UnitedHealthcare introduces AI-powered Smart Choice for personalized provider searches

UnitedHealth Introduces AI-Enabled Personalized Provider Search

UnitedHealthcare has launched Smart Choice, an AI-powered tool that refines how members search for healthcare providers. This feature integrates personal needs, health plan benefits, and member preferences to deliver more relevant provider options. Accessible via the UnitedHealthcare app and website, Smart Choice offers a streamlined and user-friendly search experience.

Members can customize their search by factors like distance, provider gender, language spoken, and appointment availability, including weekend hours. Currently, this feature is available to eligible members enrolled in UnitedHealthcare’s employer-sponsored health plans.

Why This Matters

Payers are increasingly leveraging AI and data analytics to improve member interactions and manage provider networks based on care outcomes and costs. According to UnitedHealth, 67% of employers have strategies to collect and analyze employee health data to enhance well-being.

Smart Choice connects members with providers who meet nationally recognized quality standards. These standards include patient safety, adherence to clinical guidelines, and measurable health outcomes, ensuring members receive effective and efficient care.

The Larger Trend in Healthcare AI

This launch is part of UnitedHealthcare’s broader push into digital innovation. In 2024 alone, the company implemented over 400 enhancements to its digital platforms, with plans to maintain a similar pace in 2025.

Other organizations are adopting comparable AI-driven tools. For example:

• Quest Analytics and Arcadia partnered to create competitive networks using provider performance intelligence, helping payers identify providers delivering optimal outcomes at efficient costs.
• Blue Shield of California teamed up with Zocdoc to enable members to schedule in-network, in-person, and virtual appointments directly through their online portal.
• Cigna introduced an AI-powered virtual assistant that offers personalized, conversational answers to benefit, claims, and care questions beyond a traditional chatbot.

These developments illustrate a growing focus on making healthcare navigation simpler, more transparent, and better aligned with member needs.

Healthcare professionals interested in expanding their AI knowledge can explore relevant courses at Complete AI Training.