When you call up a company’s customer service line and are greeted by an off-kilter automated voice, how does that usually go? Personally, the call often ends with us yelling “Connect me to a person!” at a robot that just keeps asking the same questions over and over again.

If you relate, we have good news: That might soon be an interaction of the past.

AI agents promise to flip that script by offering live assistants that remember and build off past queries to personalize and improve service. These agents can be online or even take on human-sounding voices to provide guidance over calls—and unlike chatbots, they can act autonomously without being prompted.

The even bigger news is organizations are already rolling these agents out in one of the domains where it’s most important to get things right: healthcare.

Can I speak to a human representative?—CC

The legal blows just keep coming for Johnson & Johnson.

Not only is it dealing with lawsuits related to its talc powder still, but Texas’s attorney general brought a lawsuit against J&J Tuesday, saying the company “knowingly withheld evidence from consumers” while selling Tylenol for decades. The over-the-counter drug has come under fire by the Trump administration and the Department of Health and Human Services in recent weeks as being dangerous for pregnant people and flagged as a potential cause of autism, something researchers have previously pushed back against.

As CFO Brew reports, it provides a stark reminder for finance and risk leaders that product liability risk can get real expensive, real quick.

A jury in Los Angeles recently ordered the consumer products giant to pay $966 million to the family of a woman who died of mesothelioma, Reuters reported. The plaintiffs alleged, and the jury agreed, that J&J’s talc products were to blame. This amount includes $16 million in compensatory damages and $950 million in punitive damages.

The company said it plans to appeal. In a statement, Erik Haas, J&J’s worldwide VP of litigation, called the verdict “egregious and unconstitutional” and claimed the plaintiffs based their arguments on “junk science.”

This is far from the end for J&J’s talc troubles, as it still faces more than 90,000 pending lawsuits, according to the New York Times.

Keep reading on CFO Brew.—AZ

After years of devastating losses, US opioid deaths are finally falling—thanks to wider naloxone access, telehealth, and Medicaid coverage. But looming $1t Medicaid cuts and new work rules could reverse those gains, leaving millions at risk. With nearly half of adults with opioid use disorder relying on Medicaid, experts warn coverage gaps may undo recent progress. Healthcare Brew breaks down what’s at stake.