When 240,000 Hours Vanished: The AI Evolution That Bolstered a Background Check Giant

A leading background verification company with $100M+ revenue and 800+ employees processes hundreds of thousands of criminal checks annually for enterprise healthcare, finance, and staffing clients.
What Are AI Digital Workers? Understanding Digital Employees in the Modern Workplace

TLDR: THE BIG TAKEAWAY

Because speed, scale, and compliance were paramount, a background check leader turned to us to build “hands off” automation and grow market share without proportional staff increases.

Our AI Workforce strategy eliminated 240,000 manual hours, 120 FTE-equivalents, and cut processing costs by 90%. Critical workflows were automated, delivering $2.4M in annual savings, all while maintaining FCRA compliance.

 

 Client Profile

A leading background verification company with $100M+ revenue and 800+
employees processes hundreds of thousands of criminal checks annually for
enterprise healthcare, finance, and staffing clients.

Despite their FCRA-compliant reputation, 200+ adjudicators manually reviewing records couldn’t scale with increasing demand, and created turnaround bottlenecks. They needed infrastructure transformation to capture share of projected market growth, from $15.5B to $39.6B by 2032.

Operational Challenges

Our client faced a perfect storm of operational inefficiencies threatening their revenue, market position, margins, and ability to efficiently scale.

Manual Process Bottlenecks Criminal record adjudication required human review of 11 complex process areas, each involving numerous dynamic steps. With 500,000+ annual checks, manual errors created massive liability exposure. This created cascading delays:

  • Inconsistent processing speeds – cases varied from 30 mins to 8+ hours
  • Quality variance – decisions differed between adjudicators reviewing identical cases
  • Capacity constraints – peak demand created 72+ hour backlogs
  • Training overhead – new adjudicators required 6-8 weeks to reach competency
  • Knowledge silos – expert adjudicators became bottlenecks for complex cases

Skills Mismatch Crisis Workforce allocation created operational chaos:

  • Expert adjudicators (10%) wasted time on routine decisions
  • Junior adjudicators (60%) escalated 40% of cases, creating review backlogs
  • Mid-level adjudicators (30%) over-researched simple cases, reducing throughput by 35%

The Breaking Point: Their largest client (30% of revenue) demanded 18-hour turnaround times or face contract termination. Manual processes couldn’t scale, forcing a choice: massive workforce expansion or transformative
automation.

 

Download the Case Study

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this blog post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of ThoughtFocus. This content is provided for informational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice.

Share:

In this article

Interested in AI?

Let's discuss use cases.

Blog contact form
Areas of Interest (check all that apply)

For a mortgage lender, solving staffing challenges meant deploying AI-enabled delivery pods that scaled capacity without traditional hiring constraints.

The Challenge Of Elastic Workforce Demand

The mortgage lender faced wildly cyclical staffing needs driven by interest rate fluctuations. Peak seasons required 200+ underwriters, but maintaining that headcount year-round was unsustainable. Traditional hiring cycles took months, meaning they missed revenue opportunities during surges and carried excess payroll during slowdowns. Offshore outsourcing provided bodies but lacked quality control and institutional knowledge. They needed workforce elasticity that could scale rapidly while maintaining expertise, compliance, and consistent service quality. The challenge was architectural: how do you build capacity that flexes intelligently with demand?

The ThoughtFocus Build Experience

We deployed specialized delivery pods combining rebadged offshore experts with AI Workforce agents. Each pod focused on specific functions like underwriting fulfillment, with human experts handling judgment calls while AI workers automated document verification, income calculation, and compliance checks. The rebadging model provided immediate cost relief and control, while AI agents multiplied human capacity. Pods operated as self-contained units that could be replicated quickly. We embedded governance automation and human oversight to ensure quality remained consistent as volume scaled. The model was self-funding, with cost reductions financing continued AI innovation.

The Breakthrough

Initial underwriting dropped from 48 hours to 8 hours. The lender scaled from 45 to 90 unit capacity in weeks, not months, handling a 60% volume surge without new hires. Cost per loan fell 38% while quality improved, and the delivery pod model became their competitive advantage in a commoditized market.

For an insurance carrier, streamlining claims adjudication meant augmenting human expertise with AI workers that could handle complexity, not just routine tasks.

The Challenge Of Judgment-Intensive Workflows

The carrier’s claims adjudication process required nuanced human judgment. Adjusters evaluated damage assessments, reviewed medical reports, interpreted policy language, and negotiated settlements. Each claim involved multiple handoffs between specialists, creating bottlenecks and inconsistent outcomes. Simple automation couldn’t help because the work demanded interpretation, not just data entry. Claims took 45 days on average to settle, frustrating customers and tying up reserves. They needed to accelerate workflows without sacrificing the judgment quality that prevented fraud and ensured fair settlements. The challenge wasn’t eliminating humans, but multiplying their capacity.

The ThoughtFocus Build Experience

We deployed specialized AI workers that functioned as intelligent assistants to human adjusters. AI workers extracted key information from medical records, compared damage estimates against historical data, identified policy coverage gaps, and drafted preliminary settlement recommendations. Rather than replacing adjusters, AI workers handled the analytical groundwork, allowing humans to focus on edge cases and final decisions. We designed handoff protocols where AI workers flagged confidence levels, automatically routing straightforward claims for fast approval while escalating complex cases with full documentation prepared. Human adjusters retained ultimate authority but gained AI-powered leverage.

The Breakthrough

Average claims cycle time dropped from 45 to 18 days. Adjusters increased throughput by 60% while reporting higher job satisfaction, focusing on meaningful decision-making rather than document review. Customer satisfaction scores rose 28%, and the carrier processed growing claim volumes without adding headcount.

For a software company, modernizing their platform required retrofitting AI without cannibalizing existing ARR or alienating their established customer base.

The Challenge Of Innovation Without Disruption

The software company had built a successful SaaS platform with steady recurring revenue, but AI-native competitors were entering their market with compelling alternatives. They needed to infuse AI throughout their product, but a complete rebuild would take years and risk losing customers during transition. Their existing codebase was monolithic, making incremental AI additions difficult. More critically, they couldn’t sunset their current platform without jeopardizing $50M in ARR. They needed to transform their development approach entirely while maintaining business continuity and keeping customers on a unified, forward-compatible platform.

The ThoughtFocus Build Experience

We introduced an AI-powered Software Development Life Cycle (AI SDLC) that accelerated their retrofit without increasing headcount. AI agents handled code analysis, identifying optimal integration points for new capabilities. We deployed AI pair programming to rewrite modules incrementally, ensuring backward compatibility while adding intelligent features. Our AI testing agents caught regressions before they reached production. We worked sprint by sprint, releasing AI-enhanced features as updates to the existing platform rather than a separate product. Customers stayed on one platform, experiencing continuous improvement without migration pain.

The Breakthrough

Development velocity doubled within six months. The company released AI features quarterly instead of annually, retaining 98% of customers while attracting new ones. Their ARR grew 35% as existing customers upgraded tiers for AI capabilities. They transformed from playing defense against AI-native competitors to leading their category with intelligent automation.

For a payments company, modernizing legacy infrastructure wasn't about replacement, but about bridging decades-old systems with an AI-powered workforce.

The Challenge Of Modernization Without Disruption

The payments company processed millions of transactions daily through mainframe systems built over 30 years. These systems were stable and reliable, but inflexible. Adding new payment methods or fraud detection capabilities required months of development. Their competitors were launching AI-driven features in weeks. Complete system replacement would cost hundreds of millions and risk catastrophic downtime. They needed their legacy infrastructure to support modern AI capabilities without a risky, expensive overhaul. The challenge was architectural: how do you make decades-old technology speak the language of modern AI?

The ThoughtFocus Build Experience

We designed an integration layer that wrapped legacy systems with modern APIs, creating a bridge between mainframes and cloud-based AI services. Rather than replacing human operators managing exceptions and reconciliations, we deployed an AI Workforce of specialized agents that could read legacy system outputs, make intelligent decisions, and execute actions across old and new platforms. We started with fraud detection, where AI agents analyzed transaction patterns in real time and flagged anomalies while legacy systems continued processing payments uninterrupted. Our phased approach minimized risk while delivering immediate value.

The Breakthrough

Fraud detection improved by 60% within three months, while the company maintained 99.99% uptime. The AI Workforce now handles 10,000 exception cases daily that previously required manual intervention. Most importantly, their legacy infrastructure became an asset again, capable of supporting innovation without requiring complete replacement.

For a healthcare system, integrating AI into existing systems meant connecting decades of legacy infrastructure without disrupting patient care.

The Challenge Of Seamless Integration

The healthcare system had invested in multiple AI-powered tools for diagnostics, scheduling, and patient engagement. But each system operated in isolation. Their electronic health records, billing platforms, and clinical workflows couldn’t communicate with the new AI applications. Data sat trapped in silos, requiring manual transfers that introduced errors and delays. Care teams grew frustrated toggling between eight different interfaces. Leadership knew AI held promise, but without integration, they were simply adding complexity. They needed AI woven into existing workflows, not stacked on top of them.

The ThoughtFocus Build Experience

We conducted a comprehensive systems audit, mapping data flows and identifying integration points across their technology stack. Rather than ripping and replacing, we built a unified data layer using APIs and middleware that allowed legacy systems to communicate with modern AI tools. We prioritized clinical workflows first, integrating an AI diagnostic assistant directly into the EHR interface physicians already used. Our team worked in sprints, testing each integration thoroughly before expanding. We established governance protocols ensuring data security and compliance throughout.

The Breakthrough

Physicians now access AI-powered insights without leaving their primary workflow. Patient data flows seamlessly between systems, reducing documentation time by 48%. The integration framework became reusable infrastructure, allowing the provider to adopt new AI capabilities in weeks rather than months, transforming AI from isolated experiments into embedded intelligence.

For a financial services company, managing offshore call centers under fixed SLAs meant every efficiency gain translated directly to bottom-line savings.

The Challenge Of Escalating Service Costs

The company operated multiple offshore call centers handling customer inquiries, but costs kept rising while service quality plateaued. Their existing vendor model lacked incentive for innovation. Call volumes were growing 15% annually, threatening to push headcount and expenses even higher. Leadership needed a way to dramatically reduce cost per interaction while improving customer satisfaction and maintaining contractual SLA commitments. Simply adding more human agents wasn’t sustainable. They needed a fundamental reimagining of their service delivery model that could scale intelligently.

The ThoughtFocus Build Experience

The strategy including rebadging their offshore teams to ThoughtFocus , immediately reducing overhead while maintaining continuity. Simultaneously, we deployed AI capabilities starting with intelligent routing and response suggestion tools that augmented human agent performance. Our teams worked side by side with rebadged agents, implementing conversational AI for tier-one inquiries and sentiment analysis to prioritize complex cases. We structured the engagement around contracted SLAs with tiered cost reduction targets, aligning our success with theirs.

The Breakthrough

Within four months, cost per interaction dropped 5%, hitting 15% at eight months and 30% at one year. Error rates fell below 2%. More importantly, the self-funding model meant transformation paid for itself while delivering $40M+ in savings over seven years, all while exceeding SLA commitments and improving customer satisfaction scores.

For a mid-sized manufacturer, the transformation began with a simple question: How do we compete when larger rivals have deeper AI investments?

The Challenge Of Operational Reinvention

The manufacturer faced mounting pressure from competitors leveraging AI for predictive maintenance, supply chain optimization, and quality control. Their legacy systems couldn’t communicate effectively, data lived in silos, and their workforce lacked AI literacy. Leadership recognized that incremental improvements wouldn’t suffice. They needed fundamental transformation of how they operated. But they couldn’t afford downtime or massive capital expenditure. The challenge wasn’t just technical; it required cultural change, new skills, and reimagined processes while maintaining production commitments.

The ThoughtFocus Build Experience

We embedded with their operations team to understand the full production ecosystem. Through value stream mapping, we identified bottlenecks where AI could multiply human expertise rather than replace it. We designed a transformation roadmap that modernized data infrastructure while deploying quick-win AI applications, starting with computer vision for defect detection on their highest-value product line. Crucially, we ran “lunch and learn” sessions, training operators to work alongside AI tools and creating internal champions who drove adoption across shifts.

The Breakthrough

Within six months, defect rates dropped 34% and the manufacturer recaptured market share. But the real transformation was cultural: their team now proactively identifies automation opportunities, and they’ve launched three additional AI initiatives, owned and operated internally. They’ve evolved from AI skeptics to innovation leaders.

For a mortgage lender, the first step was to determine where AI could drive measurable business impact, not just technical possibility.

The Challenge of Strategic Alignment

The lender processed thousands of loan applications monthly but lacked clarity on which workflows would benefit most from AI. Their teams had competing priorities: operations wanted faster underwriting, compliance needed better risk detection, and customer experience sought personalized engagement. Without a unified strategy, they risked building disconnected AI experiments that wouldn’t scale or deliver ROI. They needed a framework to identify high-value opportunities, assess feasibility, and sequence implementation in a way that built organizational confidence.

The ThoughtFocus Build Experience

We began with cross-functional discovery sessions, mapping current workflows against pain points and data readiness. Our team conducted a rapid opportunity assessment, scoring 12 potential use cases across impact, complexity, and data availability. We facilitated alignment workshops where stakeholders prioritized together, creating a shared vision. The result: a phased roadmap starting with document intelligence for income verification—a high-impact, technically achievable entry point that would demonstrate value quickly while building the foundation for more advanced applications.

The Breakthrough

Within 90 days, the lender had a board-approved AI strategy with clear success metrics and a funded pilot. More importantly, they had organizational alignment and a reusable framework for evaluating future AI investments, transforming AI from a scattered set of ideas into a strategic capability.