From Fragmented to Fast: Future-Proofing Healthcare CX with AI and Agent Collaboration

Legacy CX Was Slowing Patients Down—AI Is Speeding Them Up 

For patients navigating complex treatments, time matters. But in pharma and life sciences, the journey from diagnosis to therapy can take weeks—slowed by siloed systems, manual processes, and limited agent capacity. That’s why leading healthcare organizations like Inizio Engage are rethinking their contact center solutions for healthcare entirely. 

At Contact Center Week, Five9’s Roni Jamesmeyer, Sr Product Marketing Manager, and Julie LeWarne, Marketing Program Director, sat down with Louis Romanowski, Global VP of Operational Excellence at Inizio Engage, to explore how AI is enabling faster, safer, and more personalized patient support at scale. The message was clear: The New CX in healthcare starts with connection—and it’s powered by intelligent automation and human insight. 

Accelerating the Patient Journey with Timely, Accurate Support 

Roni opened the conversation by naming the industry’s top goal: shorten the time from diagnosis to medication—from two weeks to as little as two days. “It’s about stitching together the communication journey,” she said. 

For Lou and his team at Inizio Engage, that means leveraging AI to deliver the right information, fast. “The information has to be timely. It has to be accurate,” he said. Whether it’s navigating reimbursement or explaining next steps, AI enables their agents to respond with speed and confidence. 

Self-Service That Actually Serves Patients 

AI-powered self-service has evolved—far beyond outdated IVRs. Today’s virtual agents can hold natural, personalized conversations that feel like real interactions. 

Lou described them as a powerful “triage” system, especially valuable in pharma where 24/7 coverage is essential but costly. “Acceptance of working with virtual agents has increased dramatically,” he noted, particularly among digital-native demographics. 

Roni introduced a key metric shaping modern CX: the avoidable support ratio. It tracks how many common issues (like a password reset) are handled without agent intervention—a clear signal that self-service is working. 

Agent Assist: Helping Agents Do What They Do Best 

In a highly regulated industry, accuracy and compliance aren’t optional. That’s why Lou sees tools like Five9 Agent Assist as critical—not only for improving patient customer service, but for reducing agent ramp time and stress. 

“Agent Assist has been a great benefit for us from a training perspective,” he said. New hires get real-time support, transcription, and automated summaries—so they can focus on the patient, not the paperwork. “After-call work can be significant,” Lou added. “This takes minutes off every interaction.” 

Roni pointed out that this kind of support also reduces onboarding time. “Instead of 6 to 12 weeks, we’re seeing much faster ramp-ups,” she shared. 

The Results: Scaling Smarter, Serving Patients Faster 

Inizio Engage supports millions of patient interactions worldwide—each one requiring accuracy, empathy, and speed. With Five9, they’ve been able to: 

• Accelerate patient time-to-therapy, moving from a two-week window to as little as two days 

• Increase self-service adoption, especially for routine tasks like password resets and basic inquiries 

• Improve agent productivity and accuracy, with Agent Assist reducing ramp time and after-call work 

• Enhance coaching and compliance oversight, using real-time insights from AI-powered analytics 

• Maintain HIPAA-compliant operations, with responsible AI guardrails and transparent patient experiences 

These outcomes aren’t just operational wins—they directly support Inizio Engage’s mission to provide faster, more connected care for patients who need it most. 

Insights That Drive Strategy—and Respect Compliance 

Beyond efficiency, AI delivers something just as powerful: insight. With Five9 AI Insights, teams can visualize everything from call topics and channel performance to compliance risks and coaching opportunities. 

“It’s like a heat map of your contact center,” Roni said. These insights help leaders identify what to automate, where to support agents, and how to optimize performance—without guesswork. 

Just as important: doing it responsibly. “Everything starts and ends with quality and compliance,” Lou emphasized. Our medical contact center software is HIPAA-compliant, SOC 2-aligned, and built to ensure transparency in every AI-powered interaction. 

The New CX Is a Partnership Between Humans and AI 

As this session made clear, the future of healthcare contact centers isn’t just digital—it’s collaborative. It’s agents and AI working together to deliver experiences that are faster, safer, and more personalized. That’s The New CX. 

Lou closed with a simple truth: “Our agents are very thankful for these tools. They help them be better at what they do.” And better agents mean better patient care. 

See the Full Conversation 

Want to hear how Inizio Engage is putting AI to work across global patient engagement programs? 

Watch the on-demand webinar and discover what The New CX looks like in healthcare.