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The Future of Participant Service: How the YMCA Retirement Fund Delivers 24/7 Member Support with AI Agents
When Gerard Rescigno, Chief Information Officer at the YMCA Retirement Fund, began exploring AI, the objective was clear but ambitious: improve how internal teams worked while making participant support faster, more accurate, and available around the clock.
The YMCA Retirement Fund, which manages retirement plans for YMCA employees nationwide, has already invested in a modern contact center—but needed a way to scale out service without increasing staff burden. That search led the team to StackAI.
“The virtual agent developed through our collaboration with StackAI has proven to be highly impressive. The expertise and partnership of the StackAI team have been pivotal in shaping our vision for future initiatives. These advancements will undoubtedly enhance the services we provide to our constituents and significantly improve our operational effectiveness and efficiency.”
Marcela Deitrich
SVP of Operations and Customer Service, YMCA Retirement Fund
Rescigno’s team tested StackAI platform as part of a three-month pilot. In weeks, his team realized they could build production-ready AI agents, not just prototypes, with no heavy coding or external consultants. It shone in comparison to other products, which, in Rescigno’s words, required far too much code: “We wanted a low-code solution, but also something our internal team could use—a platform that wasn’t intimidating for non-technical users.” Now, Y Retirement has ushered in a new era of intelligent service delivery for the retirement industry.
24/7 participant access to an AI-powered contact center, eliminating wait times for routine requests
Enterprise-wide insights repository integrating internal policy and external research, now used by leadership and rolling out across Y Retirement
Agents built on StackAI’s SOC 2 Type II-compliant platform
Improved staff engagement and innovation—internal team members can now build their own AI workflows without writing code
Accelerating the Contact Center
The Problem: Limited-Service Hours and Repetitive Requests
Participants needed help outside of standard business hours, while the contact center operated within limited-service windows. As inquiry volume increased, staff spent significant time handling routine questions about plans and accounts—tasks that did not require deep expertise but still consumed valuable capacity.
The Solution: A Multi-Stage AI Contact Center
Using StackAI, Y Retirement launched Penny, a public-facing virtual assistant designed to provide instant, accurate responses to common participant questions. Within weeks, the virtual assistant was fielding thousands of inquiries that previously funneled to live agents.
Building on that success, the Y Retirement team began developing the next-generation system: an agentic version of Penny, which will enable personalized, context-aware responses, effectively allowing participants to access accurate account insights at any time, day, or night. The impact?
Expanded service availability to 24/7 coverage
Instant responses directly within the platform and improved utilization of firm resources
Created a scalable foundation for personalized, compliant AI interactions
“We wanted something that would allow our internal team to be able to create enterprise solutions, not just become individually more productive. StackAI lets our users create enterprise-grade solutions, not just chatbots. It has changed how we think about participant service and how we approach our work—faster and smarter.”
Gerard Rescigno
Chief Information Officer, YMCA Retirement Fund
Looking Ahead
Y Retirement is now exploring processor automation: enabling AI agents to review inbound forms and validate submissions while maintaining human oversight and control throughout the process. The aim is not to replace staff, but to let them focus on complex, high-value work, while AI ensures accuracy and responsiveness at scale.
Conclusion
For the YMCA Retirement Fund, AI is not a buzzword, but a practical step toward modernizing how participants are served. From 24/7 support to operational automation, to executive intelligence, Y Retirement’s AI initiatives reflect a single goal: delivering clear, timely, and secure information when it matters most. Want to see how StackAI can power your firm's AI transformation? Get a demo here.
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