2026 // Thomas Stevenson // Private
‘thia’ a
Text-Based Conversational AI
CASE STUDIES
THE BRIEF:
Total Health, a new ACA enrollment agency, needed a conversational assistant for people shopping and managing plans. The assignment was to concept the product, not build it; building would fall to another team.
From the consumer's POV they felt like the insurance company, until they didn't.
The audience arrives confused, often stressed, frequently mid-crisis; people more comfortable calling an 800 number than navigating web forms. The constraint was the category: every word subject to legal and compliance review, no advice, no diagnosis, no promises.
The brief was to design something that felt human inside a system that legally couldn't be casual.
2026 // Thomas Stevenson // Private
CASE STUDIES // thia // Chat Bot
THE VOICE:
The strongest moment in the project was the rewrite, not of copy, but of the relationship. Insurance language is built to protect the company. thia's voice was built to protect the person reading it.
Before: a rando at the end of an 800 number, on commission, different every call. "Eligibility for premium assistance is determined by household income relative to the federal poverty level."
After: a consistent advisor with a name, an aunt who's there for you. "Whether you get help paying depends on what your household makes. Tell me roughly, and I'll tell you where you land."
Same facts. Same compliance review. Different allegiance.
2026 // Thomas Stevenson // Private
CASE STUDIES // thia // Chat Bot
THE NAME
thia. Lowercase on purpose. The name had to sound like someone you could talk to without pretending to be a person. It also had to survive legal, brand, and trademark review, which killed every clever option first. thia was the name that was warm, ownable, and clean.
2026 // Thomas Stevenson // Private
CASE STUDIES // thia // Chat Bot
THE SYSTEM
thia was the whole onboarding funnel: introduction, plan offerings, answers, sign-up, prefilled forms last.
The introduction mattered most. New experience, new agency; the first line had to carry both.
We started from the 800-number rep scripts: what reps were told to say, where the script ran out, where the call got handed off. The system was worked backward from there.
The escalation rules were the real design work: the moment a question crossed from information into advice, and handing off before the user felt the seam. Honesty about its limits was the trust mechanism, not a disclaimer.
Documented as a concept spec: intents, scope, escalation logic. The name and funnel logic shipped in the MVP as the engine behind the form. The conversational layer stayed a spec.
2026 // Thomas Stevenson // Private
CASE STUDIES // thia // Chat Bot
TWO MOMENTS
A handoff
You: Should I go Bronze or Silver?
thia: That's the one call I won't make for you, and I'd rather say so than guess. Here's the shape of it. Bronze is less each month and more when you get care. Silver is more each month, less when you get care, and if you qualify for extra savings, those only come with Silver. A licensed agent can put real numbers on that. Tell me roughly how often you see a doctor and I'll pass along everything you've told me, so the call starts where we left off. Want me to do that?
A refusal
You: My knee's been bad for months. Will this cover surgery?
thia: Months of that is a lot, I'm sorry. I can't say what your knee needs or promise what a plan will pay, so I won't. What I can tell you: every plan here covers hospital care and surgery, and nothing that started before you signed up can be used to turn you down or charge you more. What surgery would cost you depends on the plan and your deductible, and that's a question for someone who can see the details. Should I get a person on the line?
reconstructed from the concept spec
2026 // Thomas Stevenson // Private
CASE STUDIES // thia // Chat Bot
HELLO
The interface, the voice, the refusals, all of it was about lowering the cost of the first hello.
TONE
People choosing new health insurance want help not new technology.
The design question was how to make the unfamiliar disarming.
Hence thia, lowercase, a name
you'd say to a person.
LEGAL
Compliance wasn't the real problem. Introducing something new was.
2026 // Thomas Stevenson // Private
CASE STUDIES // thia // Chat Bot
What I’d Carry Forward