‘thia’ a
Text-Based
Conversational AI
2026 // Thomas Stevenson // Private
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
2026 // Thomas Stevenson // Private
CASE STUDIES // thia // Chat Bot
reconstructed from the concept spec
2026 // Thomas Stevenson // Private
CASE STUDIES // thia // Chat Bot
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?
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