• Key Insight: Learn how AI-driven HSA guidance enables personalized benefits education at scale.
• What’s at Stake: Low HSA literacy risks underutilized tax-advantaged savings and increased employer administrative costs.
• Supporting Data: 69% of employees unclear on HSAs; over 50% unaware HSA funds are investable.
• Source: Bullets generated by AI with editorial review

HSAs can be a complicated benefit for employees to navigate on their own and an intimidating subject to broach with benefit leaders, but AI can make education easy and accessible.

Sixty-nine percent of employees were unclear on HSA benefits and uses, according to data from the Plan Sponsor Council of America, despite half of employers offering them. As a result, a study from Fidelity found that over 50% of respondents weren’t even aware that HSA dollars could be invested. In an effort to bridge some of the disconnect, HSA administrator HealthEquity launched a new AI tool to help educate employees and support their leaders.

“It was clear that benefits administrators and HR teams, as well as their employees, had questions about HSA rules,” says Shuki Licht, head of innovation and AI technology at HealthEquity. “When employees don’t understand their HSAs, they underutilize them, missing out on triple tax advantages and long-term savings opportunities. And for employers, this translates to lower engagement with the benefits they’re investing in and higher administrative costs from repetitive employee questions.”

Read more: These AI tools are helping benefit leaders do their jobs faster and more efficiently 

HSAnswers is available right on HealthEquity’s site for workers in any industry for free. Employees can ask the AI questions in normal, conversational language just as they would ask their own benefits administrator. After a short series of follow-ups, the chatbot then provides instant, personalized responses based on their specific situation. 

For example, Licht says an employee could ask a question like, ‘I’m turning 65 and signing up for Medicare, can I still contribute to my HSA this year?’ and receive a response immediately, rather than waiting for HR to research and respond. The AI is also equipped to handle more complicated questions around topics such contribution limits, eligibility, qualified expenses and long-term investment strategies.

Unlike many AI chat tools on the market, HSAnswers doesn’t rely on public information — it’s built exclusively from HealthEquity’s own knowledge base that includes over 500 curated educational resources, ensuring that users only get reliable and contextually relevant answers whenever and wherever they need them. 

Read more: How this new AI tool is taking the stress out of open enrollment

“What’s important is that we’re meeting employees where they are,” Licht says. “When they have a question at 8 PM on a Sunday about whether a medical expense is qualified, they don’t have to wait until Monday to call benefits administration.” 

Benefit leaders need AI support too

While communicating with employees and addressing benefit concerns is a major part of a benefit leader’s job, it can easily consume the time they should be spending on other equally important aspects of their work. In fact, HR and benefit leaders are spending a significant portion of their workweek answering employee questions, according to data from workplace insights platform StatusHR, with some studies indicating they spend up to 10 to 15 hours per week on repetitive inquiries alone. 

Having employees engage with a reliable AI tool doesn’t just alleviate some of the administrative burden by eliminating the amount of employees seeking their help; they also have a use for the tech. 

Read more: These technology-driven healthcare benefits are improving access to care

“We’re even seeing usage from benefits administrators themselves who use it as a reference tool when their employees ask questions,” Licht says. “It ensures consistent, accurate information across the organization.” 

As new demands arise, HealthEquity is working on expanding capabilities so employees can not only get answers, but also complete other necessary tasks like replacing a lost card or uploading missing documents for reimbursements claims. 

“AI is going to be transformative for benefit education because it solves the core challenge of scale,” Licht says. “You have millions of employees with individual questions and situations, but limited human resources to provide personalized guidance. AI enables us to deliver that personalized education at scale.”

The first words I uttered after successfully defending my dissertation were, “Wow, what a ride. From Head Start to Ph.D.!” Saying them reminded me where it all began: sitting cross-legged with a picture book at the Westside Head Start Center, just a few blocks from my childhood home in Jackson, Mississippi. 

I don’t remember every detail from those early years, but I remember the feeling: I was happy at Head Start. I remember the books, the music, the joy. That five-minute bus ride from our house to the Westside Center turned out to be the shortest distance between potential and achievement. 

And my story is not unique. Every year, hundreds of thousands of children — kids whose names we may never know, though our futures depend on them — walk through Head Start’s doors. Like me, they find structure, literacy, curiosity and belonging.  

For many families, Head Start is the first place outside the home where a child’s potential is nurtured and celebrated. Yet, this program that builds futures and strengthens families is now under threat, and it’s imperative that we protect it. 

Years later, while training for high school cross-country meets, I’d run past the park next to the center and pause, flooded with memories. Head Start laid the foundation for everything that followed. It gave me structure, sparked my curiosity and built my early literacy skills. It even fed my short-lived obsession with chocolate milk.  

More than that, Head Start made me feel seen and valued. 

Related: A lot goes on in classrooms from kindergarten to high school. Keep up with our free weekly newsletter on K-12 education. 

There’s a clear, unbroken line between the early lessons I learned at Head Start and the doctoral dissertation I defended decades later. Head Start didn’t just teach me my ABCs — it taught me that learning could be joyful, that I was capable and that I belonged in a classroom.  

That belief carried me through elementary school, Yale and George Washington University and to a Ph.D. in public policy and public administration. Now, as part of my research at the Urban Institute, I’m working to expand access to high-quality early learning, because I know firsthand what a difference it makes.  

Research backs up what my story shows: Investments in Head Start and high-quality early childhood education change lives by improving health and educational achievement in later years, and benefit the economy. Yet today there is growing skepticism about the value of Head Start, reflecting an ongoing reluctance to give early childhood education the respect it deserves.  

If Head Start funding is cut, thousands of children — especially from communities like mine in Jackson, where families worked hard but opportunities were limited — could lose access to a program that helps level the playing field. These are the children of young parents and single parents, of working families who may not have many other options but still dare to dream big for their kids.  

And that is why I am worried. Funding for Head Start has been under threat. Although President Donald Trump’s proposed fiscal 2026 budget would maintain Head Start funding at its current $12.3 billion, Project 2025, the influential conservative policy document, calls for eliminating the program. The administration recently announced that Head Start would no longer enroll undocumented children, which a group of Democratic attorneys general say will force some programs to close.  

Related: Head Start is in turmoil