WaitWell Introduces Waillo — AI That Actually Connects People to…People

With WaitWell now used in over 1,700 government offices, universities, healthcare clinics, and service-based businesses across North America, we’re closer than ever to the realities of service operations across many different contexts. Much of our work is focused on understanding where friction still exists for both people and teams, and how to remove it in practical ways across busy service environments.

This week, we’re proud to introduce the latest step in that work: Waillo, a new AI service layer designed to extend how WaitWell supports queuing, booking, and end-to-end service flow.

While many AI solutions aim to replace human interaction, Waillo is built to do the opposite. It routes people to other humans for service, rather than trapping them in chatbot dead ends. Waillo is designed for high-volume service environments where speed, accuracy, and human interaction matter.

“There’s a lot of hype around generative AI and removing people from the service layer right now—and that’s exciting for organizations looking to streamline operations,” said Steven Vander Meulen, CEO and Co-Founder of WaitWell. “But AI for the sake of AI can end up adding layers between people and the help they actually need. We use AI to connect humans to other humans, information, and services faster.”

For the businesses and public offices using WaitWell, that means teams get easy-to-interpret data that helps them build, grow, and understand client needs faster than ever before.

“The crux is using AI to keep humans working together—not replacing them,” Vander Meulen added.

Waillo Chat: plain language, faster routing

Waillo Chat removes the guesswork from accessing services. Instead of forcing people to understand internal service names or navigate complex organizational structures, visitors can simply describe what they need in their own words.

For example:
A citizen types “I need a birth certificate” and is routed to vital records
A student types “I need to add a class” and is routed to registrar services
A patient types “I sprained my ankle” and is routed to urgent care intake

Waillo Chat maps requests to the correct service, queue, or appointment type, reducing confusion, abandoned visits, and front-desk interruptions. Unlike chatbots designed to avoid human contact, Waillo has a single job: understand what people need and connect them to the right person as quickly as possible.

Waillo Insights: operational intelligence without the PhD

For staff and operations leaders, Waillo Insights turns existing reports into clear, real-time answers. Rather than pulling and reconciling multiple reports, teams can ask questions in natural language—such as “Who were my best-performing staff last month?” or “Which locations are consistently overcrowded?”—and receive actionable responses.

This lowers the training burden, shortens time-to-value, and helps non-technical teams make informed decisions about staffing, hours of operation, service flow, and policy changes that reduce bottlenecks and improve visitor satisfaction.

“Frontline managers don’t have time to become analysts,” said Vander Meulen. “They need answers now so they can adjust operations in real time. Waillo gives them operational intelligence without the complexity.”

Built by people who lived the problem

WaitWell’s founders—Shannon Vander Meulen (CMO and frontline operations expert), Steve Vander Meulen (CEO, with 27 years building enterprise software), and Steve Drew (CTO, with 45+ years in IT architecture)—built WaitWell after experiencing these challenges firsthand.

“We owned a registry office where customers abandoned 90-minute waits, staff burned out from chaos, and we had zero visibility into what was actually happening,” said Shannon Vander Meulen. “We couldn’t find software flexible enough to adapt to our environment, so we built it—and we’ve stayed focused on real outcomes ever since.”

A deliberate approach to AI

In an environment where many vendors are rebranding existing automation as “AI,” WaitWell’s approach has been deliberately conservative. We chose not to market existing machine-learning features as AI until we could deliver capabilities that people and staff could actually feel at the counter, not just read about in headlines.

Building on WaitWell’s proven wait-time estimation and service analytics, Waillo reflects growing demand for AI that delivers tangible operational outcomes rather than hype.

Proven at scale

Since founding, WaitWell has served more than 30 million customers and saved an estimated 8.67 million hours of wait time across 1,700+ locations in North America. Organizations using WaitWell include Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles, University at Buffalo, UT Austin, Pennington County, Dallas Animal Urgent Care, and healthcare organizations across the continent.