The Workforce AI Index · Healthcare
UnitedHealth Group (UNH)
Clinicians and a health benefits workforce. Read October 1, 2026 from the annual report for the period ending 2025-12-31, filed 2026-03-02. Ranked 5 of the 27 Healthcare companies read so far, by the share within reach now: the sector.
A health benefits and services company whose filing states one count, the clinical professionals, so the care pattern comes from a figure and the rest from the description of its benefits, technology and pharmacy businesses.
The figures on this page come from the company's own annual report and from BLS staffing patterns for its industries, never from a roster. They are estimates with a stated method. Nothing here says what the company will do: within reach is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings.
What follows from the reading
Share of working time within reach of AI, on the long-run pace at four in five: 33% now, 47% at the end of 2027, 54% at the end of 2028, 56% at the end of 2030. By the patterns, the work is about 56% desk work, 25% people work and 19% body work. These are the site's industry estimates weighted by the shares below: estimates with a stated method and range, not a forecast of what the company will do. By the same patterns, at the end of 2028 about 44% of the working time stays with people (conversation, in-person and hands-on work), 46% becomes checking a model's work and 7% could be handed over with lighter checks, from the industries' own figures, not the company's roles.
Headcount
390,000 employees as of 2025-12-31 (stated). The filing does not state a U.S. share of employees.
The filing: “As of December 31, 2025, we had more than 390,000 employees, of whom nearly 165,000 were clinical professionals.”
The workforce as industry patterns
| Pattern | Share | Reason, from the filing |
|---|---|---|
| Ambulatory Health Care Services | 42% | By (a): the filing states that nearly 165,000 of more than 390,000 employees are clinical professionals, 42%, and Optum Health delivers care through physician practices, clinics and home and virtual care, which is the ambulatory care subsector; the setting split is not stated, so the subsector is used rather than one industry group. |
| Insurance Carriers | 43% | By (c): the non-clinical workforce has no stated count, so its largest part is read from the business description as the health benefits business, UnitedHealthcare, together with Optum's benefit and pharmacy services operations, which BLS counts in the insurance carriers pattern. |
| Computer Systems Design and Related Services | 9% | By (c): Optum Insight is described as a technology, data and analytics business serving health systems and payers, with no stated headcount, so a share of the non-clinical workforce is read into the computer systems design pattern by description. |
| Health and Personal Care Retailers | 6% | By (c): Optum Rx operates home delivery and specialty pharmacies, described in the filing without a headcount, so a small share is read into the pharmacies pattern by description. |
What the filing says about the workforce: Nearly 165,000 clinical professionals among more than 390,000 employees; no other breakdown by function or location is stated.
Companies read with the same leading pattern
Other companies whose largest staffing pattern is also Insurance Carriers, largest first, each read from its own annual report. Within reach now and at the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Elevance Health (ELV, 97,100 employees)35% now, 62% by 2028
- The Progressive Corporation (PGR, 70,000 employees)37% now, 68% by 2028
- Cigna Corporation (CI, 67,700 employees)36% now, 60% by 2028
- Humana Inc. (HUM, 67,060 employees)33% now, 54% by 2028
- Centene Corp. (CNC, 61,100 employees)37% now, 68% by 2028
What the filing says about AI
15 sentences in the filing name AI. AI appears in the technology and risk discussion (the need for 'new and enhanced technologies', data and AI applications, and the risks of their use); the human capital section does not mention it.
- “If the data we rely upon to run our businesses is found to be inaccurate, incomplete, outdated or unreliable or if we fail to effectively maintain or protect the integrity of our data and information systems, including systems powered by or incorporating artificial intelligence (AI), we could experience failures in our health, wellness and information technology products; lose existing customer...”
- “In addition, increasing connectivity among technologies and recent trends toward greater consumer engagement in health care require new and enhanced technologies, including more sophisticated applications for mobile devices and new tools and products that leverage AI to improve the customer experience.”
- “We anticipate that fast-evolving AI technologies, including generative AI, will play an increasingly important role in our information systems and customer-facing technology products.”
- “Our ability to protect and enhance existing systems and develop new systems to keep pace with changes in information processing technology (including AI), regulatory standards and changing customer preferences will require our ongoing commitment of significant development and operational resources.”
- “Uncertain and rapidly evolving U.S. federal and state, non-U.S. and international laws and regulations related to health data and health information technologies, including those powered by or incorporating AI, may alter the competitive landscape or impose new compliance requirements and could materially and adversely affect the configuration of our information systems and platforms, and our ab...”
Headcount by filing year
As reported in each year's annual report, with the filing. A year marked not read had no figure the reading could take from the report's text.
| Period | Employees | Filed | Filing |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-12-31 | 390,000 | 2026-03-02 | 10-K |
| 2024-12-31 | 400,000 | 2025-02-27 | 10-K |
| 2022-12-31 | 400,000 | 2023-02-24 | 10-K |
| 2021-12-31 | 350,000 | 2022-02-15 | 10-K |
| 2020-12-31 | 330,000 | 2021-03-01 | 10-K |
| 2019-12-31 | 325,000 | 2020-02-14 | 10-K |
| 2018-12-31 | 300,000 | 2019-02-12 | 10-K |
| 2017-12-31 | 260,000 | 2018-02-13 | 10-K |
| 2016-12-31 | 230,000 | 2017-02-08 | 10-K |
| 2015-12-31 | 200,000 | 2016-02-09 | 10-K |
| 2014-12-31 | 170,000 | 2015-02-10 | 10-K |
| 2013-12-31 | 156,000 | 2014-02-12 | 10-K |
| 2012-12-31 | 133,000 | 2013-02-07 | 10-K |
| 2011-12-31 | 99,000 | 2012-02-09 | 10-K |
| 2010-12-31 | 87,000 | 2011-02-10 | 10-K |
| 2009-12-31 | 80,000 | 2010-02-10 | 10-K |
| 2008-12-31 | 75,000 | 2009-02-11 | 10-K |
| 2007-12-31 | 67,000 | 2008-02-21 | 10-K |
| 2006-12-31 | 58,000 | 2007-03-06 | 10-K |
| 2005-12-31 | 55,000 | 2006-02-24 | 10-K |
| 2004-12-31 | 40,000 | 2005-03-01 | 10-K |
| 2003-12-31 | 33,000 | 2004-03-15 | 10-K |
| 2002-12-31 | 32,000 | 2003-03-19 | 10-K |
| 2001-12-31 | 30,000 | 2002-04-01 | 10-K |
| 2000-12-31 | 30,000 | 2001-03-30 | 10-K |
| 1999-12-31 | 29,000 | 2000-03-30 | 10-K |
| 1998-12-31 | 29,226 | 1999-03-31 | 10-K |
| 1997-12-31 | 29,600 | 1998-03-27 | 10-K405 |
| 1996-12-31 | 27,800 | 1997-03-28 | 10-K |
| 1995-12-31 | 28,500 | 1996-04-01 | 10-K405 |
| 1994-12-31 | 9,600 | 1995-03-28 | 10-K405 |
Limits of this reading
- Only the clinical count is stated; the split of the non-clinical workforce among insurance, technology and pharmacy follows the business description (c), not counts.
- The U.S. share is not stated.
Source: the company's annual report on EDGAR, accession 0000731766-26-000062, the filing. Read by Claude Fable 5.1 under rubric version 1, by the method. A company can write to info@stratussc.com to have its reading checked against its filing.
Questions about this company
- How much of UnitedHealth Group's working time is within reach of AI?
- An estimated 33% now and 54% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five, from the workforce UnitedHealth Group's own annual report describes and BLS staffing patterns for its industries, never from a roster. It is an estimate with a stated method. It is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings, and it says nothing about what the company will do.
- How many people does UnitedHealth Group employ?
- 390,000 as of December 31, 2025, as its annual report for the period ending December 31, 2025 states.
- What kinds of work make up UnitedHealth Group's workforce?
- Read from its annual report as a blend of 4 industry staffing patterns, the largest Insurance Carriers; by those patterns the work is about 56% desk work, 25% people work and 19% body work. Each share has a one-sentence reason on this page that can be checked against the filing.
- What does UnitedHealth Group's annual report say about AI?
- 15 sentences in the filing name AI. They are counted and quoted on this page, never judged: a count says how much a filing talks about AI, not what the company does with it.
- How is this estimated?
- Claude Fable 5.1 read the annual report under the Index's written rubric (version 1) on October 1, 2026: the stated headcount, the share in the U.S. when stated, and the workforce as a blend of industry staffing patterns. The estimates are the site's industry estimates weighted by those shares, from O*NET tasks with estimated lengths and METR's measurements of how long a task AI models can finish. A company can write to info@stratussc.com to have its reading checked against its filing.
Embed these figures on your site
A small card with the share of working time within reach now and at the end of 2027, 2028 and 2030, the date and a link back. Free under CC BY 4.0; the card carries the credit.