UnitedHealth tracks workers' AI use

UnitedHealth Group is measuring how often some employees use artificial intelligence tools as it pushes deeper into AI across its insurance and health-services businesses, according to people familiar with the matter. Bloomberg reported on May 15 that the company was monitoring whether some workers in its Optum division made at least one query a day using programs such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Microsoft’s Copilot. The company has not publicly detailed the internal tracking program, but it has separately described AI as a core part of how it wants to simplify care, automate administrative work and improve customer service. The timing matters because UnitedHealth is still operating in the shadow of the Change Healthcare cyberattack disclosed on February 21, 2024. In an 8-K filed that day, the company said a suspected nation-state-linked threat actor had gained access to some Change Healthcare information technology systems and that it isolated affected systems after detecting the intrusion. The filing said UnitedHealth could not estimate the duration or extent of the disruption at that time. (bloomberg.com) ### Which workers are being tracked, and for what tools? Bloomberg reported that the monitoring applied to some employees in Optum, the services arm that runs pharmacy, care delivery, technology and payment-related operations. The report said the company was checking whether certain workers were using AI tools at least once a day, specifically naming ChatGPT and Copilot. Bloomberg attributed the details to people familiar with the matter who were not named because they were discussing internal operations. (sec.gov) UnitedHealth has publicly framed AI use as an enterprise-wide effort rather than a narrow pilot. On its corporate website, the company says it uses AI to help patients find and coordinate care, help clinicians reduce administrative work and support customer-service staff with summaries and guidance. It also says it has an AI Review Board and a proprietary platform called United AI Studio. (bloomberg.com) ### How does this connect to Change Healthcare? Change Healthcare sits in a sensitive part of the U.S. health system because it handles claims, payment and other transaction flows used by providers, insurers and pharmacies. UnitedHealth’s February 2024 filing said the company had to isolate affected systems after the breach, a step that disrupted normal operations while restoration work proceeded. That episode became one of the clearest examples of how a failure at a large intermediary can spread across the health-care payment chain. (unitedhealthgroup.com) UnitedHealth’s later financial disclosures said the effects of the cyberattack were still showing up in results well into 2025. In second-quarter 2025 materials filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said its operating cost ratio reflected reduced impacts from the prior year’s Change Healthcare cyberattack, indicating the event was still influencing comparisons. (sec.gov) ### What has UnitedHealth said publicly about AI this year? UnitedHealthcare, the insurance unit, introduced a generative AI assistant called Avery on March 26, 2026. The company said the tool was available to about 6.5 million members with employer-sponsored plans and 160,000 Medicare Advantage members at launch, with expansion planned to 20.5 million commercial, Medicare and Medicaid members by the end of 2026. Dan Kueter, chief executive of UnitedHealthcare’s commercial business, said in the release that the tool was meant to make healthcare “easier to use and tailored to their personal needs.” (sec.gov) UnitedHealth’s AI policy pages also say the company will monitor how AI is used across the enterprise and that privacy, security, transparency and human oversight are part of its responsible AI program. The company says AI solutions “will not replace clinical judgement” and says its governance process includes clinicians, data scientists, privacy and security experts, business leaders and ethicists. (unitedhealthgroup.com) ### Why does employee-use tracking stand out? Optum is not a back-office side business. UnitedHealth’s services arm touches claims processing, pharmacy benefits, care delivery and other infrastructure used by employers, hospitals, doctors and patients, which makes internal technology changes consequential beyond the company’s own workforce. In that context, measuring whether workers are actually using approved AI tools offers a direct way to see whether adoption is spreading inside a company that has already said AI is central to its operating model. (unitedhealthgroup.com) UnitedHealth has not, in the public materials reviewed, disclosed how many employees are covered by the tracking, whether the data is tied to performance reviews or how long the monitoring has been in place. Bloomberg’s report and the company’s public AI statements together show only that the company is trying to expand AI use while formalizing oversight and governance. (bloomberg.com) ### What comes next? UnitedHealth Group said on March 17 that it would announce first-quarter 2026 results on April 21, and its newsroom continues to post operating and product updates tied to AI, payments and care management. The company’s next regular earnings cycle is expected in July 2026, when executives typically update investors on Optum operations, technology spending and any remaining effects from the Change Healthcare disruption. (unitedhealthgroup.com) (bloomberg.com)