UnitedHealth launches AI Companion

UnitedHealthcare named the new generative AI assistant "Avery" and launched it inside the UnitedHealthcare mobile app and on myuhc.com, where it is built to learn from member interactions and provide self‑service responses in natural language. (uhc.com) Avery is live for roughly 6.5 million employer‑sponsored UnitedHealthcare members and about 160,000 Medicare Advantage members today, with UnitedHealthcare planning to scale the tool to reach 20.5 million commercial, Medicare and Medicaid members by year‑end. (unitedhealthgroup.com) Product capabilities listed in the rollout include 24/7 natural‑language responses for personal coverage and claims details, on‑demand cost estimates and scheduling help, and the assistant can place appointment calls to in‑network primary care providers on a member’s behalf. (uhc.com) UnitedHealthcare says Avery supplies customer advocates with real‑time insights into a member’s case history and delivers clear, actionable next steps in the advocate workflow to resolve issues faster. (uhc.com) The company frames Avery as one deployment among more than 1,000 AI solutions already operating across UnitedHealth Group, and UnitedHealth Group said it will invest about $1.6 billion in AI this year to scale those capabilities. (unitedhealthgroup.com) Public reporting on UnitedHealth’s AI program notes prior scale metrics the company uses to justify wider rollouts — AI chatbots handled more than 65 million customer calls in 2024 and the enterprise reports employing over 2,000 AI engineers. (beckerspayer.com) Analysts and company materials place Avery within UHG’s broader production portfolio of AI applications that already span claims processing, record transcription, customer service and clinical support, signaling the tool’s integration points across payer operations and Optum services. (aiexpert.network)