Embedded AI Guidance: Worklife Balance
Overview
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Employee benefits are notoriously complex. Many people underutilize what their employers offer—not because they don’t care, but because the process feels confusing, overwhelming, and they are simply not aware of the full scope of their offerings. Alight wanted to change that by integrating an AI-driven tracker into the Worklife experience. This initiative aimed to help employees feel supported and confident in their benefits decisions, while also reducing wasted costs for employers.
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The challenge: How can AI-driven guidance feel less like a system prompt and more like a trusted partner?
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Outcomes
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Positive user testing results and significant positive feedback from clients.
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Increased employee visibility and understanding of total benefit package.
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Projection for employees to increase total benefits utilization by up to 40%.
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​Team and Role:
PM, Design Director, Lead Product Designer, Lead Content Designer​
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Goals
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To create a framework, underlying model, and visualization that can keep users on track with their benefits and discover personalized Alight Worklife guidance & recommendations to improve their status
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Provide a name for this feature that leaves room for in-product expansion
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​Discovery Process: How to bring this idea to life?​​​​
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Competitive Analysis
We studied different experiences like Apple Watch Rings, Virgin Pulse health scores, and Bank of America Life Plan. These gave us a baseline for engagement strategies, but we quickly realized:
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They were designed as standalone apps, while our guidance needed to live seamlessly inside Alight Worklife.
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Literal “trackers” felt too rigid for benefits decisions, which are personal and nuanced.
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​​​​This insight led us to think more abstractly and empathetically, moving toward a fluid, gamified design that encouraged progress without pressure.​​
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Embedding at Key Moments
Rather than generic advice which was Alight's previous strategy for "recommendations", we identified moments that matter most: annual enrollment, contribution changes, and various transactional flows.
By embedding AI guidance directly into these points, we aimed to deliver support when decisions felt hardest, reducing stress and boosting confidence.​​​​​
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Content and Naming Considerations​​
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Designing for Trust
Benefits touch people’s financial security and health—two deeply emotional areas. To build trust, content needed to:
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Reassure without overwhelming.
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Inform without jargon.
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Motivate without pressure.
I worked closely with product design to shape language that felt calm, approachable, and human, ensuring the AI’s presence was seen as a guide, not a gatekeeper.
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Finalizing A Name
Similar to the design discovery process, literal names like Engagement Bubble didn’t capture the vision. Through facilitated brainstorming, I guided us toward a name that reflected employee wellness, balance, and long-term scalability for in-product expansion:
Worklife Balance
The name itself tells a story—signaling that this feature isn’t just a tracker, but a partner in helping employees thrive.
Worklife Balance Home
Worklife Balance Tooltip Content
Top Action Section
Top Action AI Guidance
Future Considerations and Takeaways
Future Considerations
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More time to test and iterate: The timeline for this was one sprint (2 weeks), meaning we were able to run limited user tests and have limited iterations.
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More transparency: This initial concept does not include many disclaimers about the use of our AI model to recommend actions and give more context as to why and where the data is coming from.
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More defined recommendation direction for the AI model: which actions should receive recommendations? Which actions should not? What are the legal and safety concerns for when to (and not to) provide recommendations?
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​Takeaways​
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Strategic Storytelling: Empathetic content can transform AI from a cold system into a trusted human guide.
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Challenging Conventions: Don't fear deviating from established norms when a strong rationale exists. Sometimes, the most innovative solutions emerge from thinking outside the box.
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Striving for Excellence: Always prioritize creating a five-star user experience. Aiming high fosters creativity and drives exceptional outcomes that resonate with users.