Interview by Jonathan Kersting
A great idea can launch a company. Smart operations keep it from flying apart when growth hits the accelerator.
Angela Domhoff, founder of Advantage Operations, joins TechVibe to explain how entrepreneurs and business leaders can turn their vision into a sustainable, scalable operation. Drawing on more than 25 years of healthcare and corporate leadership experience, Angela shares why nearly anything can be “operationalized” when you clearly understand where you are, where you want to go and the systems needed to connect those two points.
Angela also takes us inside her leap from a successful corporate career to launching Advantage Operations, where she provides fractional operational leadership to companies that need executive-level expertise without the expense of hiring a full-time COO. She explains why rapid growth can overwhelm an unprepared business and how better workflows, policies and planning can help companies scale without overhiring, crushing their budgets or creating chaos.
The conversation also cuts through the AI hype. Angela believes AI can eliminate repetitive operational “noise,” but only when companies first understand their workflows, people and processes. Dropping AI into a broken operation without that groundwork, she warns, can create expensive new problems instead of solving old ones.
Prepare your company for growth. Learn why winning a big contract or experiencing a sudden surge in demand can become a serious threat when your operational foundation is not ready.
Get practical entrepreneurial advice. Angela offers candid guidance on managing expectations, protecting cash, structuring your days and resisting the urge to spend ahead of actual revenue.
Understand where AI really fits. Discover how AI can remove repetitive work, improve efficiency and free employees for higher-value tasks without automatically replacing them.
See why human skills still matter. Angela previews her work with the Pittsburgh Technology Council’s LAUNCH program, where she teaches students how empathy, listening, collaboration and meaningful communication can become career superpowers.
The Pittsburgh Technology Council produces TechVibe to explore Pittsburgh, technology and entrepreneurial communities.
Transcript:
Advantage Operations
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[00:00:00] I always say you can operationalize anything. If you have a vision, if you have a plan, if you understand what point A is and where you want point Z to be, you just have to figure out how to get there, and that is all operationalized. You don't realize how much you know until you talk about it. I literally could give you information that could make you money, and I think, I said, "I'm happy to partner with you.
I'm happy to talk with you." I said, "But I've had a couple of these conversations, and they're taking a consultative turn." I'm at the point in my life where my biggest commodity right now is not money, it's time
It's Jonathan Kersting here with the Pittsburgh Technology Council giving you a front row seat to Pittsburgh's technology and innovation ecosystem. And today I'm gonna have a really fun conversation with Angela Domhoff of Advantage Operations. And Angela- Hey, Jonathan ... you've got some great stories to talk about today-
that I'm, first off, I'm excited to learn more about your business and your expertise, 'cause you've done some really cool work- Oh, thanks ... over the past 25 years around just optimizing operations for giant healthcare companies. But now you've decided to hang your own shingle up and do that for yourself and [00:01:00] help other companies that need your help, which I think is always awesome.
So first, I'm excited to learn about your story and what you do, but then also I'm always excited to use this as a format to educate our viewers, because so many of our viewers out there, they're building their own companies. Yeah. And I think you have some tremendous insights as to kinda keep people on the right foot, and I think we have some really fun examples that we're gonna jump into today- Sure
around that. And last but not least, just before we started this interview, I learned that you are n- gonna be a mentor for our Launch program here- I am. I'm very excited ... for the Tech Council, which I think is fantastic, and I love it when people wanna kinda pay things forward a little bit and educate the next group of, dare I say, taxpayers.
The next generation of business people. Yes. For the folks out there. Yes. Yeah. And so I'm- I wanna learn more about what you're doing with that, because you're gonna be talking about basically interpersonal skills, soft skills- Yeah ... which I think is so important for anyone entering the marketplace, and even for those of us that are in the marketplace right now.
Yeah. I think there's a lot going on. So welcome to Tech Five. I'm so glad to have you in the [00:02:00] Huntington Bank Studios with me here today. I'm so excited to be here. Thank you so much for the invitation. I'm so excited to talk to you today. Yeah. Great. So first off, Angela, you gotta tell me about your background and what you did around operations, 'cause you developed quite a, a resume, for lack of a better term with and within healthcare most specifically.
So tell us about yourself. It's funny. I kinda fell into healthcare in my- Okay ... in my early 20s. Yeah. And I just got into an operational model. I was wor- I was processing claims as a claims processor, and then I was processing adjustments, and then I was doing enrollment, and I was doing a few other things, and it just culminated into a career.
By the time I was in my early 30s, I was in management. I was managing claims operations, I was managing teams, I was managing other things. And everything operational, especially in a health plan, interconnects with everything. Yes. So it's, you know- It's webbed together. And the thing is operationally, a, a common...
i've worked for a lot of big, a lot of big companies. I've worked for UPMC Health Plan. I've worked for, UnitedHealthcare. I've worked for Coventry Health Care, which is what, which then became Health America. Yeah ... which then became, Coventry, which then [00:03:00] became Aetna, which then became CVS.
I left before it became CVS, but I was in- Yeah ... through, through those types of transitions. So I've worked for a lot of big payers, and I've worked for small practitioners as well. I've worked in DME spaces, durable medical equipment. I've worked in private practitioner offices, dental offices. So there's been a lot of healthcare and health plan operational aspects- Yeah
that I've had throughout my career. You've been solving a lot of challenges over the years- A lot ... for these companies. A lot. And, yeah, there's probably a lot of commonalities, but you find the special case. And over 25 years, you've amassed a ton of knowledge around this- I have ... which I think is just very exciting.
The nice thing about the knowledge, though, is it's transferable. I've served on a lot of nonprofit boards- Okay ... in an advisory capacity. I've done some other boards on the side, volunteer, for, from an operation and finance standpoint, helping them build an operational budget, stay within those parameters- so they can be successful and continue their missions. Yeah. So i- the nice thing about operations is I always say you can operationalize anything. If you have a vision, if you have a plan, if you understand what point A is and where you want point Z to be- Yeah ... you just have to figure out how to [00:04:00] get there, and that is all operationalized.
So- That's why I love this, because you've amassed all this experience, but the idea is now you can take this to anyone- You can ... who's out there with a business, 'cause if anything can be operationalized, there's some, s- I guess there's some, some core laws of physics around oper- For the most part, yeah.
Exactly. Now, I'm not a, like I said ear- earlier, I'm not a jack of all trades, master of none. My operational expertise is very refined to certain industries and certain- Okay ... certain pieces of operations. Yeah. But I think that, and some of that stuff ties into HR, like having policies and procedures, having- desktop procedure manuals, having compliance alignment within your company and with your operational model. Those are all important things. Do I do all those? No, but I can help you get those, those pieces connected properly so that you're operationally sound and sustainable. I find that the biggest challenge most people have is, especially when they're startups and they're successful, is- They grow and they're not prepared for the growth I see that a lot over the years.
With my near three decades of watching our member companies grow- Yeah ... sometimes some spurts happen, and all of a sudden "We weren't expecting to have to hire [00:05:00] 12 people now." Exactly. It's all of a sudden your operations change, and if you don't have the plan and the focus that growth could be something that actually kills you at a certain point.
Yeah. And the thing is you don't have to always hire 15 people or 30 people or get a whole new, you know- Yeah ... infrastructure system. You just have to look at how your desktop, how your workflow is- Yeah ... and say, "Okay. If our work increases by 30% in the next six months, can we tweak this? How do we handle this?"
"How do we, how many bodies do we need to do th- to do the work?" And with those types of growth, and obviously we'll get into this later, but, that's where tech and AI and all that good stuff comes moving in. Oh, yeah. But I mean- We can't have a discussion without AI in it- We cannot
which I'm very excited about. Absolutely. You cannot. I actually am too 'cause it's a hot topic and you've got people who, are on that wagon and love it and drink that Kool-Aid, as I say, and you've got people who are like, "No." So it's a very hot topic now. Yeah. And it does dive into and connect, I think, pretty essentially with an, an operational model of a business.
Very much so what, I wanna just jump back just a little bit before we jump into some of these things- Yeah ... 'cause I'm [00:06:00] always curious. Obviously you're working for these big corporations. You're finding success. But then you say to yourself, "I wanna do this on my own." For me, I would be like, "I'm having a good time here.
They're paying me." So y- what was it in your mind that made you say, "I wanna do my own thing and bring my expertise, turn that into a business," so you can then help other businesses? The funny thing is, for a long time I was in corporate, and, I worked hard, I enjoyed my work.
I felt I worked on good teams. I think the culmination of my career was about five years ago when I was poached to help create and start and launch- interesting ... a health plan from scratch, which I thought- Wow ... "Are are you kidding?" "Are people really doing this?" But we did it, and it was it was one of the most difficult jobs I ever had.
I can imagine. My goodness. It was very challenging to kind- It seems enormous. It was. It was- Yeah ... i, I was the 10th person hired. We had a really tight-knit leadership team, and it was a very cohesive, very bright group of folks. Everyone was, like, their, the pinnacle of their career, and they were all the expertise in their world.
And I was the operations person. So we worked together, we built [00:07:00] teams, and we, you know, did months and months of testing. It took about 18 months, and we finally launched the plan. And it, to this day, it's successful. After about four and a half years, I was at the point where I just felt like- I'd done all I could do And as health plans do they broaden.
They go into, whether they're a TPA or they're a fully at-risk commercial plan, they wanna go into the CMS plans. They wanna go into Medicare, Medicaid, D-SNP. They wanna do all that. And our plan was in Medicare Advantage, and they wanted to go to other places and do other things within the government business, which is very lucrative and very, poignant for the roles.
But I was just like, "Yeah, I don't wanna do it again." I hear you. Like I don't- Yeah, you reach that point. You've been there. I, I- You've done that ... I've been there, done that. I had a great boss and, he and I talked, and I was like, "You know what? I think it's time." And he was like, "You know what?
I fully support that." And, I made a very quiet exit, and I left, and I had a heart-to-heart with my husband. And I said, and I talked to recruiters. I, I talked to people about other roles at, VP of ops here or director of ops there or whatever there. And I thought, it's, it...
[00:08:00] I la- I laugh. It's the same pot, different fire. There you go. And I'm like- Time for something new ... and what my eureka moment was, I'd had, circling back to technology, I'd had a couple conversations. I had been pinged on LinkedIn, everyone's favorite- ... favorite place. I was pinged on LinkedIn by a few people asking me about AI and operations and technology and operations and what I thought and whatnot, and I just had some really nice networking conversations.
And again, I always joke and say, "You don't realize how much you know until you talk about it." I've I love hearing that 'cause I find myself in that same situation. It's the truth. I didn't realize I knew that, but I just said it. And I- I love that ... and it's funny 'cause there was one gentleman I was talking to, he was asking me about all this stuff, and I was like- we're getting into a consultative conversation now.
I said, "You know- I should start charging you for this. Which is funny, 'cause I was like, I am literally could give you information that could make you money. And I said, I said, "I'm happy to partner with you. I'm happy to talk with you." I said, "But, I've had a couple of these conversations and they're taking a consultative turn."
I said, i- if you wanna build that relationship, I'm happy to discuss that with you." And they were like we're not ready, but we appreciate you. We understand you. We respect that." [00:09:00] Interesting. Yeah. So I took a step back and said to my husband, "I think I can do this. I wanna do this on my own."
Very cool moment. And he was like... And I have... My husband's amazing. He's my biggest cheerleader. He's like, "You'll kill it. Go do it." Love it. And I have- Very cool ... and I have a really, as a Gen X-er, I have a really great work ethic, and I'm really driven, and I have a great support system of friends that I've gone to college with and have had business relationships with, and they're like, "Do it."
Yeah. So I had a really great friend who is amazing, and she's in the professional world in education. She did my website. My, you know- Okay ... we, people would help. Yeah. Yeah. Look, you, it's a, you know- I had a whole plan, ... a support group around you- Yeah ... to make that happen. And so yeah, so you get it off the ground.
Brainstorm, did the content, got all the pieces together. I took about 45 days to get it all together, and then I launched in- There- ... first week of April- There you go ... and I was like, "Here we go." Now you're off to the races. And now I'm a full-time networker- Yeah ... and meeting people and talking to decision-makers and- That's what I hear
giving people inva- advice and, hope, volunteering, teaching courses. So it's like out of the gate running, and I'm excited about it. Good. And honestly, I used to say I'm at the point in my life where, we were talking about this earlier, my biggest commodity [00:10:00] right now is not money, it's time.
There you go. So I'm like, I don't want... i've got maybe 10 or 15 good working years left in me- ... that I wanna do, but I wanna own that means of time. I love it. Yeah. I wanna own a means of income. Makes total sense. And I wanna be able to... But I also wanna work the way I wanna work. 'Cause when you work for a large company or you work within the parameters of, rules and regulations, there are certain things you have to do, certain things you have to say, certain ways you have to be, certain things you can only do i- in a certain time.
So being on my own, I can work with the people I wanna work with. I can be myself. I can give people an, an honest, unabridged, unfiltered answer when they ask me a question. And if they appreciate it, great, and if not, that's okay, too. Sounds like a great way to live- I think it's good ... as far as I'm concerned.
So I'm very excited for you. Yeah. So tell me some of the key things that Advantage Operations does. I know the big thing obviously is having fractional leadership, which is such a big deal. I love the fact that you can give any company a little slice of you - Yeah ... in order to help them optimize their operations and not have to pay the full freight of a VP of Ops and- [00:11:00] I have found- Yeah
yeah, for sure. I have found that, working with a lot of really competent executives over my career, I have found that a lot of executives, when you're at the VP and the C-suite level- ... y- you're, I don't wanna say you're out shaking hands and kissing babies, but you're out shaking hands, kissing babies.
There's a lot of networking. There's a lot of face time. There's a lot of publicity- Oh, yeah ... and PR- 100% ... and all that stuff. The, an actual COO- Probably does 20 to 30 hours of hardcore, nose to the grind work a month And the rest is out there- And the rest is out there- ... toeing the corporate line Yeah.
Doing that kind of stuff. And that's necessary That's part of the job, yeah but it's not what, it's not me. It's not what I do. It's not my thing. So for me, I'm like, if you have a capacity in your business where you're growing and you feel like you're not sustained for growth, or you are a technology company or a manufacturing company or a, physician practice or a medical company, and you are good at what you do, but you're having a difficult time operationalizing the business, like if you have a business plan or you have things you wanna do, but you really can't make [00:12:00] those pieces connect to make sure that you're sustainable and you're profitable and you're efficient the, that's where a good leader can come in.
And the beauty of fractional leadership, and there are CIOs, CCOs, CEOs, fractional people all over the place for every role, and it's because you can have the expertise and the laser point focus every month to get that actual executive work done and those pieces put together without the overhead, without the benefits, without the giant stock options, without the-
huge salary. Oh, exactly. Like- But so- I can give, Yeah I give you 20 hours a month flat dedicated time operationalizing your business for a flat fee, and that's it. See, that's why I'm excited to talk to you about that because I see so many startups out there, even companies that have been around for maybe 10 years.
Yeah Not necessarily a startup, but they're a smaller business. But they're, they may be losing out on business a- and opportunities because they're not able to really get things dialed, right? 100%. And so I think it's so important that people realize that there are services like this out there. So many folks, they're just doing their business.
They don't realize that there are Angelas out there that really know their [00:13:00] stuff, and you can bring them in for a fraction of what it'd cost to bring a full-time person- For sure ... 'cause you don't need them full time. And that to me can be just game changing- Yeah ... for a company to do that. I know a lot of people in fractional leadership, and some of them say,
i'm a fractional CEO for three companies, and I've been doing the same three companies for five years." But they love it because I only give them so many hours a month. Their overhead is extremely lean because they're not paying- ... executive benefits- absolutely ... and packaging. So I think it's important.
I think it's great. I think the problem is people don't think ahead. Especially when you're a startup, you're just like... And I can say this as a startup, I'm like, I have a five-year plan. I know what I need to do now to get the business where I want it to be. Okay But at the same time I'm already planning of what it's gonna look like, where it is, where I get it to be- Okay
and what the next step is. A lot of startups don't do that, and I find that a lot of people I've spoken to and a lot of companies I've worked with over the years and currently, their biggest thing is they're not prepared for growth They grow really rapidly or they, or they get one contract and it bursts open.
And, exact, yeah, that's- The doors burst open. And then they're like, "Holy crap, do we have to hire 20 more people? Do we have [00:14:00] to do this? Do we have to do that?" And no, you don't always have to do that. You just have to think about what your ground level foundation is operationally and how to build off that gradually without killing your budget, tanking the business, and then hiring a bunch of people that you're gonna have to lay off in six months when things level out.
Yeah. So I'm glad you brought that up, 'cause this is the perfect opportunity to talk about we're in this unique position here where it's like you're an entrepreneur starting something up and you're using your own knowledge in order to start this up. So what's some advice you can give to someone out there that is maybe in the throes of starting something up or they're thinking about starting up a company?
What would be some key operational advice, just some, some foundational building block kinda things that people could be using? I would say be realistic. Yeah. Be realistic about where your starting point is. Okay. If you're like, "Okay, I wanna start a widget business and I wanna be a millionaire in five years," okay, that's great.
But look at your resources now. And I always say this to people, and a lot of people do it and some people don't put yourself in debt to start a business. That's a- You don't ha- you don't have to ... great point. [00:15:00] I- Dive in on that a little bit more and h- and how we can do that, because I've seen some people just jumping down a rabbit hole and stuff 'cause they're like, "Oh, accor- if I do this according to my business plan, I'll be doing this in three years."
It's you think. And the thing is, when you create a business plan, it's great to have and it's certainly essential for success. Of course, yeah. But the problem is you have, you can't- I always say you can't plan for the unknown, and you can't anticipate things you can't control. Okay. So I'm gonna be a millionaire in five years.
In six months I'm gonna have, 20 contracts. You can network, you can put yourself out there, you can join, associations. You can do all the things you wanna do to get that business, but that doesn't mean it's gonna come. So don't invest into a, 10,000 square foot office-
suite- It's just me ... and pay rent- I'm gonna fill it one day ... and the peers and staff and all this stuff, and then you've got no revenue coming in six months because, you've m- you've a pretty place, but that's not what's important. What's important is what you're putting out into the market or what problem are you solving.
You know- Yeah .. Necessity's the mother of invention, everyone says it. Yeah. [00:16:00] What problem are you solving? And what is out there that may have a gap that you can close? And that's kinda what I see in my business. I'm like, "There's a lot of gaps out there I can close." I l- see- So- ... you're actually, you're eating your own dog food, right?
I love that. Someday it'll be caviar, but right now it's dog food. It's all good, man. It's tasty nonetheless- ... as far as I'm concerned. And the beauty of entrepreneurship is the freedom of it. Yeah. But the terror of entrepreneurship is the freedom of it. Tell me about the terror of entrepreneurship, because I you probably have pretty good stories to tell.
Obviously with working for big organizations you've got all the essentials- the stability ... and all of a sudden it's like you're on your own. You're like, "Who's gonna make my coffee for me in the morning? Oh, I will." Yeah. I've never been to that point. I know. I know. I've never had someone making my own cof- making my coffee for me.
But I think it's just, the reality of human nature. Yeah. The lack of stability. Of course. Not everyone is an entrepreneur. Not everyone has the drive to be an entrepreneur. It's we had this conversation with a couple colleagues the other day. It's like with COVID, everyone went home, and a lot of people are going back into the office now, and some companies are making people come back because some [00:17:00] people are really great.
They have flourished because they don't have the water cooler. There are no people coming into their offices bothering them. No politics. Their phone's not ringing off the hook all day. They can actually focus in on their work- ... and do 10 hours of day at home as opposed to eight hours or six and a half hours in the office.
Exactly. And some people are just, you know- A dumpster fire and can't handle it. They'll do their laundry, they'll walk their dog, they'll check one email, and maybe they'll- it's too many distractions, so they need the structure of the office. Yes. Entrepreneurship is the same thing. I love it.
You have the structure... the hardest thing about being an entrepreneur for me- Yeah ... was going from a structured day to a non-structured day. I believe it, yeah. It's like, what do you do? I wake up and I go- Wait, I'm the boss now. I got... There, there, what's on my schedule today? And if... And, and I'm, I went from a job where I had 50 meetings a week to- oh, I can go to these two or three networking events this week, and there we are. It's just a matter of creating your own, parameters and your own schedule and your own discipline. And not everyone has that. And recognizing that ahead of time, that things are gonna change. Yeah, for sure.
And I... Yes, if I wanna sleep in on a Tuesday, I can, but at the same time, [00:18:00] I know I shouldn't because I c- that sets the tone for my whole day. There you go. Yeah. And you've gotta have the mentality to go, it's gonna be a day where, I've gotta get stuff done.
Yeah. And, a lot of the, you know- A lot of the big entrepreneurs that are all over social media today say, "Set yourself three goals every day. Don't say, 'I'm doing 25 things today.'" No. I give myself two solid things every single day that I have to get done. Keep it actionable- Yes
but focused, right? But actionable and focused. Yeah. And I think that that's- that's what I do. And- and I really, the nice thing about my job and what I do and my experience is the acumen I possess and what I'm putting into my business, I'm actually practicing what I preach while I preach it.
There you go. That's what I was talking about. We had this cool moment to hear from somebody- Yeah ... that's been very operationalized since day one now actually taking that step to be an entrepreneur and how an entrepreneur can get those operational standards- Yeah, and it's- ... into place early on. I love that
it's exciting. It's exci- it's scary 'cause, again, I left a very lucrative role. I'm, luckily, I have benefits through my spouse and I've got support at home. But I- I still have a mortgage, I still have, you know- Exactly ... I still wanna travel.
There's still- I still have a life I wanna live. [00:19:00] Exactly, and I used to tell my employees all the time, "This is your career, but it's not your life. It finances your life, so we expect 200% from you when you're here, but when you're home. Live your life." And that's the thing about being an entrepreneur is you literally have to put a huge pause button on life.
I wanna go on vacation so bad. I wanna go to Europe. I wanna do a million things, but I can't do those things right now because I have to build a business so I can have the sustainability to do those things in the future. Yeah. So it- it requires a lot of discipline. And honestly, some days I don't have it.
Some days I'm like- You're a human being. You're a human being. Exactly. That's just, you get- But in the grand scope of things you just have to have the discipline and- Yeah ... and I laugh, and anyone who knows me that hears this is like, "You've gotta have the patience." I am not a patient person.
I guess you gotta have patience with yourself and know that you- 100% ... that you're gonna slip from time to time. 100%. But then get yourself back in there and get yourself refocused. Yeah, 'cause you're like, "Oh, why isn't this happening yet? I've been, I've met all these people, I've done all these things. Why isn't it happening yet?"
It's only been six weeks. Yeah. Rome wasn't built in a day. Exactly. Give it a little more time, it's gonna be fine. Yeah. And give yourself, when you're building a business, give yourself a realistic expectation of [00:20:00] timeframe. That's it. I wanna have my first client within six to eight months.
I wanna have... 'Cause again, you know- Yeah ... the old theories, old school of, advertising and, LinkedIn and- and all that stuff, you have to see something 10 times before you pay attention to it. Exactly. So give yourself a six to eight month, window to get your first client. Very reasonable advice.
Or to get your first contract. Yeah. And then, okay, I wanna have, Set reasonable goals and expectations for yourself. Yeah. So we earlier on in the podcast talked about, we're gonna talk about some AI today. Like I said, I can't have a conversation- Here we go ... without bringing up those two letters.
Here we go. And tell me, what is your insights? 'Cause everyone's got some cool insights, and that's why I love being able to talk to as many people as I can, 'cause I- I get to learn from this. Where are you seeing this convergence of AI and operationalization? I feel like these things just have to go hand-in-hand in this day and age.
They- they do. They literally have to be, like, locked together. They absolutely do, and they should. You are 100% correct. Okay. But they don't always, and there are- There could be massive failures when they don't. Oh, yeah. And here's the thing. I have... And I [00:21:00] always joke I'm not technical. I'm not a tech person.
I'm not a programmer. I'm not a networker. I'm not an AI person. That's not my deal. That's not my bag, which is fine, 'cause I work- Yeah ... with them and I learn from them and I- yes ... and I love being part of this organization because I'm learning more every day about technology. But operationally speaking, from an AI perspective especially, we'll just pick out healthcare and manufacturing.
Those are two, two areas I work in. To implement AI, everyone's afraid AI's gonna take everything over, it's gonna get rid of all the jobs. In industry, in my personal opinion, and I only speak for myself and no one else, AI can be extremely essential in eliminating the noise. Tell me more about that. And when I- I've never heard it put that way, in eliminating noise.
What is this noise that you're talking about? Tell me about this. The widget stuff, the repetitive stuff, the everyday monotony that people have to do in their jobs. And I think the key to AI being able to successfully do that- Is to understand the operational model of the business that you're integrating the software into.
To really [00:22:00] find out what that noise is- ... and how that noise can be applied with how AI can- Exactly ... address that noise effectively. Like you have to under- Yeah ... anyone programming an AI model or an AI software package or tech package has to look at a company's desktop procedures at their workforce model.
Like what- ... is done based on how they wanna, use the AI- Yeah ... into the pieces and say- Okay ... we have to look at their workforce model and say, "Okay, what can we do to make this easier?" Health insurance is a perfect example of that. Claims processing, it's been a hot topic in AI. Customer service and claims processing, both real hot topics in AI.
Enrollment is also getting into the conversation. Yeah. Like people's enrollment files to get them enrolled into their plan from their employer. That's a hot topic for AI entry point of entry as well. And I think that in order to do that, you have to be able to explain, here's the process for each one of these things.
So specifically with AI, when, we'll use the example of processing a claim, there's so much on the back end of a claim, so many components that you need to look at the back end from a perspective of software integration.
[00:23:00] You can look at that and say, "Okay, here's everything, all the components we need to successfully adjudicate a claim appropriately and accurately based on the information given on the claim." AI, it can learn that, look for it, match it, assess it, and then auto-adjudicate a claim. And when things are submitted correctly and everything makes sense, they can do that.
And then things that get pended or suspended that actually need human intervention, like looking at a medical record- ... looking at a mismatched diagnostic, looking at things that really need human eyes, it frees you up to use your workforce in a more productive and meaningful way- Yeah ... as opposed to cutting them down or replacing them.
That's not the point. Yeah. And I think the idea if you as you start looking at how you're going to apply AI to your business, looking at the core operations and really seeing Where it's gonna work and then how to best align those solutions.
So it's almost like taking that step back and really analyzing- Yeah ... what you're doing. 'Cause you will probably find some new ways of, in your processes- For sure ... while you're doing that, 'cause you're just, once, you're just re-looking at it again. So that's very interesting to me. And it can be [00:24:00] really, although technology advancements and AI and all that good stuff, it's expensive and it's costly, it can also, bringing in that initial investment, if it's brought in properly and correctly and operationalized- Yeah
the way it needs to be, you could eventually save yourself tons of money in your workforce, not by eliminating, but getting rid of overtime, making people more efficient- ... getting things, not having the world fall apart when two people wanna take a vacation day. It, there are so many things, and manufacturing- Yeah
is the same thing. There's a lot of AI going in, and robotics, going into the manufacturing field. But again, when you put those pieces in place, you have to understand from a manufacturing standpoint, as we talked about earlier before we started recording, putting something together on an assembly line is one thing.
How your business operates is another. Exactly. So- 'Cause that, 'cause the how your business operate is an umbrella where- Correct ... underneath there is where, how your, if your assembly line- Your- ... is optimized, that's fantastic Your output- But other aspects could be very easily out of whack, 100%. Yeah. Your product and your output could be amazing, but you could still be losing money because you're [00:25:00] operationally- Exactly ... not doing things the way- Oh, yeah ... you need to be. Yeah. So there's a lot of different ways to look at it, but I think- Throwing an AI program into a business or into a business process without it integrating into how the process does and should operate, could be very disastrous and difficult depending on the industry.
Without a doubt. Without a doubt. So with all the stuff that you're doing- ... starting up your own company at this point, like taking on new clients and so forth, you still have time to give back. And you- I like to ... and you're doing that through our LAUNCH program here at the Tech Council. And if you don't know about LAUNCH, it's a, a program where it's a STEM program where we bring in high school kids- and we kinda teach them some of the tech skills, and we put them in front of tech leaders to really teach them about what it's like to be in the tech industry and just to get that mindset. And you're coming in order to kinda teach some of these students around soft skills and tech, which I think is so important.
Because in this day and age with so many kids just immersed in tech, they're forgetting that they're a human being and there are other human beings out there, and that you can know all the tech in the world, have all the [00:26:00] skills in the world- That's right ... but if you cannot properly relate to other people in the office, that like, you're not gonna be- Or in the world
or in the world, you're not gonna go that far. So first, thank you for taking the time to do that for us- Oh, it's exciting ... 'cause I think that's an, an amazing thing to do. What are you gonna be teaching these students this summer? So the course I'm teaching is, the human skills course, which is something that's not, it's like the human skill sum- It's, I forget what I called it, but it's like- Yeah ... it's a human skills course. It's things you're not gonna learn on your phone. There you go. So basically it's, you know- Love that ... com- c- compassion, listening collaboration, empathy. Things like those types of qualities that we inherently have as humans and we can develop.
And I think, for young people... And the nice thing about the STEM program is these kids wanna be here. Yes. They've applied for this program. They've applied. They had to be accepted. They're excited. Yes. They wanna be here. And I think what's really great about that is, I can give them an edge and say, "Look, here's what- all the great stuff you learn in school and all the great stuff and as tech as advanced as you are, you've been u- using an iPad since you were two, that's all great.
But here are the things that are gonna take you [00:27:00] far in business. Here are the things that are going to help you succeed because you can know everything about technology and have the most brainiac brain in the world, if you can't look someone in the eye when you're talking to them or you can't empathize with them when they're having a bad day or you can't shake someone's hand or have a meaningful, even just a meaningful five-sentence exchange with another human being- Yes
with meaning- Yes ... it's going to reflect poorly on you. Exactly. I feel like this is a dual thing. It is not only the icing on the cake of someone's career here, it's the foundation. It's the b- it's the cake itself in so many ways. It can be both. Now it can be both. Yes. And I love, I am like a walking parable 'cause I am the lessons in both.
Like I was really smart and really driven and my people skills were not great. Okay. I was always like, "Okay, yeah," 'cause I was like, "I got it," 'cause I was a control freak and I would- Okay ... I would do things and I was very curt and I was very like, not warm and fuzzy a lot of the time and it hindered me and I think- that it's really important- It's great ... for people to understand that, once you get older and you get wiser and you become a [00:28:00] little more, acclimated to humanity which- ... I think it's tougher for this generation because- So much. Yeah ... they're- I don't know how they do it honestly ... they walk around like this.
Yes. I laugh and say we're gonna have a generation, like they're all gonna have osteoporosis by 50- Yeah ... 'cause they're all gonna be like perfect O's from looking at their phones- Yeah, everyone's gonna be just bent like that ... all the time. Yeah bent over. So I'm excited about the course because it's not just- Great
and it's not just me talking at the kids, like there's- No ... every sing- You make it interactive and- we have interaction, we have activities, we have things that make them think, things that make them collaborate- Yeah ... interact with one another, things that make them think about people in their lives- who've impacted them. So it gives them an insight of to what empathy is, how they've- Gotcha ... experienced it, how they can give it, how they can collaborate, projects, things like that. So it's gonna be a fun course and I'm super excited to teach it. Yeah. I'm doing it both in July and August. What's the one big takeaway you hope that the, the students can get from this?
I hope that they walk away going, "Wow, I learned something." Great. I love that. I wanna like be able to learn something and that's the other thing about, working for yourself is you can own your time so I can do great things like this, like I can volunteer at the food bank, I can do stuff that I wanna do.
I can teach these, these cohorts [00:29:00] so I can create my own schedule and make the time to make the impact and even with my business, like I don't wanna be- some senior consultant. I just wanna be, come in and be a part and be like, "Hey, I wanna help you guys succeed. I wanna help you operate better," and, that's what it's all about. Just do it. Yeah. It's fulfilling work when you can get it. What a fun conversation today. This is why- Thanks ... I love hanging out with our members, talking about what you do here in the Huntington Bank Studios, 'cause I'm just like, wow, this is just refreshing. Just some key takeaways for me are just obviously the, the building blocks of any company is just making sure you got your operations just somewhat figured out.
For sure. For sure. And making sure that that we're gonna have the policies and procedures in place that are gonna allow us to be able to scale if that- Yeah ... moment happens. Yeah. Knowing that I can bring in an expert to help me with that, that you don't have to hire that full-time person.
But then looking at how AI has to be really figured into anything that you're doing- Yeah ... in this day and age. And I just, I don't know, I just feel like this is just a... What a great starting point for you out there right now. Thanks. I- I feel like you've given us some really actionable steps- I appreciate
to take away here I really hope that I get to actually, with my membership here, I [00:30:00] really hope I get to work with more AI companies. Yeah. 'Cause I really wanna work with them. Yeah. And be like- I think people... I think it's funny you say that because I think about there's so many companies that are building really cool stuff with AI or doing AI-specific technologies, and they're entrepreneurs themselves, and they're- Yeah
not thinking about necessarily of the operations of their company. They're- ... working on the next iteration of their software- 100% ... or whatever that is. So that's why I just feel like there's so many cool opportunities, and it's definitely an ecosystem here. It is. Which is why we do TechVibe, 'cause this is our front row seat to that- I love it
ecosystem. So Angela, amazing stuff. We have links to your website and everything like that in there as well, too. Thank you so much. And God forbid we find you on LinkedIn somewhere, so we'll just leave it at that. Yeah, I'm there. I'm there with the rest of the world. Absolutely. Once again, thanks for hanging out with me.
Thank you so much. I appreciate your time today. Total pleasure. Awesome. And everybody, in case you forgot, it's Jonathan Kersting with the Pittsburgh Technology Council, where I literally have the coolest conversations with the people that are just building Pittsburgh, and I cannot wait to see you on the next one
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