AOK PLUS moves member support onto NiCE cloud platform

AOK PLUS has gone live on NiCE Cognigy and CXone, bringing the German health insurer's automated and employee-led member support onto a single platform.

The rollout covers more than 5 million member interactions a year and connects AI-based self-service with 2,400 employees across 120 specialist skills. The setup is designed to route enquiries to the right team more quickly while linking voice automation with the wider service operation.

AOK PLUS is one of Germany's largest statutory health insurers, serving more than 3.4 million members across Saxony and Thuringia. The organisation operates more than 130 local branches and employs about 7,000 people.

According to NiCE, the insurer began its shift towards AI-driven member support with voice self-service before extending the approach across its broader contact centre operation through CXone. The combined system now handles automated interactions and staff-assisted service in the same environment, from first contact to resolution.

Several operational measures highlight the project's scale. AOK PLUS said it has achieved a call acceptance rate of more than 95%, while more than 1,400 telephone numbers were moved during the migration without downtime.

The move also has broader significance in a tightly regulated sector, where cloud-based AI tools have often raised questions about data handling and compliance. AOK PLUS is among the first public health insurers in Germany to move member service operations to the cloud, and the first insurer in Saxony and Thuringia to deploy AI-based voice automation in a sovereign cloud environment.

The system runs in NiCE's EU Sovereign Cloud, which the companies said provides the governance and data sovereignty needed to support AI use while meeting German and European healthcare requirements. For healthcare organisations, those controls are central to balancing service automation with member privacy and regulatory obligations.

Operational shift

The project reflects a wider push by insurers and public service bodies to simplify customer contact as demand rises and interactions become more complex. In health insurance, contact centres often handle a mix of administrative questions, benefits enquiries and case-specific issues requiring specialist support, making routing and response times a persistent challenge.

By linking automated triage with a large workforce organised by specialist skills, AOK PLUS is seeking to reduce friction at the first point of contact rather than relying solely on conventional call routing. The model also points to a more integrated use of AI in regulated service environments, where organisations have generally moved more cautiously than in retail or consumer services.

NiCE delivered the implementation with CCT Solutions, a long-standing partner of the software provider. While neither company disclosed financial terms, the scale of the migration indicates a substantial overhaul of AOK PLUS's member contact infrastructure.

Sebastian Reichenbach, Project Lead Customer Experience & Contact Centre at AOK PLUS, described the impact on member support in a statement on the launch.

"Our members are getting faster, more personalized support without ever losing the security and trust they expect," Reichenbach said.

"That's what happens when AI agents and our 2,400 employees work from the same platform. No matter who or what responds, the experience feels seamless."

For NiCE, the deployment provides a reference customer in European healthcare at a time when software providers are trying to show that AI-based service tools can meet public sector and regulated industry standards. The company said AOK PLUS is among the first customers to combine its AI agents and member service operations on the same platform.

Darren Rushworth, President at NiCE International, linked the project to the company's broader position in AI-led customer service.

"AOK PLUS is turning millions of member interactions into personalized, trusted experiences at scale, and that's the real payoff of bringing AI agents and member service together on one platform," Rushworth said.

"And they're doing it without compromising the security and data sovereignty their members expect."