Alex Doonanco is the CEO and Co-founder of careCycle, where he leads the development of AI voice teams that have transformed Medicare agency operations, having over 400,000 conversations with seniors since October 2024. With deep expertise in conversational AI and healthcare technology, Alex previously served as the first U.S. hire and GTM lead at AI Rudder, architecting contact center automation projects across several B2C industries.
As an early leader in voice AI application development, he regularly shares insights on the transformative power of well-architected solutions for business interactions with customers. Recognized for pioneering the AI communication layer for Medicare distribution, Alex is passionate about democratizing enterprise-grade technology to ensure every senior receives the consistent, high-quality care they deserve.
Company: careCycle
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Alex Doonanco: My name is Alex Doonarco, and I’m the founder and CEO of CareCycle. My journey in healthcare began over a decade ago, inspired by a deep passion for improving patient outcomes and transforming the way care is delivered. I’ve always believed that technology and empathy can work together to create a more efficient and compassionate healthcare system.
CareCycle is a healthcare technology company dedicated to revolutionizing post-acute care management. Our platform leverages advanced analytics, remote patient monitoring, and seamless communication tools to support patients as they transition from hospital to home. We partner with hospitals, physicians, and home health agencies to ensure every patient receives the right care at the right time.
What truly sets us apart is our patient-centered approach. We focus on personalized care plans that address each patient’s unique needs. Our technology-driven solutions use real-time data to monitor patient progress and identify potential risks before they become critical. By bridging the gap between healthcare providers, patients, and families, we ensure everyone is informed and involved in the care process.
Our mission is simple: to empower patients, support caregivers, and drive better health outcomes by making post-acute care smarter and more connected.
What specific areas of your business have been most impacted by AI, and how?
Alex Doonanco: AI is not just a tool for CareCycle; it is the foundation of everything we do. Our multi-agent AI voice teams handle the entire Medicare member journey, creating experiences that were previously impossible. For example, we enable 24/7 personalized support where AI agents can answer the phone at midnight, greet members by their first name, and instantly recall details from their last interaction. This has driven a fivefold increase in after-hours conversion rates and reduced agent talk time by 20 percent per sale.
What’s truly transformative is how we’re creating net-new voice experiences rather than just automating existing ones. Our AI acts as an extension of licensed advisors even speaking in their cloned voice maintaining perfect recall and context across all interactions. This eliminates the traditional disconnect between sales agents and support teams. During the 2024 Annual Enrollment Period, this approach helped one Field Marketing Organization wrote more than $2 million in renewals, saved over 3,000 agent hours and improved 90-day retention rates by 37 percent.
How are you ensuring ethical considerations are taken into account in your use of AI?
Alex Doonanco: Beyond strict adherence to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, FCC, and HIPAA regulations, we’ve built comprehensive ethical guardrails into every interaction. We use multi-factor identity verification before revealing any Protected Health Information, while designing conversations that build trust through personalization using only appropriate, non-sensitive information. Our closed platform requires thorough vetting before access, and voice cloning is restricted to agents recording their own voices through our secure system.
We focus on helpfulness over human-likeness as our north star. When seniors end calls saying “thank you” or “have a great day, sweetie” to our AI assistants, we know we’re succeeding. Our conversations average three to five minutes and remain focused on solving specific problems while acknowledging the human element. We’ve learned that many seniors are lonely, but we maintain appropriate boundaries by demonstrating active listening without encouraging dependency or prolonged personal discussions.
What advice would you give to other CEOs looking to integrate AI into their business?
Alex Doonanco: Start with the problem, not the technology. Too many companies fall victim to FOMO and implement “shiny AI features” that don’t solve real business problems, like expensive QA systems that analyze calls after the fact but don’t actually improve conversions, or agent co-pilot tools that become distractions for seasoned professionals. Instead, think about your dream state where technology has no limitations, then work backwards to find solutions.
Most importantly, become an expert yourself. Read whitepapers from foundational model labs, experiment with tools directly, and build your own intuition about what’s possible. This protects you from vendors who overpromise and helps you identify genuine opportunities. The businesses that will win are those that can fundamentally reinvent their unit economics through deep AI integration, not those that simply bolt on AI features to existing processes.
How do you see AI evolving in your industry over the next 5 years?
Alex Doonanco: By 2030, the Medicare experience will be radically different. Every business interaction will begin with instant, personalized recognition and complete understanding of your history with them. Voice will become the dominant interface, not just phone calls, but as the universal input method across all platforms. We’re already seeing early examples of AI assistants recognizing each other and switching from English to more efficient non-human languages to exchange information.
For Medicare specifically, I envision AI handling every component of the member journey except the actual plan review, enabling agents to support at least double their current client base. The demographic shift will accelerate this. Those aging into Medicare will be more digitally native and expect these seamless experiences. Eventually, we’ll see customers dispatching their own AI assistants to negotiate with company AI on their behalf, though this dynamic will likely emerge for businesses before individual consumers.
