5 Questions with David Vittoria on Tech, Humanity, & National Comp Sessions

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David Vittoria, Carisk's Chief Behavioral Officer, will cover a range of topics at National Comp next month in two panel discussions. On Nov 11, he'll be a part of The Intelligence Multiplier: Unlocking Better Outcomes with AI in Workers’ Comp and Nov 12 will find him on From Patient to Advocate: Transforming the Recovery Experience. Vittoria was kind enough to answer a few of questions on the sessions.

Q. Your sessions at National Comp seem to cover opposites in that one session is about AI and the other is about the human element within workers' compensation claims. Given that technology promises a whole new world for claims, what can employers and insurers do to prevent losing humanness in working with injured workers?

David Vittoria: AI and the human element can feel like opposites, but they should complement one another. Technology brings incredible opportunities to improve speed, accuracy, and efficiency in claims. But at its core, workers’ compensation is about people — an injured worker who is likely facing fear, uncertainty, and sometimes even trauma. Carisk’s Amplified Intelligence program, for example, is not artificial intelligence in isolation; it’s advanced business intelligence designed to transform massive, complex data into real-time, actionable insights that our clinicians can use to support early identification and intervention for high-risk cases. The platform integrates all structured and unstructured data from millions of medical records, clinical assessments, prescription records, and behavioral health notes, teaching our models to think like our experts - to recognize the same patterns of risk our clinicians have identified for decades. 

But the key distinction is that every analytic output is reviewed and interpreted by licensed professionals. We call this the intelligence multiplier. The human clinician remains the final voice of judgment, compassion, and context. Employers and insurers can preserve humanness by ensuring technology amplifies, rather than replaces, empathy and expertise. AI can tell us where to look; clinicians determine how to help. When data-driven insight meets authentic human connection, we achieve the best of both worlds: we see the whole person earlier, engage more meaningfully, and intervene more effectively to restore stability, function, and hope.

Employers and insurers can prevent losing that humanness by being intentional:

• Use AI for what it does best – processing data, spotting patterns, and reducing administrative burdens. That frees up adjusters and case managers to focus on empathy, listening, and problem-solving.
• Train teams to lead with compassion – AI can’t build trust or reassure a worried worker; only a human voice can do that. Ensuring staff are trained in communication and empathy is just as important as training them on new tools.
• Create checks and balances – every time a process becomes automated, there should be a touchpoint to ask, ‘How will this feel for the injured worker?’

When technology is implemented thoughtfully, it doesn’t replace humanness — it enables more of it. The future of claims is not AI or people, it’s AI and people, working together to create a more efficient system that still puts the worker at the center.

Q. In your work with AI and workers' compensation so far, what is the most important lesson you've learned?

DV: AI succeeds in workers’ compensation when it’s guided by best practices, not just technology. Technology alone cannot heal, but it can help us see what we might otherwise miss. Through our work building the Amplified Intelligence platform, we’ve seen that when data science and human science intersect, the results are extraordinary. AI can process millions of data points, from medical records and billing data for the identification of clinical, behavioral, and psychosocial risk factors. The goal is early identification and intervention to detect and mitigate factors that may delay recovery. But those insights only become meaningful when they are interpreted through a human lens: a clinician’s experience, empathy, and ability to understand the story behind the numbers.

We’ve also seen that artificial intelligence works best when it learns from humans, not instead of them. The technology has to be continuously refined by the multidisciplinary teams who live the work every day: clinicians, IT specialists, data scientists, and behavioral health experts who teach the model to recognize complexity the same way our experts do. This iterative, evidence-based process keeps people, not algorithms, at the center of every decision.

Ultimately, the lesson is this: when we use AI to amplify our intelligence rather than replace it, we uncover not just risk, but opportunity. The opportunity to intervene earlier, support more compassionately, and restore hope more effectively. The data guides us, but human connection is what changes the outcome.

Q. Given that the topic of your Nov. 12 session is "From Patient to Advocate: Transforming the Recovery Experience," how would you define "multi-disciplinary, patient-centered support"?

DV: Multi-disciplinary, patient-centered support means seeing and serving the whole person, not just the injury by bringing together behavioral health professionals, medical specialists, care coordinators, and recovery support staff who work in full alignment.  Its paramount this integrated, multidisciplinary team shares real time insights, communicates consistently, and addresses not only physical and psychological needs, but also the social and emotional realities that shape recovery. It’s about meeting each individual who may be enduring both physical and emotional pain where they are, understanding their fears, strengths, and circumstances, and surrounding them with a team that listens, guides, and empowers them toward independence. That’s how we help patient move from being a “case”, “file” or “claim” to becoming their own strongest advocate. 

In workers’ compensation, so many decisions are made about the injured worker rather than with them. Treatment plans, authorizations, and adjudications often occur in ways that unintentionally silence the very person most affected by those decisions. That’s why helping each individual become their own strongest advocate is so important. Empowerment in recovery begins when a patient’s voice is heard, their preferences and those of their family and other members of their support system are respected, and these goals shape the direction of care. We believe that autonomy and self-determination are not privileges, they’re clinical necessities. When men and women hurt at work are informed, engaged, and actively participating in their own recovery, they regain a sense of control, dignity, and hope. And as we see it, that’s when true healing begins; not just physically, but emotionally and psychologically as well.

Q. What do you see as the most promising use for AI when it comes to behavioral health?

DV: The most promising use of AI in behavioral health lies in early identification and intervention. In workers’ compensation, psychological distress is often underrecognized until it manifests delayed recovery, increased pain perception, or disengagement from care. By using AI to analyze structured and unstructured data - clinical notes, medication patterns, and psychosocial indicators - we can detect subtle signs of depression, anxiety, trauma responses, or social stressors before they escalate. This allows us to connect injured workers to the right behavioral health support sooner, reducing disability duration and improving overall well-being. But the most critical part is what happens next: every AI-generated insight is reviewed and acted upon by licensed medical and mental health professionals who ensure it reflects the person’s experience, not just their data. AI, when guided by human compassion and clinical expertise, becomes a catalyst for empathy at scale. helping us see the unseen, act earlier, and restore not just function, but hope.

Q. As the Nov. 12 session description suggests, injured workers often feel like a number rather than a person. Why do you think that is still the case, and what's the best way to change that perception? Relatedly, what role does technology play in making sure that injured workers know they are more than just a claim?

DV: Injured workers tell us often feel like a number because the WC system was built to manage claims, not relationships. It is a process-driven environment focused on compliance, cost containment, and adjudication, where decisions are frequently made about individuals rather than with them. As a result, the person behind the injury can become secondary to the paperwork, and the experience of pain, fear, and uncertainty is often overlooked. Changing that perception requires shifting from transactional to relational care. It means engaging human beings who are suffering as active participants in their recovery, listening to their goals, validating their emotions, and restoring a sense of agency and trust. The Carisk Pathways 2 Recovery model, for one, does this by aligning multi-disciplinary teams around the person, not just the process, ensuring consistent communication and coordinated behavioral and medical support throughout the claim. Technology, when used responsibly, can help make this possible. Combined with the Amplified Intelligence program, data and analytics help us identify where to focus, but the interaction that follows is entirely human. Technology ensures no one is overlooked; empathy ensures no one is forgotten. When both work together, the injured worker is seen, heard, and supported as a person, not a claim number.

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