In December 2022, the American Dental Association (ADA) published a comprehensive white paper on Artificial Intelligence in dentistry. While the document provides valuable insights into AI's clinical applications, it notably overlooks one of the most transformative aspects of AI in the dental industry: conversational AI.
The ADA's focus on clinical applications, such as caries detection and radiographic analysis, fails to address the revolutionary potential of dental AI in patient communication and practice management, aka conversational AI.
What is conversational AI?
Conversational AI refers to technologies that enable computers to understand, process, and respond to human language naturally. In dentistry, this technology is poised to transform patient interactions, streamline operations, and significantly enhance practice efficiency.
Two key applications of conversational AI in dentistry
1) AI phone receptionists can manage missed calls and after-hours communication
Dental practices face a significant challenge with missed phone calls, losing an estimated 30-35% of all inbound calls. This translates to a staggering loss of potential revenue, often amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. The traditional solution of relying on voicemail is increasingly ineffective, with studies showing that 2/3 to 3/4 of patients refuse to leave messages and nearly 90% never call back.
Voicemail, once a staple of business communication, is rapidly becoming an outdated system. As consumer expectations for immediate response grow, the limitations of voicemail become more apparent. It fails to provide the real-time interaction that patients desire and can lead to missed opportunities for appointment scheduling and addressing urgent patient needs.
However, the advent of conversational AI has revolutionized how dental practices can manage missed calls and after-hours communication. AI phone assistants, such as Annie AI, offer a solution that addresses the shortcomings of traditional voicemail systems while providing numerous benefits:
- 24/7 availability: AI phone assistants can engage with patients at any time, ensuring that no call goes unanswered, even outside of office hours.
- Appointment scheduling: When integrated with practice management systems, AI assistants can schedule appointments directly, improving efficiency and patient convenience.
- Emergency triage: AI can assess the urgency of calls and provide appropriate guidance or escalation for emergency situations.
- Call connect: AI phone agents can assess a patient's phone call and if necessary call the practice and connect them with the patient, ensuring a positive and trustworthy communication.
- Multi-lingual capabilities: AI agents have the ability to communicate in nearly every language giving patients a familiar experience.
- Personalized responses: AI assistants can access patient records via an API integration to provide personalized information and responses, enhancing the patient experience.
- Lead creation and data collection: AI can gather initial patient information during calls, streamlining the intake process and saving time for office staff.
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By leveraging AI phone assistants, dental practices can significantly reduce missed opportunities, improve patient satisfaction, and potentially recapture a substantial portion of the revenue previously lost due to missed calls.
This technology bridges the gap between patient expectations for immediate response and the practical limitations of staffing a dental office, offering a solution that is both efficient and effective in managing patient communications.
2) AI webchat increases website visitors into scheduled patients
In a recent dental AI podcast it was discussed that only about 17-18% of dental practices add webchat to their websites, despite consumer research studies showing that two-thirds of patients prefer dental practices to have web chat capabilities. This discrepancy raises an important question:
Why aren't more dental practices implementing webchat, which is a preferred communication channel?
The primary reason for this reluctance is the demanding nature of managing webchat. Dental practices are not structured to handle the influx of webchat interactions effectively. Team management and task allocation within dental offices typically don't allow for the constant attention that web chat requires. The intrusive nature of web chat has led dental teams to reject or be unwilling to hire additional staff necessary to manage it properly.
However, the advent of conversational AI has changed this landscape. With AI-powered webchat capabilities, dental practices can now offer this preferred communication channel without the burden of constant human management.
By leveraging conversational AI for webchat, dental practices can meet patient preferences for immediate, on-demand support without overburdening their staff.
The future of dental AI and patient communication
As dental AI technology continues to advance, we can anticipate even more conversational AI capabilities for dental practices:
- Outbound calling: AI agents proactively reaching out to patients for appointment reminders, follow-ups or even to offer new services.
- Payment processing: Secure, AI-facilitated payment transactions.
- Appointment rescheduling: Automated, intelligent rescheduling to minimize gaps in the practice schedule.
- New patient intake: AI-assisted completion of intake forms, streamlining the new patient onboarding process.
- Insurance verification: Automated insurance verification to expedite patient processing.
- Intelligent call routing: Connecting complex inquiries to the appropriate staff member when necessary.
Conclusion
While the ADA's AI report provides valuable insights into clinical applications, it overlooks the transformative potential of conversational AI in dental practice management and new patient acquisition.
As these technologies continue to evolve, they promise to revolutionize patient communication, streamline operations, and significantly enhance practice efficiency and profitability.
Dental professionals would do well to explore and adopt these emerging AI solutions to stay competitive in an increasingly technology-driven industry.
