TECH TRENDS

Agents open new AI opportunities for DSOs

You do not need a twenty‑person data team or a moonshot budget to get real value from AI. The biggest wins sit where DSOs bleed time and money: eligibility checks, claim prep and follow‑up, and schedule gaps. 

The state of play: Two headwinds dominate operator pain today. First, staffing and payer friction, with recent surveys showing dentists ranking workforce issues and insurance reimbursement or denials among their top challenges, with cancelled or broken appointments still on the list. 

Second, back‑office drag: CAQH estimates dental practices spent the most on eligibility and benefits verification in 2024, with a remaining annual savings opportunity of roughly $580 million and an average eight minutes saved per verification when fully electronic. 

What it means: Every DSO leader is being pitched an “AI solution” but knowing where to spend precious budget is difficult when most products don’t move the needle on key challenges and staffing remains tight, payer friction is still stubborn, and admin work clogs the day. 

The reality is that the biggest AI wins won’t come from a website widget to handle basic Q&A, but from a set of small, purpose‑built AI “agents”—some custom built, some off-the-shelf—that automate the most menial administrative work and trigger human follow‑up only where it matters. Here are seven agent ideas to kickstart your next brainstorm session on how to start using AI to drive real outcomes for your business:

1. Next‑day eligibility sweep: Have a simple agent pull patient’s benefit eligibility for tomorrow’s schedule, summarize key benefits, and drop a one‑page note in the chart. The front desk gets talking points before the patient arrives. Fewer surprises, cleaner estimates.
   

2. Claim‑ready packet builder: Before you submit, auto‑assemble the required attachments and a short narrative that matches payer preferences. The goal is fewer first‑pass denials, not fancier forms.
   

3. Claim‑status chaser: Run claim status checks twice a day. Create a tiny worklist for stalled claims and ignore the rest. Your team then works exceptions, not the entire queue.
   

4. Quick‑fill waitlist: When a slot opens, text a short list of patients most likely to say yes, then let them book with one tap. Same‑day fills beat last‑minute gaps.
   

5. Call intelligence and follow‑up: Auto‑summarize inbound calls, tag intent, and trigger a task when someone asks about pricing, insurance, or financing but does not book. Phones drive most new patient revenue. Do not let a good lead die on hold.
   

6. Credentialing tracker: Stop spreadsheeting licenses and CAQH attestations. Use an agent to monitor expirations and nudge the right person at the right time so providers stay payable.
   

7. Chairside scribe for clean notes: Record room audio, then let an AI scribe draft SOAP notes and claim‑ready narratives. Clinicians review and sign off in minutes. Consistency improves and claim prep gets easier.

Why it matters: These plays target the biggest, least glamorous inefficiencies and align to what ADA and CAQH data say is dragging teams down: eligibility work, staffing retention issues, slow claim follow‑up, and schedule leakage. You can implement them with HIPAA‑eligible platforms, not consumer tools. 

How to get started:

• Pick two plays to start, one for revenue cycle and one for scheduling.
  

• Identify a solution that can implement the play, either an off-the-shelf product or software developer who can build custom.
  

• Run a 60‑day pilot in a few locations. Keep the process tight and consistent, and pick key metrics to track.

Bottom line: The big AI wins for DSOs are just starting to emerge. Even if you don’t implement these ideas tomorrow, smart operators will be increasingly focused on finding opportunities to automate more of their processes with agents.