Thread regarding Optum layoffs

Has anyone actually seen a working AI product here that customers actually use?

All this hype and push around AI has been going on for over a year now. What all do we have to show for it besides people posting that they did the AI dojo on LinkedIn, and some sloppy chat bot POC's that read internal documentation?

All this talk about agents and an AI future seems like a complete scam with no basis.


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| 2152 views | | 16 replies (last December 10) | Reply
Post ID: @OP+1kbjqr9a8

16 replies (most recent on top)

@OP Since 2024 it's a rule that new products and enhancements have some type feature they advertise as "AI" it's mostly a gimmick. SD cut off pipeline for new OI products in 2026, capital planning is a skeleton list of delayed 2025 stuff.

Everything new to market in 2026 is branded Optum AI and gets pushed as "AI" service. We're not going to making product any more it's tell customers "hey we do this thing with AI for part of UHG, let's try it for you" and hope they sign an OA contract and our Indian coders goof around in their systems with MOAR HAY EYE.

OI as we know it will be eliminated in Q1. For SH, it's personal. All he cares about is the HMO he built the money is just for fun. Sunsetting products and laying off OI is the last gasp to prop UHC side of UHG.

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Post ID: @16p+1kbjqr9a8

This company's leadership doesn't want to invest in or drive actual process improvements, they heard AI and thought it would be some cheap and easy solution that requires zero effort on their part.

But they don't pay for good engineers, they pay for an army of low-paid yes-men from India to pursue countless, duplicative "AI initiatives." The issues this company has are far too complex for AI, and are much easier to solve through driving improvements in the way we do things. They will never get the result they want from AI.

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Post ID: @151+1kbjqr9a8

@bw Yeah, we were told in my department that daily use of AI is required and tracked, regardless of your team or role. Failure to do so is grounds for dismissal. What a big fat joke.

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Post ID: @12v+1kbjqr9a8

The only internal tool was changed 3 months in and is now a worthless pile of crud so no.

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Post ID: @10j+1kbjqr9a8

@ex I certainly hope not. If so that would mean this organization hasn’t innovated for 20 years. Those processes should have been automated already. If not….I would not be admitting it here for the public/investors to see. Just saying

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Post ID: @f9+1kbjqr9a8

Yes, worked on building a lot of back end AI for prior authorizations, coding and paymwnt

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Post ID: @ex+1kbjqr9a8

100% no

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Post ID: @ew+1kbjqr9a8

The real AI is not human facing. It's behing the scenes determining whether your claim is going to be denied or approved. Then real live humans get to deal with your anger.

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Post ID: @ev+1kbjqr9a8

How does its fair to match 1:1 ratio with OGS - when they don't even work in US time zones. Company is looking at financial numbers and quality is taking a toss.

Additionally its a company of US doing business in US, however giving employment benefits to OGS, Interesting isn't it ?

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Post ID: @dy+1kbjqr9a8

Who c@res

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Post ID: @dk+1kbjqr9a8

Just copilot for basic chat questions or GitHub Copilot for light coding help. Otherwise I have not seen a successful product made by Optum that integrates LLM AI. The only thing our tech teams know how to do is make a basic question answer bot with RAG because of AI Dojo. These “leaders” are complete mo--ns. Some orgs are telling teams if they don’t integrate AI into their projects they will be fired. Absolutely wild.

I have seen some Google models used to transcribe advertisements but that is a highly specific use case.

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Post ID: @bw+1kbjqr9a8

Co pilot can’t keep up with anything it’s so bad

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Post ID: @bc+1kbjqr9a8

I know of one, converting text to speech. But guess what that has been done without AI BS since 1970s 😃

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Post ID: @b7+1kbjqr9a8

@ah It's not technically competent people / software engineers pushing the AI slop projects that go nowhere, it's leadership or offshore grifters who don't know anything.

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Post ID: @b0+1kbjqr9a8

@ah I agree. They will use it to justify laying off more US workers and replace them with offshore (mainly India). This is so common now the meaning has changed to: AI = Actually India. See it all over tech boards (not specific to this organization)

For Optum to be an AI leader in the healthcare/insurance space they would have to replace their leadership with individuals that have worked for true analytics companies such as
Guidewire/Fair Isaac etc ….not Mars Candy/ digital…not in the same league. This is not meant to be an insult, just simply they need leadership with proven experience in this space.

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Post ID: @az+1kbjqr9a8

It has been a dud in my area. No one can use anything but the Copilot tool now due to costs. And right now these AI tools are priced as loss leaders. Once the techies have to show profit, this stuff is going to be unused outside a specific niche here.

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Post ID: @ah+1kbjqr9a8

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