Google.org gave Clalit a $2M, two-year grant to build a multilingual AI voice assistant for about 5 million members, including patients on landline phones.
Google.org, Google's philanthropic arm, has awarded Clalit Health Services a two-year, $2 million grant to build a multilingual AI voice assistant for its roughly 5 million members. Clalit, Israel's largest health fund, says the assistant will help patients book appointments, prepare for visits and follow up on care, including by phone on landlines and basic mobile phones without internet. A pilot comes before a national rollout.
בקצרה: כללית (Clalit) קיבלה מענק דו-שנתי של 2 מיליון דולר מ-Google.org לפיתוח עוזר קולי רב-לשוני מבוסס בינה מלאכותית, שיפעל גם בקווי טלפון רגילים ובטלפונים בסיסיים ללא אינטרנט. תחילה ייערך פיילוט, ולאחריו הפעלה ארצית.
What did Google.org give Clalit?
Google.org gave Clalit Health Services a two-year, $2 million grant to build what Clalit calls a digital front door for its patients. i24NEWS and ynetnews report the grant was announced this week. The platform is designed for about 5 million patients from diverse communities, according to the announcement.
Boaz Maoz, managing director of Google Cloud Israel, said the project uses secure conversational AI tailored to local dialects and communication channels to remove barriers to care. Clalit builds and operates the assistant, while Google Cloud hosts and secures it. Olam's profile of Clalit lists about 4.6 million members, so the two membership figures differ slightly.
How will the Clalit AI voice assistant work?
The assistant is a multilingual voice service that helps patients describe symptoms, decide what care to seek, book appointments, prepare for visits and manage follow-up care in their own language. According to The Yeshiva World, it uses Google Cloud technology and Google's Gemini model to recognize local dialects and everyday speech.
i24NEWS adds that the service will run automated symptom intake and triage before visits, which saves time for medical staff. Clalit says it will begin with a patient pilot before a nationwide rollout. None of the reports Olam reviewed gives a launch date.
Why does the assistant work on landlines and basic phones?
Clalit designed the assistant to work over ordinary phone calls so it can reach patients with no internet access or with phones that restrict apps and text messages. Ynetnews says the service will be available through landlines and basic mobile phones. Calcalist reports that, according to Clalit, the share of patients who book appointments online remains relatively low among the populations it wants to reach.
Filtered phones are common in parts of Israel's Haredi economy, and the Yeshiva World description fits that use. That is Olam's observation, not a claim from the announcement. None of the primary reports Olam reviewed names kosher phones or any specific community.
What questions remain about the Clalit and Google project?
Calcalist raised three questions: who the assistant is really for, how far Clalit will depend on Google, and how sensitive medical data will be handled. It notes that the 5 million figure roughly matches Clalit's whole membership, not the smaller groups that face the biggest barriers to digital care. It also points out that the grant is philanthropic, but the system will run on Google's cloud services and AI models inside one of the world's largest healthcare databases.
Clalit's answer is that conversations will be encrypted and de-identified, and that medical records stay inside its protected network. Clalit also plans to release an open-source version of the voice AI architecture and its frameworks for adapting the service to different communities, after removing sensitive information. Only the software code and the AI methodology will be shared, according to Calcalist.
How big is Clalit?
Clalit is Israel's largest health fund, founded in 1911, with about 4.6 million members, more than 1,300 clinics and 14 hospitals, according to Olam's profile of Clalit Health Services. Its hospitals include Beilinson and Soroka, and Olam covers Beilinson separately as the Rabin Medical Center transplant leader.
Clalit competes with Maccabi, Meuhedet and Leumit, the three other funds in Olam's guide to who runs Israel's health funds. The Google.org grant gives Clalit funded AI infrastructure for its voice service, and the project's results will show whether the model can reach patients who do not book online.
Frequently asked questions
Who gave Clalit the $2 million?
Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google, awarded the two-year grant to Clalit Health Services.
What will the Clalit AI assistant do?
It will help patients describe symptoms, decide what care to seek, book appointments, prepare for visits and manage follow-up care in their own language.
Will the assistant work without internet?
Yes. Ynetnews reports it will be available through landlines and basic mobile phones without internet access.
Is patient data protected?
Clalit says conversations will be encrypted and de-identified and that records stay inside its protected network. Calcalist notes that the system will still run on Google's cloud services and AI models.
When will the assistant launch?
Clalit says a patient pilot comes first, followed by a nationwide rollout. The reports Olam reviewed give no dates.
Will the technology be shared with other health systems?
Clalit plans to publish an open-source version of the voice AI architecture and its adaptation frameworks, with sensitive information removed.
How we report: Olam stories draw on public filings, company disclosures and named sources, checked by our editors. Read our methodology · Corrections
