The AI Benefits Trust Gap: Why Only 1 in 4 Employees Are Using It

Eighty-three percent of employers want AI to help workers understand their benefits. Only twenty-four percent of employees actually use it. That's a fifty-nine-point gap — and it tells us something important about where HR tech is right now. In this episode, we break down Prudential's 2026 Benefits & Beyond study, which surveyed nearly four thousand people to uncover exactly why intent and action aren't matching up. Spoiler: it's not that employees hate AI. It's that they don't trust it yet — and that's a design problem, not a demand problem. We also walk through five platforms tackling this gap from very different angles: Benepass, Benifex, Darwin by Mercer, WTW Rewards AI, and Selerix. Whether you're a small US employer trying to boost HSA utilization, a multinational harmonizing benefits across a dozen countries, or a comp team that just needs better benchmarking data, there's a platform built for your specific headache. The big takeaway? Ninety percent of employees say they'd share personal data for better, more personalized benefits recommendations. The demand is there. HR leaders who pick the right platform now will be the ones who actually close the gap by open enrollment season.