/ Ask Conversational AI
September 10, 2026: Now in Production: Ask Enhancements, Smarter Filtering, Location Handling, and Faster Responses
We've made several improvements to Ask, our conversational search experience, to help members find the right care faster and with fewer unexpected results.
What's new
- Smarter Filtering: Ask now more accurately recognizes when a member has clearly asked for a specific filter, like a PCP or quality designation, instead of adding it automatically based on assumptions. This means search results better reflect what members asked for.
- Improved Location Handling: Ask better resolves ambiguous city names, like Portland, OR versus Portland, ME, using context from the conversation. When the ambiguity can't be confidently resolved, Ask will prompt with a quick follow-up question instead of guessing.
- Expanded Keyword Recognition: Ask now recognizes a broader set of common terms, including telehealth and primary-care-related keywords, and routes members to the right results more reliably.
- Faster Responses: Ask now begins displaying results and response text as they're generated, so members see progress sooner instead of waiting for the full response to load.
- Filter Prioritization Fix: Resolved an issue where Ask's intended filter order wasn't being applied consistently, so results are now filtered in the correct sequence. This means members see more relevant results when a search could reasonably match more than one filter type.
Before these updates, Ask would sometimes apply filters members hadn't asked for, misinterpret ambiguous locations, and require members to wait for the entire response before seeing any results. These changes make Ask's search behavior more predictable, and responses feel more immediate.
These enhancements are part of our ongoing investment in Ask. We're continuing to refine areas like keyword recognition, location handling, and response speed, and members can expect Ask to keep getting better as we build on this foundation.
This update is now live in production for all customers with Ask.
