Artificial Intelligence (AI) is nothing new, but it’s come a long way since its inception in 1956 during a summer conference at Dartmouth. AI ushered in personal computers, which we’ve all grown up with and have witnessed the vast changes they’ve made in our lives. Of course we sometimes want to toss those laptops or phones out the window, but the majority of the time, AI makes our day-to-day lives a breeze. 

If AI helps with our personal lives, how can it help with your dental practice? We’re checking out six different ways this technology assists your team in making the patient experience even better. 

Patients want efficiency. AI provides it.

With the potential to optimize various aspects of your day, streamline processes, improve efficiency, and enhance patient care, AI might just have your team jumping for joy. Here are six ways why:

1. Appointment Scheduling: Hand your scheduling over to AI-powered systems, and you’ll have access to past appointment data, patient preferences, and staff availability to optimize the experience. Systems like these can minimize gaps in your schedule, reduce wait times, and maximize productivity for the team. Who doesn’t want that? 
2. Patient Communication: Chatbots and virtual assistants relieve your team of routine patient inquiries including appointment scheduling, reminders, and FAQs. Your staff can shift their focus on more complex tasks and not be burdened with administrative duties. 
3. Patient Monitoring: AI takes things to a whole new level by helping facilitate remote patient monitoring. It can analyze data from wearable devices such as dental sensors or oral health trackers, enabling dentists to monitor and intervene as needed to prevent complications.   
4. Workflow Optimization: What’s better than having routine processes function without constant intervention? AI optimizes workflows by analyzing data on patient flow, staff productivity, and resource utilization. Fine-tuned algorithms identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and opportunities for improvement. Your team can then optimize their processes for maximum efficiency and production. 
5. Personalized Patient Care: Patients want to feel special when they visit your practice– even before they walk through your door. Technology helps by collecting data and understanding preferences and health history, resulting in tailored treatment plans and recommendations. Enhancing patient satisfaction and outcomes will keep them coming back. 
6. Data Analysis + Insights: While you’re busy doing dentistry and giving patients the best experience, AI can digest large datasets of patient information, clinical records, and treatment outcomes to generate insights and trends. These data points can help drive decisions to improve treatment protocols, office culture, and enhance care options. 

AI has been around for decades, and it won’t be going away anytime soon. Using it to your advantage to enhance the daily grind for your team can go a long way in improving your office productivity. Are you using AI at your practice?