Meet the AI workflow engineers helping shape the future of our work

Artificial intelligence is changing the way organizations work, and BlueCross is taking a unique approach to making that change meaningful.

Our AI strategy is embedding experts directly in business teams to help identify opportunities, solve challenges and improve processes.

By combining technical expertise with the knowledge of employees closest to the work, these engineers are helping teams explore new ways to work more efficiently and effectively.

We now have 21 AI workflow engineers, with 30% of them being internal hires or promotions,  while we’re currently actively recruiting for three more. They’re building practical solutions that support employees, strengthen operations and help BlueCross better serve its members.

Here are three engineers who are contributing to our mission. 

Monica Ihli, PhD – manager, AI workflow engineering, Commercial Operations

For Monica, one of the most exciting aspects of the AI workflow engineer program is the opportunity to work directly alongside the people she’s trying to help.

Throughout her career, she’s studied how information moves through organizations and communities. Her work with organizations including NASA, the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory focused on using data science and natural language processing to better understand complex problems and improve decision-making.

Today, she brings that experience to BlueCross, where she works directly with Commercial Operations leaders and employees to identify opportunities for innovation.

“As an engineer, there’s nothing more frustrating than having to go through bureaucracy to get to the individuals who I’m trying to create a solution for,” Monica says. “I don’t experience that at BlueCross.”

Working closely with Commercial Operations leaders and employees helps her understand workflows, identify challenges and focus on projects that can make the biggest impact.

She believes the strongest solutions emerge when different areas of expertise align.

“When you take that combination of technical expertise and business expertise and put it together in the same room, working closely together, we’re able to identify the kinds of projects that are both going to be feasible from a technical perspective and also very high impact for the business,” Monica says.

Our mission, peace of mind through better health, was also a major reason she joined BlueCross.

“It’s a privilege to apply transformative technology in ways that can genuinely improve the lives of people, including my own family, friends and neighbors,” she says.

Caitlin Lien – principal AI workflow engineer, Pharmacy

Caitlin, who was the first AI workflow engineer hired, believes joining BlueCross means helping build something from the ground up.

Originally focused on software engineering, she discovered her interest in AI during a college internship that unexpectedly shifted from software engineering to data science. The experience helped her find what she calls the perfect intersection of software engineering and artificial intelligence.

Today, she works alongside the Pharmacy division to identify opportunities where AI can help employees work more efficiently. She emphasizes that AI workflow engineers are not focused on creating technology for technology’s sake.  Instead, they work closely with business teams to develop tools that solve real problems and create lasting value.

“The tools that we’re building aren’t meant to create more work for our teams,” Caitlin says. “They’re supposed to help accelerate and empower them.”

One of the things that attracted her to the role was the opportunity to work directly with business leaders and teams, allowing ideas to move quickly from concept to implementation.

“You get to work directly with senior leaders and business stakeholders [at BlueCross], which means you can move quickly and have a real impact without getting bogged down in layers of approval,” she says.

As the workflow engineer program grows, she hopes employees see AI as a tool that can help them do their jobs even better. She believes one of the most important aspects of the role is helping employees build their own confidence using AI.

“We should be focusing on how we can lift up the whole organization, not just giving people a fish, but teaching them how to fish,” she says.

Michael Marquis, PhD – principal AI workflow engineer, Senior Care

Michael entered the AI Workflow Engineer program with several years of BlueCross experience.

First, he worked as a data scientist within Information Delivery, contributing to analytics, machine learning and AI engineering projects. His path into the field began even earlier through his graduate studies in neuroscience, where he used data analysis, statistics and programming to answer scientific questions.

“Working on projects at BlueCross gave me this insight into what it was like to partner both with the business and directly with the people who are doing the work,” Michael says.

Those experiences helped him see firsthand the opportunities for innovation across the company and inspired him to take on a new challenge: working with the Senior Care division to identify opportunities where AI can improve processes, such as automating manual administrative tasks and reducing time spent searching for information, allowing employees to focus on more complex work that requires human expertise and judgment.

Michael was drawn to the role because it combines technology, innovation and business impact. 

“Generative AI has created new opportunities to rethink how work gets done, and I was excited by the chance to help our organization move beyond experimentation and into practical solutions,” he says.

“I encourage managers to recognize that a lot of the best ideas for AI innovation are going to come from the people who are actually doing the work every day.”