Recent years have been marked by extraordinary progress with Artificial Intelligence technology. These major developments have provided a window into a not-so-distant future when AI will play an increasingly big role in our economy and society. The purpose of this series of interviews and articles is to better understand Canada’s own AI ecosystem, how AI technology will contribute to the country’s economy, and the role of public policy that can support its development and deployment for the betterment of Canada.
To that end, The Hub spoke with Chanddeep Madaan to understand how his business is leveraging AI to improve customer experience. Chanddeep is the CEO and founder of Aya Care, Canada’s number-one leading health-care spending account and wellness spending account provider.
THE HUB: Let’s start with your business. What does it consist of and what’s its story?
CHANDDEEP MADAAN: Aya Payments Incorporated is a Canadian fintech company founded in 2018 with a mission to remove financial barriers to accessing health and wellness. We provide a fully automated, AI-powered Health Spending Account (HSA) platform, offering a modern and accessible alternative to traditional employee benefits programs. Our innovative platform streamlines claim adjudication, simplifies expense management, and empowers employees to take control of their health-care spending through our two HSA models.
Driven by a vision to democratize health-care access, Aya Payments is committed to building a seamless, transparent, and user-friendly experience for employers and employees alike. Our technology aims to meet the needs of the modern workforce.
THE HUB: As a health-savings account company, how do you incorporate AI into your business model?
CHANDDEEP MADAAN: Aya Payments leverages AI as the core engine of our business model. Our AI is designed to process and interpret complex data, including CRA guidelines and employer-specific rules, to automate claim adjudication. This eliminates the need for slow, manual reviews, enabling instant reimbursement and reduced administrative costs. We use AI to adapt to changing regulations and optimize performance, providing both a scalable and future-proof solution.
Our AI capabilities extend beyond basic adjudication, in the future providing personalized onboarding processes, personalized recommendations, and insights to help users maximize their HSA benefits and make informed health spending decisions. It will also offers data-driven insights to HR departments so they can assess trends and provide tailored advice.
THE HUB: What are the upsides of using AI for your customers and their employees?
CHANDDEEP MADAAN: For our customers (employers), AI delivers a superior user experience and lowers costs. It reduces their administrative burden, improves compliance, and enables data-driven decision-making. For their employees, AI makes HSAs more accessible and user-friendly by automating claims, providing instant reimbursements, and offering personalized expense management tools. Our AI-powered solutions ensure that all claims are assessed accurately and efficiently, with more transparency than other offerings.
THE HUB: Talk about your interaction with Canada’s broader AI ecosystem including accessing ideas and talent. Based on your experience, what is your sense of Canada’s AI leadership?
CHANDDEEP MADAAN: We have benefited immensely from Canada’s strong AI ecosystem. Our partnership with the Google for Startups Accelerator and MILA provides us with access to mentorship from top AI experts, as well as cloud credits to power AI development.
Canada possesses a wealth of AI talent and research institutions with the ability to produce a robust workforce for the sector. However, for commercial applications, we believe more funding is required to help companies to scale, commercialize, and bring new technologies to market.
THE HUB: What in your mind can Canadian public policy do to better support start-ups, particularly those using AI technology?
CHANDDEEP MADAAN: Canadian public policy could further support AI start-ups by:
Providing more funding and support programs. Programs to bridge the gap between research and commercialization, such as RAII.
Supporting early-stage founders. It’s important for government policy to recognize the unique needs and potential of early-stage start-ups led by committed founders. Providing these companies with targeted access to contract opportunities will provide the platform these companies need for success while enabling innovation and high-skilled employment opportunities.
Reducing bureaucracy. Streamlining the application process and reporting requirements for start-ups, allowing them to focus on building their technology.
Regulations. I think the cat is out of the bag on regulations. As far as I see, we can’t constrain AI growth anymore—models are too strong, too spread out, and sometimes even anonymous. Even Google has, what, four different models, and experimenting with tons more? If the government caps any kind of AI with regulation, what will happen is other countries will get ahead of Canada and Canada will be left behind. It’s hard in this era to decide what the regulations should be, as there are new models coming out weekly—just this week ByteDance announced a new one. Whoever has the best AI tech and channels it effectively wins the AI race, and entire economies will transform. I am not sure if regulation helps or hurts any country that adopts it.
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