What if plan sponsors could pinpoint which employees need help with their 401(k) and offer education tailored to them?
After a recent TPSU program at Robert Morris University in Moon Township, Pennsylvania, Fred Barstein, founder and CEO of TPSU and 401kTV, spoke with Laura Lee, a payroll and benefits specialist at a company of about 350 employees.
Laura Lee sees potential in using artificial intelligence to make retirement education more targeted. AI could help identify employees who aren’t participating, those missing the full employer match, or age groups that would benefit from different types of education, then turn that information into more meaningful outreach.
But one question remains: can employers trust the data and recommendations AI provides? Laura Lee currently uses AI for simpler tasks and believes more advanced applications are still a few years away.
She also values learning from other plan sponsors. After nearly 20 years of learning retirement plan administration on the job, she appreciates the formal education and peer discussions TPSU offers.
The bigger takeaway: technology may change how employers educate their workforce, but understanding employees’ needs and finding better ways to reach them will always matter.
Read the Full Transcript Here:
Fred Barstein: Greetings. This is Fred Barstein, founder and CEO of TPSU. I’m here on the campus of Robert Morris University in the Pittsburgh area, Moon Township, and I’m here with Laura Lee.
Welcome, Laura Lee. Is it okay if we ask you a few questions?
Laura Lee: Sure.
Fred Barstein: Great. Before we do, tell our audience a little bit about yourself.
Laura Lee: My name is Laura Lee, and I’m a payroll and benefits specialist for my company. We have about 350 employees.
Fred Barstein: Very good. So, one of the things you talked about was AI, and I thought you asked a lot of good questions and brought up some important issues. Could you tell our audience about that?
Laura Lee: Yeah. Well, with AI, we’re wondering when it’ll come into the mix for a 401(k) plan, where it might help us use some of the data we have to better educate our employees.
We’d like to target different age groups so that we can tailor education to them and work toward 100% participation.
But it’s still in its infancy stages. We don’t know if we can trust the data provided by AI, but we’re hoping that in a couple more years, it’ll be available.
I mean, we use it now for emails and simple things, but nothing as extensive as data analysis.
I’m hoping it’ll get to the point where we can just plug in information and ask, “How many people aren’t participating? How many aren’t contributing enough to receive the full employer match? What age groups are they in?”
We could enter that data and get recommendations on which employees to target and how to tailor education based on their age or level of understanding.
Fred Barstein: Right. And maybe even have participants be able to ask questions and get self-help.
Laura Lee: Yes. Yes.
Fred Barstein: So, final question. Is this your first TPSU program?
Laura Lee: This is actually my second one. I was very excited to attend this one.
The first one was great. The fact that there’s actual formal training on 401(k) plans is wonderful.
I was thrown into that role 20 years ago and never really had formal training. I just learned as I went, researching everything myself.
To have formal training and also be able to talk to my peers about what they do with their plans, especially people with a similar number of employees, is really valuable.
Just sharing information and hearing, “Oh, you do that for your plan?”
We were getting a lot of information on how to better educate our employees. So it’s a wonderful program.
Fred Barstein: Well, thank you for attending. Thanks for your time.
Laura Lee: Thank you.
Fred Barstein: Thank you for watching 401kTV. Stay tuned, and please look for a TPSU program near you.
