Sparking Resilience: How sparQ Delivers Generative AI at meQ

Where we’ve been
At meQ, we are pioneers in using technology and science to improve workforce well-being and performance outcomes. In fact, the meQ team created the first digitization of the science of resilience, based on 30 years of research and empirical validation—developing an unparalleled proprietary database of billions of human cognitive and behavioral data points. We continued to innovate with the application of Machine Learning and artificial intelligence to this constantly growing database. The end result? The ability to identify business risks and deliver personalized interventions to millions of global users simultaneously.

So what’s next? Generative AI 
Generative AI represents a tremendous opportunity for those of us working at the intersection of well-being and performance. The ability of large language models to understand natural language, access vast troves of information, and generate coherent responses opens up new frontiers. At meQ, we have been carefully laying the groundwork over the past year to bring generative AI capabilities to life in a secure, ethical, and effective way to enhance our suite of resilience solutions.

Like many organizations, we began by exploring the public models and tools launched in 2022. While impressive, we recognized the need for a carefully governed approach to protect member data privacy and security. We implemented preliminary guidelines prohibiting customer or member data from leaving our environment and began developing a comprehensive AI governance framework and oversight structure.

Given the sensitive nature of the data we collect from members and the deep trust our customers place in us to take good care of their employees, we’ve approached generative AI in a measured fashion, emphasizing safety and humanity, rather than jumping in head first.

We’re proud to introduce sparQ^™
What is sparQ? sparQ is meQ’s secure, generative AI technology.  sparQ will enhance our ability to illuminate meQ’s unique and unparalleled dataset in easy to understand ways, which will revolutionize our ability to deliver game-changing workforce well-being insights. These enhancements will drive significantly improved customer and member experience. For business customers, sparQ will give people leaders the insights needed to remediate risk, build resilience and produce positive business outcomes in the workforce. For members, sparQ will offer increased self-understanding and higher engagement.

How did meQ make sparQ?
meQ has architected a secure GenAI infrastructure that ensures flexibility and performance, while ensuring compliance with rigorous security logging, and auditing requirements. Amazon Bedrock was selected as a GenAI provider, which allows secure access to industry leading foundational models. With the Amazon Bedrock foundation in place, sparQ accesses our proprietary content using retrieval augmented generation, as well as via the creation of fine tuned custom models.  Within meQ’s platform, sparQ is made available to internal services via internal APIs. The meQ engineering team has adopted LangChain as its preferred platform for rapid GenAI application development.

What’s up first?
With this flexible and secure foundation in place, the data and tech teams at meQ are now beginning to roll out powerful generative AI capabilities that provide meaningful value to meQ members and customers. Here’s a preview of what’s coming.

• Interactive Journey and Profile Explainer: meQ provides highly personalized learning pathways — what we call journeys —  based on individual assessments, ensuring tailored content for each member. User research shows that higher engagement results from members seeing more about how their personalized journey reflects their individual needs and strengths. sparQ will explain results from the meQ assessment to a member in simple terms, helping them understand how their journey is personalized and why certain content is recommended specifically for them.
  Workforce Intelligence sparQ: meQ’s Workforce Intelligence solution puts the power of meQ’s unparalleled dataset in our customers’ hands. To ease the task of interpreting data for business leaders, sparQ will help customers identify the top areas for improving workforce wellbeing and business outcomes across an array of business units, employee types, demographic groups, and other workforce segments. sparQ will not only expedite a targeted, efficient approach to address the areas of highest risk and strength, but will also explain the implications of the noted risks for a company’s business outcomes.
• Situational search: Combining meQ’s sophisticated semantic search capability, sparQ powered situational search will provide an intuitive and powerful interface for members to find content from our extensive library.  sparQ will predict phrases of interest and power auto-completion for members to more easily discover content. sparQ offers evidence-based content from meQ’s library of microlearning modules and activities designed to build resilience.  This capability will be easily accessible – front-and-center in both web and mobile app versions of meQ.
• AI powered Mood Coach: The Mood Coach allows members to trace day to day variability in emotional states, allowing them to observe patterns and fluctuations in mood over time. After a member engages with the Mood Coach, sparQ will kick in to provide dynamic, plain language feedback to help members reflect on mood trends across time that may not be immediately apparent to the untrained eye.

It’s just the beginning
With our comprehensive governance model and robust, secure AI infrastructure, meQuilibrium is poised to exponentially expand how generative AI enhances our ability to provide powerful, personalized, and effective resilience solutions at scale.

We will of course continue to prioritize the ethical, secure, and judicious application of this transformative technology. But there is no denying the opportunity generative AI presents to elevate well-being and unlock new levels of human potential through intelligent resilience solutions. The future has never been brighter at the intersection of AI and workforce resilience.

About the Authors

Ned Rhinelander
meQ’s Chief Technology Officer, Ned Rhinelander, has over twenty years of senior technology leadership at top-10 technology websites, with a specialty in machine learning, dynamic publishing, and internet security.  Previous accomplishments include: optimization technology at CBS, datacenter operations for CNET, and CTO of Lycos, Inc.

Brad Smith, Ph.D.
Dr. Brad Smith serves as Chief Science Officer at meQ. For over 15 years, Brad has been telling stories using health data. His career includes roles ranging from policy-focused work with the US Government Accountability Office to evaluation-related work for dozens of state, federal and private sector clients using health services research methods.