AI use cases are risk assessed and reviewed by legal, privacy, business, and technical experts.
• An enterprise AI Use Policy that guides decisions:
• Human at the Helm: From input to output, we require a human in the loop for AI use.
• Use Restrictions: The policy prohibits using AI to deny services and strictly regulates the input of confidential or protected information.
• Bias Monitoring: We actively assess and reduce bias across AI systems, including through our Enterprise AI View monitoring tool.
• Fostering a culture of ethical AI: We take a human-centered approach to cultivating AI literacy and adoption of appropriate AI use.
• Partnerships: Highmark Health is actively involved in key industry groups and boards to stay on top of changing AI regulations and advocate for responsible AI practices.

We collaborate closely with federal, state, and local regulators to shape the future of ethical AI in health care, and we hold ourselves to a high standard.

Working Smarter, Together

Empowering our people to lead the future of care.

At Highmark Health, we're transforming the way work gets done. AI is part of how we enable our team members to grow, learn, and make an impact without losing what makes health care human:

• We've already seen a strong link between AI use and employee engagement.
• Our tools let people work faster, think bigger, and tackle more complex challenges.
• We're investing in upskilling and adoption, not just automation.

We believe AI is a teammate, not a replacement, and our workforce is growing stronger because of it.

Partner With Us

We hold our partners to high standards.

If you're an AI vendor or partner, you'll find everything you need to understand our approach and submit your solutions for review:

• Understand what we expect around privacy, ethics, and deployment
• Learn what qualifies as a compliant AI use case
• Align with our Responsible AI Policy and assessment process

Your technology must support our mission of health, and together, we can shape a smarter, safer future.

Learn more about partnering with Highmark Health.

Explore More

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Frequently Asked Questions

1. How are Highmark Health and its businesses using AI today?
   We're using AI to personalize care journeys, reduce administrative burden, support clinical teams, and improve the overall experience for our members and employees.
2. Will AI ever make health care decisions without a human?
   No. All decisions about care, coverage, or services are made by qualified people, never by AI alone.
3. What is Sidekick?
   Sidekick is our in-house AI assistant that helps team members develop content securely and enhances how we engage and communicate with each other, those we serve and other key stakeholders. It's powered by trusted models within our protected environment.
4. How do you ensure AI is used responsibly?
   Every AI use case goes through a rigorous risk assessment. We follow national and international standards, and we've built a Responsible AI Framework and oversight process to guide ethical deployment.
5. What makes your approach to AI different?
   We balance speed with responsibility. Our human-first approach and strong governance ensure AI supports, not replaces, the people who power health care.