Patent Issued for Systems and methods for electronic request routing and distribution (USPTO 11729317): Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company

2023 SEP 05 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Ahani, Asieh (Springfield, MA, US), Tracy, Michael (Springfield, MA, US), Zayac, Tara (Springfield, MA, US), filed on October 3, 2022, was published online on August 15, 2023.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 11729317 is Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (Springfield, Massachusetts, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “As the processing power of computers allows for greater computer functionality and the Internet technology era allows for interconnectivity between computing systems, many existing software solutions receive a high volume of electronic requests. Managing such electronic requests in an accurate and effective way to route each electronic request to the right agent/advisor is difficult. Existing software solutions, utilizing conventional methods, have encountered a new set of technical challenges. First, existing and conventional software solutions may randomly route each electronic request, which has proven to be inadequate. For instance, existing software solutions fail to consider attributes associated with the users transmitting the electronic requests and attributes associated with the agent/employees to identify a best match. As a result, existing software solutions may route the electronic requests to agents who cannot provide the best service, which may lead to negative user experience and loss of profit.

“Second, existing software solutions fail to consider the capacity of each agent. For instance, existing software solutions may route too many requests to an agent who has been proven to provide better services than other agents. This may overburden the agent and may negatively affect his or her performance. For example, one agent may receive a large number of electronic requests that is beyond the agent’s capacity. The agent may be too overwhelmed to provide the best service for each request, while other agents may not have enough work. Therefore, existing software solutions fail to consider load balancing when distributing the high volume of electronic requests, which may create inefficiencies and waste of resources.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “For the aforementioned reasons, there is a need for an accurate and efficient computer-implemented system and method for routing and distributing electronic requests to agents. There is a further need for a computer-specific set of rules to efficiently and accurately select right agents when facing a high number of electronic requests.

“Embodiments disclosed herein address the above challenges by providing accurate and efficient electronic requests routing and distribution. Specifically, an analytic server receives a plurality of requests. Aiming to route the plurality of requests to appropriate agents, the analytic server trains an artificial intelligence model for each agent based on historical data. For each request, the analytic server executes the artificial intelligence model to determine a score indicating the probability of the agent converting the request to a successful sale. The analytic server determines an entropy value for each request based on the scores and order the requests into a queue based on the entropy values. The analytic server sequentially processes the requests in the queue. The analytic server also calculates a capacity for each agent based on historical data. The analytic server routes each request in the queue to an agent based on at least one of the score and the capacity.

“In an embodiment, a method comprises executing, by the server, using an electronic request attribute and a first user’s attributes from an electronic request to match the first user with a second user, a set of artificial intelligence models to determine a score corresponding to each second user of a plurality of second users, each score being indicative of a probability of the second user satisfying the electronic request, each artificial intelligence model of the set of artificial intelligence models corresponding to historical data of each second user, and each artificial intelligence model configured to determine a relationship between a set of attributes of a second user and a set of attributes associated with the second user’s existing customers whose electronic requests have been previously satisfied by the second user; calculating, by the server, an entropy value based on the scores of the plurality of second users, the entropy value corresponding to each score for each second user in relation to the electronic request; iteratively selecting, by the server, a target second user for each electronic request based on at least one of the score and a capacity associated with the target second user; sequentially assigning, by the server, the plurality of electronic requests to corresponding target second users in an order based on a queue arranged in accordance with each electronic request’s entropy value; and transmitting, by the server in real time, each electronic request to a computing device associated with the target second user.

“In another embodiment, a computer system comprises a server having computer-readable instructions on a non-transitory computer-readable medium that when executed by a processor: execute using an electronic request attribute and a first user’s attributes from an electronic request to match the first user with a second user, a set of artificial intelligence models to determine a score corresponding to each second user of a plurality of second users, each score being indicative of a probability of the second user satisfying the electronic request, each artificial intelligence model of the set of artificial intelligence models corresponding to historical data of each second user, and each artificial intelligence model configured to determine a relationship between a set of attributes of a second user and a set of attributes associated with the second user’s existing customers whose electronic requests have been previously satisfied by the second user; calculate an entropy value based on the scores of the plurality of second users, the entropy value corresponding to each score for each second user in relation to the electronic request; iteratively select a target second user for each electronic request based on at least one of the score and a capacity associated with the target second user; sequentially assign the plurality of electronic requests to corresponding target second users in an order based on a queue arranged in accordance with each electronic request’s entropy value; and transmit in real time each electronic request to a computing device associated with the target second user.

“It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the disclosed embodiment and subject matter as claimed.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method comprising: executing, by a server, using an electronic request attribute and a first user’s attribute to match the first user associated with an electronic request with a second user of a plurality of second users, an artificial intelligence model to determine a score corresponding to at least a portion of the plurality of second users, each score being indicative of a probability of each second user of the at least portion of the plurality of second users satisfying the electronic request; calculating, by the server, an entropy value for the electronic request based on the score of the plurality of second users, the entropy value corresponding to each score for each second user in relation to the electronic request; and assigning, by the server, the electronic request to a target second user in accordance with the entropy value in relation to a capacity of the second user.

“2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: transmitting, by the server, the electronic request to a computing device associated with the target second user.

“3. The method of claim 1, wherein the artificial intelligence model corresponds to historical data of each second user of the plurality of second users, where the artificial intelligence model is configured to determine a relationship between a set of attributes of the second user and a set of attributes associated with the second user’s existing customers whose electronic requests have been previously satisfied by the second user.

“4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: initiating, by the server, the assigning of the target second user using a lowest corresponding entropy value.

“5. The method of claim 1, wherein the capacity corresponds to a threshold number of electronic requests the target second user can accept.

“6. The method of claim 1, further comprising: directing, by the server, the first user to a webpage displaying data associated with the target second user.

“7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining, by the server, the capacity based on a historical dataset or a trend of a success ratio relative to a number of electronic requests assigned to the target second user.

“8. The method of claim 1, wherein the capacity corresponds to a number of electronic requests of a last local maxima that is above an average success ratio of the target second user.

“9. The method of claim 1, wherein an electronic request with a low entropy value is assigned to a corresponding target second user with a high priority.

“10. The method of claim 1, further comprising: generating, by the server, a queue of electronic requests for the target second user.

“11. A computer system comprising: a memory storage having a set of non-transitory instructions that when executed cause a processor to: execute using an electronic request attribute and a first user’s attribute to match the first user associated with an electronic request with a second user of a plurality of second users, an artificial intelligence model to determine a score corresponding to at least a portion of the plurality of second users, each score being indicative of a probability of each second user of the at least portion of the plurality of second users satisfying the electronic request; calculate an entropy value for the electronic request based on the score of the plurality of second users, the entropy value corresponding to each score for each second user in relation to the electronic request; and assign the electronic request to a target second user in accordance with the entropy value in relation to a capacity of the second user.

“12. The system of claim 11, the set of instructions further cause the processor to: transmit the electronic request to a computing device associated with the target second user.

“13. The system of claim 11, wherein the artificial intelligence model corresponds to historical data of each second user of the plurality of second users, where the artificial intelligence model is configured to determine a relationship between a set of attributes of the second user and a set of attributes associated with the second user’s existing customers whose electronic requests have been previously satisfied by the second user.

“14. The system of claim 11, the set of instructions further cause the processor to: initiate the assigning of the target second user using a lowest corresponding entropy value.

“15. The system of claim 11, wherein the capacity corresponds to a threshold number of electronic requests the target second user can accept.

“16. The system of claim 11, the set of instructions further cause the processor to: direct the first user to a webpage displaying data associated with the target second user.

“17. The system of claim 11, the set of instructions further cause the processor to: determine the capacity based on a historical dataset or a trend of a success ratio relative to a number of electronic requests assigned to the target second user.

“18. The system of claim 11, wherein the capacity corresponds to a number of electronic requests of a last local maxima that is above an average success ratio of the target second user.

“19. The system of claim 11, wherein an electronic request with a low entropy value is assigned to a corresponding target second user with a high priority.

“20. The system of claim 11, the set of instructions further cause the processor to: generate a queue of electronic requests for the target second user.”

For additional information on this patent, see: Ahani, Asieh. Systems and methods for electronic request routing and distribution. U.S. Patent Number 11729317, filed October 3, 2022, and published online on August 15, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11729317)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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