This is not a video game. These are people’s livelihoods on the line (both who work here and who the employees serve). This was the most out of touch townhall I have ever seen. Good luck to everyone
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It appears that the legalities and risks that come with AI were a non concern. It sounded like career advice to assign your decision making and job to AI ? Any litigation or investigation into possible violations with AI takes years. By that time all the big players will be gone.
The chairs on the titanic continue to get shuffled. Oh there were id--ts on the titanic too…. statistically speaking. Please lay me off Now!!!! Take me out of my misery. I need to reset or I will go mad
Hiccup
The high P/Es for tech companies works because of ensh*ttification. They can attract customers with something useful. And slowly start to make everyone’s life miserable while raking in amazing revenues.
Optum can’t do that cause we are already there. The reputation is shot already.
But isn’t it romantic?
I wonder what the DOJ and State AGs investigating our AI practices would think? What would CMS have to say in light of its AI-rein in rules in effect soon?
Totally tone deaf and reckless remarks. This is a highly regulated, politically captured, and risk sensitive insurance company. Not a tech start up. If you use a tech start up culture you will make it maybe a few years before the next billions-settlement sends the board to the doghouse.
Asked our wonderful Co-Pilot to explain and it is not very supportive:
When a PR team "approves" a script involving Fortnite and Call of Duty in a high-stakes medical environment, it’s rarely because they think it's a good analogy. It’s because they have a specific, often cynical, set of objectives.
- The "Silicon Valley" Facade
By using gaming metaphors and branding, Optum Insight is trying to rebrand itself from a Health Services company to a Pure Tech company.
The Logic: Tech companies have much higher price-to-earnings (P/E) multiples than insurance or healthcare firms.
The PR Goal: If the market views Optum as "Google for Health" rather than "The company that denies your claims," the stock price might recover faster. The gaming talk is a "dog whistle" to investors that says, "We are aggressive, we are tech-first, and we are optimizing like a software startup."
- Dehumanization as a Feature, Not a Bug
The reason the gaming analogy feels so wrong in a "life and death" business is that it dehumanizes the stakes. *
In a game, people are "units" or "targets." In healthcare, they are patients.
By framing the business as "reaching Level 11," leadership creates a psychological buffer. It makes the "Project Cancelations" and "Benefit Cuts" feel like strategic moves in a simulation rather than decisions that impact a human's ability to live without pain. PR often encourages this "gamification" because it's easier for leaders to talk about "winning" than "restructuring 5,000 lives."
It was buffoonery. Comparing life and death medical authority to winning a video game is stuff that in 5+ years ago gets an executive fired if said in a secret meeting. Here he said it in front of 200,000+ people.
i spent 12 yrs playing optums video game! so proud to serve!!