The 90% Rule: Element5 CEO Joe Randesi on AI, Automation & the Human in the Loop

About This Episode

Element5 co-founder and CEO Joe Randesi, interviewed by guest host Jennifer Maxwell, explains how AI agents are taking work out of revenue cycle and back-office operations — and why the human in the loop isn't going away.

Transcript

Jenn: Hi, we are here with the Last Visit First podcast, live at the Home Care Home Base User Conference in Orlando, Florida today. Super excited to be here. Thanks to Home Care Home Base for allowing us to be able to interview and chat with the attendees and vendor partners like yourself. This afternoon I have Joe Randesi, co-founder and CEO of Element5. Joe, great to have you here today. Tell us a little bit about Element5 and what it's all about being here at the user conference for you.

Joe: Yeah, sure. Thanks for having me, Jen, I appreciate it. Element5, we are deploying agents across the patient financial journey to remove work from the back office operations and revenue cycle management staff. So that's a lot of words, but at the end of the day, we are helping automate RCM and back office operations for the Home Care Home Base community. And it's been a fantastic show — when you get this amount of targeted people that you want to talk to, both clients, prospects, and then obviously the partners, it's pretty special. So it's been a great day and a half so far.

Jenn: Yeah, I can't believe — twenty, what are we, twenty-five years for these guys? I mean, it's amazing how a technology solution such as Home Care Home Base has really brought all of us, like you said, together as vendor partners and clients and customers alike. Tell me a little bit about what do you think has been the most successful moment for you guys here at Element5 at the conference.

Joe: That's a good question. You know, I think a big successful moment was actually in one of the keynotes earlier this morning, talking about some of their other partners and AI, and the fact that while AI — we would love it to do a hundred percent of our job — that will never be the case. And being an automation company, we spend so much time and energy on touchless rate — how many events are never touched by a human, are you getting the job done. And we hover around the ninety percent mark. That's kind of where we fall, and we lose sleep over the ten percent. But to hear other vendors come on stage and say "my target is ninety percent, I don't think you'll ever get a hundred percent" — it was a little bit refreshing. And I guess my point is, it made us feel good about what we're doing, but it also kind of made us understand that our way of thinking about the world — the fact that AI can't do a hundred percent — is actually, I think, accurate. And early on I think we struggled with it, because everyone wanted it to do everything all the time. And the more AI is adopted, the more people are seeing it — it's a tool, it should be a high touchless rate, it will probably never be a hundred percent.

Jenn: I agree. I mean, I think one of the things that we always talk about — there's humans in this room, right?

Joe: Yeah.

Jenn: So at the end of the day there needs to be a human in the loop. And I think that's what brings us all to a conference such as this — how do we maintain that touch and keep that touch live, even with all of the crazy AI and ambient listening and things that are really good out there. And I think it'll be interesting to see what the next three to five years leads us to.

Joe: I agree. The three to five years comment is interesting — I got asked this on a different panel, and I think my stance is the technology has progressed so much in the last two years, I think there's a pretty long runway for us to run with what we have. And I guess my point is, I think what I'm most looking forward to in two to five years is the acceptance of the technology. I think everyone is a little hesitant, I think a lot of use cases are yet to be proven. And I think they will be proven, and once they're proven, I think you'll see adoption across the board really uptick, and I think that will really have probably the biggest impact — versus like a new widget that might come out. I just think it's the adoption and comfortableness that people will get with AI.

Jenn: I agree, I agree. Well, it's been really exciting to have you here. I'm super excited to see how the rest of this conference goes. Loved being able to sit in Tom's shoes for the day and help out with the Last Visit First podcast. And excited to hear more about you guys later today.

Joe: Perfect. Well, thanks for having me, I appreciate it.

Jenn: All right, thanks, Joe.

Joe: Okay.