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AI in Healthcare: Cuezen's Approach to Driving Behavioral Change
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Sunil Shinde, a product leader and co-founder at CueZen, was the guest on the Value Drivers podcast. He shared insights into CueZen's mission, its innovative use of AI in healthcare, and his professional journey, which includes past roles at Microsoft and Harman.
Sunil began his career in India with Microsoft before migrating to the United States. He spent a significant portion of his early career helping customers build IP using cost-effective offshore models. In 2016, he made his first foray into AI and healthcare by joining his current CEO, Ankur, at an earlier startup called KenSci, which later had an exit with Providence in 2021. His experience includes leading AI-based Precision Population Health and Customer Success at KenSci, and prior to that, he was a VP at HARMAN International, creating strategic opportunities with Microsoft for voice-activated agents in cars.
At CueZen, Sunil is actively building an AI engine to drive better health outcomes through behavioral change. CueZen addresses both the "wellness" and "illness" phases of health, aiming to help individuals navigate complex health situations by providing personalized coaching. In a crowded market, CueZen differentiates itself from larger tech companies that tend to create "walled garden" ecosystems, like Apple. Instead, CueZen strives to be platform agnostic, device agnostic, and health enterprise type agnostic, creating a product that can be used by anyone and everyone. As a B2B company, their customers are primarily health enterprises, including payers, providers, pharma, wearables, retail health, and telehealth.
AI is front and center to CueZen's operations. They aim to keep AI invisible in their offering, using it in a non-intrusive, safe, and responsible manner, primarily for automation where human power cannot scale. CueZen sends out billions of digital interventions daily to members and patients, a scale only possible through the right application of AI. The North Star for CueZen is human behavior change. Their recommendation engine serves personalized suggestions based on various inputs, aiming for these recommendations to convert into actions that, with repetition, become habits and lead to positive health impacts. Measuring success involves tracking if recommendations are taken, if actions are repeatedly performed, and if the message was delivered at the right time, right place, with the right tonality.
Sunil also highlighted that CueZen aims to bust the myth that health technology is only for specific cohorts. They have found that every individual is a consumer of this technology, emphasizing the importance of finding the right time and tonality for interventions. He noted that even individuals 65 and older, often perceived as non-technical, are "very well tuned to listening" once trust is built.
Key Takeaways
Focus on a clear "North Star" and tackle complex human problems: Sunil Shinde highlights that human behavior change is the "North Star" for CueZen , as they build an AI engine to drive better health outcomes by influencing behavior. This involves serving personalized recommendations that convert into actions and eventually habits, leading to positive health impacts over time. For entrepreneurs, this underscores the importance of having a profound mission and being prepared to solve deeply intricate, long-term challenges that can yield significant value, even if immediate results are not apparent.
Differentiate by embracing platform agnosticism and broad accessibility: In a market where large tech companies often create "walled gardens" to lock users into their ecosystems, CueZen strategically sets itself apart by aiming to be platform agnostic, device agnostic, and health enterprise type agnostic. This approach ensures their product can be utilized by "anyone and everyone" within the diverse healthcare ecosystem, including traditional payers, providers, pharma, and newer entities like wearables and telehealth. This provides a valuable lesson for entrepreneurs on finding competitive advantages through interoperability and wider market reach, rather than restrictive proprietary systems.
Leverage AI responsibly and invisibly for scalability: While AI is "front and center" to CueZen's operations, it is intentionally kept "invisible" within their offering. The AI's primary function is automation where human power cannot scale, enabling CueZen to send billions of digital interventions daily. This responsible and non-intrusive application ensures that technology enhances the human touch rather than replacing it, particularly crucial in sensitive sectors like healthcare. This takeaway emphasizes for entrepreneurs the strategic application of AI to overcome limitations of scale while maintaining a seamless and trustworthy user experience.
Cultivate daily resilience and perseverance in the face of challenges: Sunil openly shares the demanding reality of startup life, admitting to moments of feeling "completely broke, beaten up, lost, helpless, hopeless". His crucial lesson for staying motivated is the importance of "letting night happen" and "letting sunrise happen," then "pulling yourself back every day" to "put yourself back in business". This powerful personal philosophy highlights that consistent daily effort and the unwavering habit of pushing forward, even when progress seems impossible, are "massive" contributors to entrepreneurial success.
Books Mentioned in this Episode
From Cairo to Beirut by Sunil Shinde
https://www.amazon.com/Cairo-Beirut-Footsteps-Expedition-through/dp/163405024X
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