Making Benefits Personal with AI: Insights from Pauline Roteta

If employees are spending only minutes choosing benefits that can shape their financial lives for an entire year, this episode explores how AI can help make benefits more personal, more useful, and easier to understand. Resources Mentioned: 2026 On the Pulse Report: Insights on Employee Benefits Trends – Download this free report for forward-looking trends in employee benefits, including AI, personalization, employee engagement, and benefits communication. [https://imacorp.com/insights/hr-insights-on-the-pulse-report-2026] Visit imacorp.com to connect with the IMA team and learn more about building smarter employee benefits. Listen and Subscribe: Share this episode with a fellow HR leader and subscribe to On the Pulse with IMA on your favorite podcast platform for more practical insights. Have questions or topics you'd like covered? Reach out via imacorp.com. Episode Description: Kelly Bowman sits down with Pauline Roteta, CEO and Co-Founder of Pasito, to discuss how AI is changing the employee benefits experience. Pauline shares how her background in finance, including her time at BlackRock and her work as a CFA and CFP, shaped her view of benefits as a critical part of an employee’s financial life. They explore why employees spend so little time choosing benefits, why one-time open enrollment communication falls short, and how personalized, year-round support can help people better understand and use the programs available to them. Pauline also explains the difference between generic AI and vertical, purpose-built AI, how AI agents can reduce manual work for employers, brokers, and carriers, and why benefits will always remain a deeply human business. Whether you are evaluating AI tools, looking to improve benefits engagement, or trying to help employees see the full value of their benefits package, Pauline offers a practical look at where the industry is headed next. Guest Bio: Pauline Roteta is the CEO and Co-Founder of Pasito, an AI-native benefits workspace designed to help employers, brokers, carriers, and employees improve the way benefits are built, delivered, and experienced. Before founding Pasito, Pauline worked at BlackRock as a Senior Investor and Portfolio Manager. She is a CFA and Certified Financial Planner, bringing a financial planning lens to health, wealth, and total rewards strategy. Her work focuses on using AI to simplify complex benefits workflows, personalize employee support, and help organizations deliver a better year-round benefits experience. Host: Kelly Bowman Key Timestamps: 00:00 - 01:01: Introduction to the 18-minute benefits decision problem and the promise of AI. 01:01 - 01:31: Show intro and welcome. 01:31 - 03:22: Pauline’s background at BlackRock, becoming a CFP, and the path to Pasito. 03:22 - 05:11: What Pasito does and how its AI-native benefits workspace works. 05:11 - 07:20: How Pasito evolved from decision support to a broader AI benefits workbench. 07:20 - 10:15: Surprises from the market, unified systems, and stronger employee engagement. 10:15 - 14:21: Why employees spend so little time choosing benefits and why that matters. 14:21 - 18:18: Moving from one-time open enrollment to personalized, year-round benefits support. 18:18 - 20:36: Pauline’s vision for AI as foundational infrastructure in employee benefits. 20:36 - 23:39: What people misunderstand about AI, hallucination risk, vertical AI, and agentic AI. 23:39 - 28:22: How Pauline’s finance background shapes her view of benefits, total rewards, and employee decision-making. 28:22 - 32:30: Long-term value, ROI, engagement, and how AI can help HR teams understand what employees need. 32:30 - 35:12: How brokers and consultants can use AI to reduce manual work and focus on higher-value client support. 35:12 - 38:41: Practical first steps for consultants who want to understand and apply AI. 38:41 - 43:15: How to evaluate AI partners, start with a use case, and manage change effectively. 43:15 - 47:35: What great could look like five years from now as AI reshapes benefits administration and employee experience. 47:35 - 48:26: Final reflections on AI, benefits, and the need for a part two. 48:26 - End: Closing thanks and show outro. Resources Mentioned (Repeated for Convenience): 2026 On the Pulse Report: Insights on Employee Benefits Trends – Download this free report for forward-looking trends in employee benefits, including AI, personalization, employee engagement, and benefits communication. [https://imacorp.com/insights/hr-insights-on-the-pulse-report-2026] Visit imacorp.com to connect with the IMA team and learn more about building smarter employee benefits. Listen and Subscribe (Repeated for Convenience): If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a fellow HR leader and subscribe to On the Pulse with IMA on your favorite podcast platform for more practical insights. Have questions or topics you'd like covered? Reach out via imacorp.com.