A Minnesota health system puts an AI agent named Alli on its patient phone lines

June 2025 — Allina Health has handed the routine part of its patient phone calls to an AI agent. Here's what launched, what it cost, and what went wrong.

Cost and outcome (as of June 17, 2025)

Speed: 80% of calls answered in 45 seconds or less, without more staff, SoundHound says. (SoundHound)
Service: 23% better service levels and 48 seconds off average response time. (SoundHound blog)
Cost: not disclosed.

What launched

Alli answers calls to Allina's Customer Experience Center, SoundHound said on May 29, 2025. It connects to Allina's electronic medical record, so it can identify and authenticate callers, and it lets patients manage their appointments. MedCity News reported that patients can book and reschedule, and ask general questions about hours, locations, services and billing.

Allina began rolling Alli out across the system in January 2025, MedCity reported. SoundHound's ebook says the rollout started with select clinics and expanded based on performance, and that weekly reviews of call transcripts were used to tune it.

The center is big. SoundHound's ebook puts its volume at more than 20 million contacts a year, with more than 500,000 inbound and 150,000 outbound calls a month.

When a request gets complicated, or a caller wants a person, Alli transfers the call without the caller having to start over, Michael Anderson, SoundHound's EVP of enterprise AI, told MedCity.

What Allina and SoundHound say changed

The release said average call time had improved by 5–10 seconds and that 80% of calls were answered in 45 seconds or less "without increasing staffing levels." SoundHound's June 17 blog post added a 23% improvement in service levels and 48 seconds shaved off average response time. It also said saving 5 seconds per call "adds up to 8,000+ hours a year."

"One of our key goals is to make sure that we're providing a market-leading patient experience," said David Ingham, DO, whom the release identifies as Allina's chief information officer. "Alli is an extension of our team."

Minda Garcia, vice president of the Customer Experience Center, told MedCity that Alli handles routine interactions so staff can focus on patients who need more help. Because Allina counts every employee as a member of the care team, she said, Alli is now part of the care team too. "Alli also allows our representatives to meet the needs of more patients by reducing call times by 5-10 seconds," she said. In SoundHound's ebook she goes further: "I've been here for 24 years, and it's been the best 120 days (of implementation) here."

The ebook also quotes Ingham, there titled chief digital and information officer, on the approach: "We're not chasing shiny objects. We're building reusable, extensible systems that lift the entire organization."

What's next

The release says patients will be able to refill medications, find doctors or locations and get answers to non-clinical questions. SoundHound's blog lists prescription refills, pre-op triage and weather-triggered changes.

What went wrong

Answered or resolved? The release, blog and MedCity say 80% of calls are answered in 45 seconds or less. One page of SoundHound's ebook says 80% are "resolved" in that time.
Moving numbers. The ebook cover says 10 seconds saved per call; elsewhere it is 5–10. The blog says Alli was live in under 90 days; the ebook is built around 120.
What we don't know yet: how many calls Alli finishes without a person, how often it transfers, error rates, and the cost.

Our follow-up question for Allina Health

What share of calls does Alli complete on its own, and is the 80% figure about answering or resolving calls?

Sources

SoundHound AI, “SoundHound AI and Allina Health Launch AI Agent to Redefine Patient Engagement,” May 29, 2025. soundhound.com
MedCity News, Katie Adams, “Allina Health Sees Early Success From Voice AI in Call Centers,” June 2025. medcitynews.com
SoundHound AI blog, “How Allina Health reimagined patient access with AI — and got its best service metrics in years,” June 17, 2025. soundhound.com
SoundHound AI, “The Playbook for Better Care in 120 Days with Allina Health” (case-study ebook), 2025. assets-002.noviams.com
Archimedes Tech SPAC Partners Co. (now SoundHound AI), Form 8-K, exhibit 99.1, Nov. 16, 2021. sec.gov
SoundHound AI, Form 8-K, exhibit 99.1 (Q1 2025 results), May 8, 2025. sec.gov
SoundHound AI, proxy statement (DEF 14A), Apr. 9, 2026. sec.gov

Disclosure: [not in copy] Editor placeholder