Patent Issued for System and method for enabling real-time iterative collaborative decision support (USPTO 11455689): Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company

2022 OCT 14 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company (Columbus, Ohio, United States) has been issued patent number 11455689, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Burchfield, Richard W. (New Albany, OH, US), Friedman, Zachary M. (Columbus, OH, US), Goodman, Calvin (Columbus, OH, US), Hitt, Marcus (Worthington, OH, US), Rosen, Debra (Lewis Center, OH, US), Singh, Sumeet P. (Hilliard, OH, US), Westlake, Matthew (Pataskala, OH, US).

This patent was filed on June 17, 2020 and was published online on September 27, 2022.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “Recent technological advancements in the fields of guidance, advice, and decision support have been focused on the use of software to automate recommendations and manage planning, forecasting, projections, and optimization on behalf of users. These technological advancements have relied on approaches such as machine learning to develop robust algorithms and create a “recommender system” to deliver advice to users. Recommender systems have been utilized in a variety of fields and are most commonly recognized as playlist generators for video and music services like Netflix, YouTube, and Spotify, product recommenders for services such as Amazon, or content recommenders for social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. However, these approaches are now being implemented in more complex fields such as personal finance and investing with the rise of “robo-advisors” (e.g., Wealthfront, Betterment) who use algorithms to manage investors’ portfolios at a discounted cost to scale and compete in a once human-driven business.

“While automated recommender systems may indeed decrease the cost of guidance, an algorithmic approach to more emotionally driven, complex decisions does not make those who are receiving the advice feel confident in the decision they need to make or alleviate their concerns (which can often be unsubstantiated and driven by bias and hearsay). Applying these technologies to fields like financial services, personal counseling, insurance, healthcare, management consulting, operations, education, and so forth, has created a gulf between what customers want and expect and how the industry is approaching the problem. While customers crave the convenience of getting support whenever they need it (i.e., digitally, remotely, on-demand), they increasingly desire help from a live human expert to ensure they are thinking about things the right way and that their preferences and concerns are accounted for. Customers expect the intervention, support, and collaboration from a live human expert to be seamlessly integrated into their digital experiences, yet have the same effectivity as an in-person conversation. This presents a challenge for enabling expert-guided support for complex decisions-as currently available tools are insufficient in supporting a digitally enabled real-time, iterative approach to supporting complex decision making with the help of a real-live expert.

“The technical field for enabling remote, real-time decision support and collaboration between an expert and a user has not had the same level of attention and advancement as has the automated recommender systems, which has further increased the aforementioned gulf.

“Currently, most experts seeking to help a remote user with decision support share information using a variety of existing remote support technology. Predominantly, the technology used in these applications are screen-sharing and co-browsing. “Screen-sharing” may use web-based communications like Go-to-meeting or Skype. Co-browsing technology may lead to a similar outcome as “screen-sharing.” It is designed as a support tool to allow someone in an enterprise contact center to interact with a customer by using the customer’s Web browser to view and interact with customers’ web browsers to provide guidance.

“These technologies are not sufficient to deliver iterative and dynamic collaboration for financial decision making. Rather, they provide a static way to “screen-cast” information to users or “take-over” a user’s screen and browse the same content at the same time.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “This application describes a set of real-time coaching and self-service digital tools for expert guided decision making that provide consumers with iterative decision support, things to consider, and validation whenever they need it. The innovations described herein are designed to iteratively help consumers evaluate tradeoffs, check their thinking, and deal with concerns. This helps establish a personalized relationship between users and experts and is implemented in a way users naturally make decisions, rather than being forced to review a report from an expert or run static simulations in self-service digital tools. The implementations described herein enable a stickier, more valuable relationship between a client and an adviser which becomes broader in scope over time.

“The inventive concepts are focused on the appropriate pairing of technology with consumer needs and their mental models in an engaging, interactive, ongoing experience that addresses consumer needs as they contemplate complex issues, such as planning for retirement, understanding the financial impact of future events, or managing the financial tradeoffs of different healthcare decisions.

“Most advice is designed within the context of planning or goal setting, but that is not how consumers manage their financial lives. For example, a consumer may generate new questions and concerns based on something that happened to a friend, a story the consumer read, or an upcoming decision the consumer may have. Easily accessible live coaching, asynchronous chat, and digital self-service tools support consumers by iteratively working through these questions as they come up, empowering consumers to make confident decisions outside of a traditional plan or goal.

“Getting consumers to an expert who is trained to illuminate trade-offs, validate or invalidate concerns, and provide information to consider helps consumers feel comfortable asking follow-up questions, relying on the coach’s expertise, and coming back when they have new questions or concerns. This broadens the set of opportunities an advisor might be able to help consumers with and establishes a long-term relationship rooted in trust.

“The financial picture created through this collaboration also provides an opportunity to design “mass customization” financial products that can fit to a user’s financial picture and eliminate paperwork or generic solutions. The underlying “financial picture” built by this iterative decision-making process helps advisors understand their customers, provide support in a way that matches consumers’ mental model (vs. the industry’s fixed views), and provide new avenues for delivering unique financial products custom-tailored to consumers’ pictures.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method, comprising: at a server system including one or more processors: receiving a connection request from a client device; determining whether the client device is associated with a workspace established during a previous session with the client device; in accordance with a determination that the client device is not associated with a workspace established during a previous session with the client device: creating a first workspace; establishing a first connection with the client device, including populating a first user interface of the client device, wherein the first user interface corresponds to the first workspace; broadcasting availability of the client device to two or more coach devices; in response to the broadcast of availability of the client device, receiving a connection request from a first coach device of the two or more coach devices; synchronizing the client device and the first coach device of the two or more coach devices to allow for real-time propagation of information between the client device and the first coach device of the two or more coach devices; in response to receiving the connection request from the first coach device, establishing a second connection with the first coach device, including populating a second user interface of the first coach device, wherein the second user interface corresponds to the first workspace and is populated with a graphical element not populated on the first user interface of the client device; receiving client data inputted into the first user interface of the client device and receiving an indication of manipulation of the client data; and in response to receiving the indication of the manipulation of the client data via the first user interface, transforming the manipulated client data from a first format to a second format for displaying on the second user interface, the second format being a graphical representation and different from the first format.

“2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: at the server system: receiving, via the first connection, first user data from the client device; and updating the first workspace based on the received first user data, wherein updating the first workspace based on the received first user data includes causing the second user interface of the first coach device to be automatically updated based on the first user data.

“3. The method of claim 2, further comprising: at the server system: receiving, via the second connection, a first coach interaction from the first coach device, wherein the first coach interaction includes two or more workspace actions; and updating the first workspace based on the received first coach interaction, wherein updating the first workspace based on the received first coach interaction includes causing the first user interface of the client device to be automatically updated based on the two or more workspace actions.

“4. The method of claim 3, wherein the first coach interaction is received in response to an update command.

“5. The method of claim 3, wherein one of the two or more workspace actions includes coach data based on the first user data, and updating the first workspace based on the received first coach interaction includes populating the first user interface with the coach data.

“6. The method of claim 3, wherein one of the two or more workspace actions includes a navigation command pointing to a third user interface of the client device, and updating the first workspace based on the received first coach interaction includes causing the client device to navigate from the first user interface to the third user interface.

“7. The method of claim 3, wherein the two or more workspace actions are received simultaneously.

“8. The method of claim 5, wherein the two or more workspace actions are received only upon an update command being entered at the first coach device.

“9. The method of claim 5, further comprising: at the server system: receiving, from the client device, a request to terminate the first connection; in response to receiving the request to terminate the first connection: saving the user data and the coach data with the first workspace; transmitting, via the second connection, a session termination notification to the first coach device; and terminating the first connection with the client device.

“10. The method of claim 1, further comprising: at the server system: in accordance with a determination that the client device is associated with a workspace established during a previous session with the client device: accessing the workspace established during the previous session with the client device; establishing a third connection with the client device, including populating the first user interface of the client device with data received during the previous session with the client device; broadcasting availability of the client device to two or more coach devices; in response to the broadcast of availability of the client device, receiving a connection request from a second coach device of the two or more coach devices; and in response to receiving the connection request from the second coach device, establishing a fourth connection with the second coach device, including populating the second user interface of the second coach device, wherein the second user interface corresponds to the workspace established during the previous session with the client device and includes an element not included in the first user interface of the client device.

“11. The method claim 4, wherein the user data is financial data of a user of the client device, and the coach data includes a result of a calculation or projection based on the financial data of the user of the client device.

“12. The method of claim 11, wherein the financial data of the user of the client device includes healthcare data, behavioral data, commercial data, and/or operational data of the user.

“13. The method of claim 1, further comprising: at the server system: in response to the broadcast of availability of the client device, receiving a connection request from a second coach device of the two or more coach devices; and in response to receiving the connection request from the second coach device, establishing a third connection with the second coach device, including populating a third user interface of the second coach device, wherein the third user interface corresponds to the first workspace and includes the element not included in the first user interface of the client device.

“14. The method of claim 13, further comprising: at the server system: receiving, via the first connection, first user data from the client device; and updating the first workspace based on the received first user data, wherein updating the first workspace based on the received first user data includes causing (i) the second user interface of the first coach device to be automatically updated based on the first user data and (ii) the third user interface of the second coach device to be automatically updated based on the first user data.

“15. The method of claim 13, further comprising: at the server system: receiving, via the second connection, a first coach interaction from the first coach device, wherein the first coach interaction includes two or more workspace actions; and updating the first workspace based on the received first coach interaction, wherein updating the first workspace based on the received first coach interaction includes causing (i) the first user interface of the client device to be automatically updated based on the two or more workspace actions and (ii) the third user interface of the second coach device to be automatically updated based on the two or more workspace actions.

“16. The method of claim 1, wherein the client device is a first client device and the method further comprises: at the server system: establishing a third connection with a second client device, including populating a third user interface of the second client device, wherein the third user interface corresponds to a second workspace; broadcasting availability of the second client device to two or more coach devices; in response to the broadcast of availability of the second client device, receiving a connection request from the first coach device of the two or more coach devices; and in response to receiving the connection request from the first coach device, updating the second user interface of the first coach device to correspond to the first workspace and the second workspace, wherein the second user interface includes an element not included in the first user interface of the first client device or the third user interface of the second client device.

“17. The method of claim 16, further comprising: at the server system: receiving, via the second connection, a first coach interaction from the first coach device, wherein the first coach interaction includes two or more workspace actions; and updating the first workspace and the second workspace based on the received first coach interaction, wherein updating the first workspace and the second workspace based on the received first coach interaction includes causing the first user interface of the first client device and the third user interface of the second client device to be automatically updated based on the two or more workspace actions.”

There are additional claims. Please visit full patent to read further.

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Burchfield, Richard W. System and method for enabling real-time iterative collaborative decision support. U.S. Patent Number 11455689, filed June 17, 2020, and published online on September 27, 2022. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=11455689.PN.&OS=PN/11455689RS=PN/11455689

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