Can AI Say You’re Ready to Go Back to Work?
You are still hurting, your doctor has you on restrictions, and then a letter arrives saying your wage-loss benefits are ending because a review found you can return to work. More and more, that conclusion does not come from a person who examined you. It comes from an artificial intelligence vocational tool that scanned your file, matched your job title to a database, and produced a return-to-work date. In Michigan, your own treating physician, not a piece of software, is supposed to drive that decision, and the law gives you real tools when an insurer cuts off your benefits too soon. This guide explains how these AI assessments work, what your wage-loss rights actually are, and how to push back when a machine tries to send you back to a job your body cannot do.
How AI Decides You Can Work Again
Insurers have moved quickly to automate claim handling. Industry surveys in 2025 and 2026 show the large majority of carriers now use AI somewhere in their operations, and one fast-growing use is vocational assessment. The software takes your job history, education, and diagnosis codes, compares them against labor databases, and predicts the duties you could supposedly perform and when. Some systems are also built to flag any file that does not fit a standard recovery curve, which can trigger an automatic move to reduce or stop benefits.
The trouble is that these tools work from labels, not from your actual body. They do not feel the nerve pain that flares after twenty minutes of standing, they do not know your employer has no light-duty work, and they cannot weigh the medication that keeps you from driving. National litigation has spotlighted the risk. In a closely watched case, plaintiffs alleged an insurer used an algorithm to deny hundreds of thousands of claims in a matter of months with little human review, and in 2025 a federal court allowed that case to move forward. California responded with SB 1120, the Physicians Make Decisions Act, signed in September 2024 and effective January 1, 2025, which bars health and disability insurers from denying, delaying, or changing care based solely on an algorithm and requires a licensed physician to make every medical-necessity call. That statute governs health and disability coverage, not Michigan auto no-fault, so for our purposes it is a policy benchmark rather than binding law. Michigan has not passed an equivalent no-fault statute, but that does not leave you without protection, because the no-fault act already puts your benefits on a footing the software cannot simply override.
What Your Michigan Wage-Loss Benefits Really Are
If a car crash leaves you unable to work, Michigan no-fault provides work-loss benefits under MCL 500.3107(1)(b). These pay 85 percent of the gross wages you would have earned, up to a monthly maximum that the state adjusts every October. For the period running October 1, 2025 through September 30, 2026, that maximum is $7,201 per month under DIFS Bulletin 2025-18-INS, a figure the state resets every October 1, so check michigan.gov/difs for the current number after September 2026. The benefit runs for up to three years from the date of the crash. There is also a separate replacement-services benefit under MCL 500.3107(1)(c), up to $20 a day for help with tasks you can no longer do at home, such as cleaning or yard work, also for up to three years. Be aware that this $20 cap has not changed since 1973 and covers only a small piece of what help actually costs today, and the benefit must be an expense you incur, so if a relative or friend helps for free, keep dated logs of who helped, what they did, and any agreed payment, or the insurer may argue nothing was owed.
These benefits do not depend on who caused the crash. What they do depend on is proof that your injury keeps you from working, and that is a medical question. An insurer is allowed to ask you to attend an examination under MCL 500.3151, often called an independent medical exam, but since the 2019 reform that exam must be performed by a physician, not a vocational consultant, a nurse, or a therapist, and certainly not a database. An AI vocational report is not a physician’s examination at all, so when a carrier leans on it instead of credible medical evidence, it is standing on weak statutory ground.
When the Cutoff Is Wrong, the Law Has Teeth
An insurer that stops your benefits without a good reason does not get to do so for free. Under MCL 500.3142, personal injury protection benefits are overdue if they are not paid within 30 days after the insurer receives reasonable proof of the loss, and overdue benefits carry 12 percent penalty interest. On top of that, MCL 500.3148 lets a court order the insurer to pay your attorney fees if it unreasonably refused to pay or unreasonably delayed payment. In plain terms, if a carrier cuts you off based on a thin AI report and a court later finds that unreasonable, it can owe you the back benefits, the penalty interest, and your legal fees.
There is a deadline you must respect to keep these rights alive, but it is not always running. Under MCL 500.3145, you generally cannot recover personal injury protection benefits for any portion of the loss incurred more than one year before you file suit. For crashes on or after June 11, 2019, though, MCL 500.3145(3) pauses that one-year-back clock from the date you submit a specific claim until the insurer formally denies it in writing, so an insurer that stalls without a denial cannot use its own delay against you. Even so, do not wait. The sooner you challenge a cutoff, the more of your benefits you protect.
AI Guess Versus the Evidence That Counts
The table below contrasts what an AI vocational tool produces with the evidence that actually carries weight when your right to benefits is in dispute.
| The AI assessment | What it leaves out | The evidence that counts |
|---|---|---|
| Matches your job title to a database role. | Your real duties, lifting, standing, and driving demands. | A job description and your physician’s specific restrictions. |
| Predicts a recovery date from a model. | Your actual pain, setbacks, and response to treatment. | Treatment records and your doctor’s ongoing disability notes. |
| Assumes light-duty work exists. | Whether your employer actually offers it. | A written statement from your employer on available work. |
| Flags your file as off the standard curve. | That serious injuries do not follow neat averages. | Specialist opinions explaining your specific condition. |
When you and your attorney put the real evidence next to the algorithm, the gap usually speaks for itself, and a confident-sounding software date starts to look like exactly what it is, a guess.
If You Are Hurt Badly Enough to Sue
Lost income is not only a no-fault issue. If your injury is serious enough to meet the threshold in MCL 500.3135, you may also bring a third-party claim against the at-fault driver, and that claim can include the future earning capacity you lost, the raises and the career path the crash took from you. An AI tool that says you can work tries to shrink that future-wage piece too. Your economic damages, such as lost future earnings, are reduced by your share of fault under MCL 600.2959, but they are not wiped out unless a jury puts the fault entirely on you. Your right to non-economic damages for pain and suffering is separate, and it is barred only if you are found more than 50 percent at fault under MCL 500.3135(2)(b). Those are two different protections, and both make a fair fight over the facts worth a great deal. The point is the same in both settings: your earning future should be measured by credible proof, not by a model tuned to save the insurer money.
How a Lawyer Turns the Cutoff Around
When an insurer ends your wage loss on the strength of an AI report, an attorney goes to work on two fronts. First, we build the medical record the carrier ignored, pinning down your treating doctor’s restrictions, your specialists’ opinions, and your employer’s real duties, so the claim rests on evidence instead of a database. Second, we hold the insurer to MCL 500.3142 and MCL 500.3148, demanding the overdue benefits, the 12 percent penalty interest, and attorney fees where the cutoff was unreasonable. You should not have to choose between your recovery and your rent because software drew a line your body cannot honor.
ਅਕਸਰ ਪੁੱਛੇ ਜਾਂਦੇ ਸਵਾਲ
Can an insurer stop my wage loss just because AI says I can work?
It should not be able to. Whether you can return to work is a medical question, and Michigan no-fault ties your benefits to proof of your injury, not to a database prediction. An insurer can require an examination under MCL 500.3151, but a software vocational report is not a substitute for credible medical evidence. If the cutoff is unreasonable, the carrier can owe penalty interest and your attorney fees.
Is an AI vocational assessment the same as a doctor’s exam?
No. An AI tool matches labels and runs a model. It does not examine you, feel your pain, or account for your specific job and employer. Your treating physician’s restrictions and your specialists’ opinions carry the real weight when your right to benefits is disputed.
My own doctor says I cannot work. Whose word wins?
Your treating doctor’s documented restrictions are strong evidence, and a court weighing your benefits will look at credible medical proof, not an algorithm’s date. Keep your restrictions current and in writing, attend your appointments, and tell your lawyer right away if the insurer relies on a report from someone who never examined you.
How much wage loss can I receive in Michigan?
No-fault work-loss benefits pay 85 percent of your lost gross wages up to $7,201 per month for the October 2025 through September 2026 period under MCL 500.3107(1)(b) and DIFS Bulletin 2025-18-INS, for up to three years. A separate replacement-services benefit covers up to $20 a day for help with home tasks. A serious injury may also support a third-party claim for lost future earnings.
They already cut me off. Is it too late?
Act quickly. Under MCL 500.3145 you generally cannot recover benefits for losses incurred more than one year before you file suit, so a wrongful cutoff should not wait. A consultation is free and we work on contingency, so it costs nothing to have the cutoff reviewed and challenged.
Did an algorithm end your wage-loss benefits? Talk to a real attorney, free.
Attorney Manny Chahal will build the medical record the insurer ignored and demand your back benefits, 12 percent penalty interest, and attorney fees when a cutoff is unreasonable. Free statewide consultation. No fee unless we recover. Call 1-844-MCHAHAL.
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