How Can Healthcare Contact Centers Use Agent Assist?

Healthcare customer service is complicated. 

A single interaction might involve scheduling an appointment, explaining benefits, checking a claim, navigating a billing question, locating a provider, or helping a patient understand what they need to do next. At the same time, agents may need to navigate multiple systems, follow program-specific processes, protect sensitive information, and communicate with patients or members who may already be frustrated or concerned. 

For healthcare contact centers, getting the answer right matters. 

That’s where agent assist can make a difference. 

Agent assist uses AI to support customer service agents during live interactions by surfacing relevant information, recommended actions, workflow guidance, and other resources in real time. Instead of replacing the human interaction, the technology works alongside the agent to help make that interaction more efficient, consistent, and informed. 

For healthcare organizations, that creates an opportunity to combine AI with human judgment where both can provide the most value. 

What is agent assist in a healthcare contact center? 

Agent assist is AI-powered technology designed to help agents while they’re actively assisting a patient, member, provider, or customer. 

The technology can analyze the context of an interaction and surface information that may help the agent determine what to do next. 

Depending on the solution and how it’s configured, agent assist can help: 

• Retrieve relevant knowledge 

• Recommend next-best actions 

• Surface approved responses or scripts 

• Reinforce required workflows 

• Provide real-time compliance reminders 

• Summarize interactions 

• Reduce manual searches across systems 

• Guide agents through unfamiliar or complex scenarios 

The distinction between agent assist and customer-facing AI is important. 

A chatbot or AI agent may communicate directly with a patient or member. Agent assist operates behind the scenes, supporting the human agent who is having the conversation. 

That model can be particularly valuable in healthcare, where interactions often require context, empathy, judgment, and careful handling of sensitive information. 

How can healthcare contact centers use agent assist? 

The best applications of agent assist aren’t necessarily about automating the entire interaction. 

They’re about identifying moments where AI can make it easier for a human agent to deliver the right experience. 

Here are several ways healthcare contact centers can put that into practice.

1. Surface the right information during patient and member interactions

One of the most straightforward applications of agent assist is real-time knowledge retrieval. 

Agents may need information about benefits, billing processes, appointment policies, provider networks, claims, program requirements, or other frequently changing information. 

Without agent assist, finding an answer can mean searching a knowledge base, opening another application, consulting documentation, or placing the customer on hold. 

Agent assist can instead surface relevant information based on what’s happening in the conversation. 

If a member asks a benefits question, for example, the technology could bring the appropriate guidance into the agent’s workflow without requiring the agent to search manually. 

This is already becoming a real-world application of the technology. In 2026, Humana announced an Agent Assist solution built with Google Cloud to support more than 20,000 member advocates who handle up to 80 million calls annually.  

Humana said the technology is intended to help advocates provide more personalized, accurate, and timely answers to member benefit questions. 

For large healthcare contact centers, even small improvements in how quickly agents can find information can have an impact across millions of interactions.

2. Reinforce healthcare workflows in real time

Knowing the answer isn’t always enough. 

Healthcare customer service frequently involves specific processes that need to happen in a particular order. 

An agent may need to: 

• Verify information. 

• Ask required questions. 

• Follow a specific workflow. 

• Provide approved information. 

• Document the interaction appropriately. 

• Determine the correct next step. 

Agent assist can provide guidance throughout that process. 

Rather than relying exclusively on an agent’s memory or expecting them to navigate lengthy process documentation during a conversation, AI can help surface the appropriate workflow at the moment it’s needed. 

That can be particularly useful for complex or less frequently encountered interactions.

3. Support more consistent handling of compliance requirements

Healthcare contact centers operate in an environment where privacy and security requirements cannot be an afterthought. 

The HIPAA Security Rule establishes administrative, physical, and technical safeguards for electronic protected health information. HHS also explains that when covered entities engage business associates to perform functions involving PHI, appropriate contractual and safeguarding requirements apply. 

Agent assist doesn’t make an organization compliant on its own. 

What it can do is help reinforce the processes an organization has established. 

For example, an appropriately configured solution could surface reminders about required disclosures, identity-verification procedures, approved language, or other program-specific requirements during an interaction. 

That changes the role of AI from simply providing answers to helping agents follow the right process.

4. Reduce the need to navigate multiple systems

One of the biggest opportunities for agent assist is also one of the simplest: reducing unnecessary searching. 

An agent may be listening to a patient while simultaneously navigating a CRM, knowledge base, scheduling platform, benefits information, or other systems. 

Every additional search adds friction. 

Modern agent assist solutions can function as an intelligence layer within that environment, bringing relevant information into the flow of the interaction rather than requiring agents to repeatedly leave the conversation to find it. 

That’s important because healthcare customer service shouldn’t feel like watching someone search for an answer. 

The more technology can handle the search, the more attention the agent can give to the person asking for help.

5. Help agents navigate complex or unfamiliar questions

No agent can memorize every policy, workflow, benefit, program rule, and possible customer scenario. 

That’s especially true when information changes frequently or when agents support multiple types of interactions. 

Agent assist can provide another layer of support. 

When an unfamiliar question arises, AI can surface relevant knowledge or guide the agent toward the appropriate next action. 

That doesn’t eliminate the need for agent certification, knowledge, or judgment. 

It makes those capabilities easier to apply in the moment.

6. Automate repetitive after-call work

The opportunity doesn’t end when the conversation does. 

Agent assist can also help generate interaction summaries and reduce some of the repetitive documentation associated with after-call work. 

For healthcare contact centers managing large interaction volumes, reducing manual administrative work can create more time for the work that actually requires human attention. 

It can also help create more consistent documentation when the technology is properly configured and reviewed within the organization’s processes. 

Agent assist shouldn’t remove the human from healthcare customer service 

There’s an important distinction healthcare leaders should keep in mind when evaluating AI. 

Not every interaction should be automated simply because it can be. 

Someone calling about a routine appointment change may have very different needs from someone confused about coverage, struggling with a complicated claim, or dealing with a stressful healthcare situation. 

AI can retrieve information extremely quickly. 

Humans provide something different: judgment, reassurance, context, adaptability, and empathy. 

The strongest model brings those capabilities together. 

Agent assist allows AI to work behind the scenes while keeping a human at the center of interactions where human involvement matters. 

How does agent assist fit with healthcare customer service outsourcing? 

Agent assist can become even more powerful when it’s incorporated into a broader healthcare customer service outsourcing strategy. 

Outsourcing can give healthcare organizations access to specialized customer service expertise and flexible capacity. Technology can then provide agents with additional support while they’re serving patients and members. 

The combination can help organizations build a customer service model in which: 

• Capacity can adjust with demand 

• Agents receive real-time guidance 

• Knowledge is easier to access 

• Program-specific workflows can be reinforced 

• AI supports rather than replaces human interactions 

There are additional considerations when outsourcing healthcare interactions involving protected health information. 

HHS states that when a business associate performs certain services involving PHI on behalf of a covered entity, a business associate agreement generally must define permitted uses and disclosures and require appropriate safeguards. 

Organizations evaluating healthcare customer service outsourcing should therefore look beyond whether a provider simply offers AI. 

They should ask how the technology fits into the overall operating model, how knowledge and workflows are configured, what information the technology can access, and how AI-assisted interactions align with their privacy, security, governance, and compliance requirements. 

How LiveNexus Agent Assist supports healthcare contact centers 

At Liveops, we believe the value of AI isn’t simply in adding more technology to the contact center. 

It’s in making the interaction work better. 

LiveNexus Agent Assist brings real-time guidance into the agent workflow, helping agents access the information they need without spending valuable interaction time searching across disconnected resources. 

For healthcare programs, that guidance can be configured around the organization’s specific knowledge, workflows, requirements, and customer service use cases. 

That might mean helping an agent find the right answer to a benefits question, surfacing the appropriate process for a particular interaction, reinforcing program-specific requirements, or guiding the agent toward the next best action. 

The goal is simple: 

Agents don’t need more information. They need to know what to do right now. 

By bringing AI-powered guidance together with the human expertise of agents within our network, Liveops can help healthcare organizations create customer service experiences that are more responsive, consistent, and human. 

Combining flexible capacity with AI-powered support 

Technology is only one piece of the healthcare customer experience. 

Organizations also need the right capacity available when patients and members need assistance. 

That’s where Liveops brings together healthcare customer service outsourcing and LiveNexus. 

The Liveops model provides access to a nationwide network of independent contractor agents, helping organizations align customer service capacity more closely with actual demand. 

LiveNexus adds another layer by helping organizations determine where AI can improve that experience and how AI and human support should work together. 

Rather than treating AI, people, and operations as separate strategies, the goal is orchestration: determining which interactions technology should handle, where humans should remain involved, and how AI can make those humans more effective. 

What should healthcare organizations look for in an agent assist solution? 

Not every agent assist platform will be the right fit for every healthcare environment. 

Before implementing one, healthcare leaders should consider several questions: 

• Can the technology work with the systems and knowledge sources agents already use? 

• Can guidance be customized around specific healthcare programs and workflows? 

• How quickly does guidance appear during an interaction? 

• What controls determine which information the AI can access? 

• How are privacy, security, and governance requirements addressed? 

• Can the organization measure improvements in areas such as resolution, handle time, accuracy, and agent experience? 

• How easily can the solution evolve as workflows and requirements change? 

The objective shouldn’t be to deploy AI simply because the technology is available. 

It should be to identify where AI can create measurable improvements for patients, members, agents, and the organization. 

The future of healthcare contact centers is human + AI 

Healthcare customer service presents exactly the kind of challenge where AI can be extremely valuable without needing to replace the human. 

AI can search faster. 

It can surface information. 

It can recognize context. 

It can recommend actions. 

It can automate repetitive work. 

But the agent can listen, interpret, reassure, adapt, and make the interaction feel human. 

For healthcare contact centers, the opportunity is to bring those strengths together. 

With the right agent assist strategy—and the right approach to healthcare customer service outsourcing—healthcare organizations can create a customer service model where technology works in the background and people remain focused on the patient or member in front of them. 

That’s the future Liveops and LiveNexus are designed to help organizations build. 

Frequently asked questions about agent assist in healthcare contact centers 

What is agent assist in healthcare? 

Agent assist is AI-powered technology that supports healthcare customer service agents during live interactions. It can surface relevant knowledge, recommend next actions, reinforce workflows, provide real-time reminders, and automate certain repetitive tasks while the human agent continues handling the conversation. 

LiveNexus Agent Assist helps bring this type of real-time guidance directly into the agent workflow, allowing healthcare programs to configure support around their specific knowledge, processes, and customer service requirements. 

How can healthcare contact centers use agent assist? 

Healthcare contact centers can use agent assist for real-time knowledge retrieval, benefits and claims support, workflow guidance, appointment-related interactions, compliance reminders, next-best-action recommendations, and interaction summarization. 

The most effective use cases focus on helping agents navigate complex interactions more efficiently while preserving human judgment and empathy. 

Liveops helps healthcare organizations put these capabilities into practice through LiveNexus Agent Assist, which delivers real-time, AI-powered guidance directly into the agent workflow. By surfacing relevant information, reinforcing program-specific processes, and recommending next-best actions, LiveNexus Agent Assist helps agents within the Liveops network deliver more efficient, consistent, and personalized patient and member support. 

Can agent assist help with HIPAA compliance? 

Agent assist doesn’t make an organization HIPAA compliant by itself. However, appropriately configured technology can help reinforce established processes by surfacing approved guidance, required steps, or reminders during interactions. 

Organizations should evaluate agent assist as part of their broader privacy, security, compliance, and risk-management strategy. HHS requires regulated entities to implement appropriate safeguards for electronic PHI and establishes requirements for covered entities and business associates handling that information. 

LiveNexus Agent Assist by Liveops can be configured to support healthcare organizations’ specific workflows, approved guidance, and compliance-related requirements, helping agents follow established processes during patient and member interactions. 

Does agent assist replace healthcare customer service agents? 

No. Agent assist is designed to support agents rather than replace them. The AI works behind the scenes to retrieve information, provide guidance, recommend actions, or automate repetitive tasks while the human agent manages the customer interaction. 

This can be especially valuable in healthcare, where empathy, judgment, context, and sensitive communication remain important parts of the experience. 

LiveNexus Agent Assist by Liveops supports this human-first approach by providing agents within the Liveops network with real-time AI-powered guidance, helping them deliver more efficient, informed, and empathetic patient and member experiences. 

How does agent assist work with healthcare customer service outsourcing? 

Healthcare customer service outsourcing provides organizations with external customer service capacity and expertise, while agent assist can provide those agents with real-time knowledge and guidance. 

Liveops combines a flexible customer service model with LiveNexus Agent Assist, helping healthcare organizations bring together human expertise, flexible capacity, and AI-powered support in a more connected customer service strategy.