Insight: How AI is helping us reach people sooner and prevent ill health

The government's 10-Year Health Plan sets out its vision for the future of healthcare: a stronger focus on prevention, more care delivered in communities and smarter use of technology to improve outcomes. Reed Wellbeing Director Nick Hughes explores AI's role in this as we publish our new report 'From call to care: Addressing core government health priorities through Contact Centre excellence'.

If we are serious about improving the nation's health and reducing pressure on frontline services, we must do more to engage people earlier, before avoidable conditions become acute and more costly to treat.

At Reed Wellbeing, prevention is at the heart of our delivery of the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme (NDPP). We have spent the last decade helping people at risk of developing Type 2 diabetes to make sustainable changes to improve their health. In that time, we have seen first-hand the difference that early intervention can make – more than 100,000 people have used our service to reduce their risk of developing this serious disease.

An average of 300 people each day are referred to our delivery of NDPP by their GP. The faster and more effectively we can engage them, the greater the opportunity to turn that referral into a positive health outcome.

This was the starting point for our new report, 'From call to care’, which explores how digital innovation in our in-house Contact Centre – through which potential NDPP participants are referred by their GP - can help people to access critical preventative healthcare faster.

Technology should strengthen human connection, not replace it

We introduced a proactive AI agent into our Contact Centre with the objective of making it easier for people to start their diabetes prevention journey.

By automating initial contact after GP referral through SMS and email, we have enabled participants to engage with us more quickly and at a time that suits them. This has reduced the amount of time our Contact Centre advisers spend making unanswered outbound calls to people who had been referred. The automated communications always offers the option to speak directly with a member of our team.

By reducing routine administrative activity, our Contact Centre advisers can focus more of their time on meaningful conversations with participants who need reassurance, encouragement or additional support.

Faster access means better outcomes

One of the clearest findings from our report is the relationship between speed of engagement and participation on the service.

We know that long waits can result in lost momentum: people who are motivated to improve their health following a GP referral may become harder to reach over time, reducing the likelihood that they will access support.

Since introducing our proactive AI capability, the average time from referral to initial assessment – the first step in a person’s NDPP journey - has reduced from 13 to seven days. The time taken to book participants onto their local programme has reduced by nine days, and the overall time from GP referral to somebody starting on the programme has fallen by eight days. And a greater proportion of people referred to our NDPP delivery by their GP are taking up the offer of an initial assessment.

The importance of personalisation

We know that people respond differently depending on their circumstances, motivations and life stage. Through behavioural insight-led messaging, we have been able to tailor communications to better reflect what matters to different people.

For younger participants, that may mean highlighting the increasing prevalence of Type 2 diabetes among younger adults and the benefits of acting early. For older participants, messages may focus more on the proven outcomes of the programme and the long-term health benefits of participation.

This approach has helped increase response rates and engagement across multiple demographic groups.

A model for the future of public services

What excites me most about the findings in ‘From call to care’ is that the lessons extend well beyond diabetes prevention. Organisations delivering health, wellbeing, employability and other critical public services are facing a common challenge: how to improve access, maintain quality and meet growing demand with finite resources.

I believe our report demonstrates that the answer lies in combining the strengths of both people and technology.

When deployed responsibly, with robust governance and a clear focus on inclusion, AI can help services become more responsive, more personalised and more accessible. It can reduce waiting times, improve productivity and enable teams to spend more time where they add the greatest value.

As our report shows, the future of service delivery is not simply digital; it is human-centred, digitally enabled and prevention-focused.

Read our new report, 'From call to care’, to explore how proactive AI and human-centred design are helping people access preventative healthcare sooner and achieve positive health outcomes.