TECH

Getting your teams to trust new tech

You are wowed by the demo, sign the contract, and flip on the new digital tool that promises serious ROI for your practices. Three months later, half your locations are still doing things the old way and your staff swears the tool “slows them down.” 

It’s a common story when it comes to introducing new tech, but the stakes have been raised as AI rapidly improves, and being able to successfully implement a digital transformation strategy is quickly becoming a major competitive advantage for DSOs.

What’s happening: Around 20% of dental owners have installed new software or digital systems this year, but research by the Boston Consulting Group found that about 70% of digital transformations fail.

• In healthcare specifically, introducing new tech can often be an even trickier undertaking and requires buy-in from clinicians who may see it as interfering with their care.

• Patients themselves can also be wary of new technology, particularly when it comes to the use of AI in healthcare settings. 

Why it matters: DSOs are being pulled in two directions: pressure to modernize and the real risk of alienating both clinicians and patients if they botch the rollout. So, how do you get it right?

1. Start with an outcome, not a feature list. Pick a single success metric per deployment that ties the tool directly to revenue, cost, or clinical quality. For example: Increasing accepted treatment for periodontitis by 5% in 12 months or reducing average new‑patient charting time by 3 minutes.

2. Co-design with clinicians instead of pushing from corporate. McKinsey’s work on transformations shows success rates jump when frontline staff drive change rather than simply receiving it. Build a pilot group that includes at least a lead dentist and hygienist from different cohorts, an office manager, and someone from your IT team. Give them real authority to shape and adjust the rollout before you scale to the rest of the network.

3. Treat training as a clinical skill, not a one-time webinar. A recent survey by the American Medical Association shows that trust in AI among healthcare providers grows with experience and with strong feedback loops, not with generic “AI is the future” messaging. Create an ongoing training program that includes follow-up coaching sessions with your team, not just at launch.

4. Build ethical guardrails into policy. Communicate clearly that clinicians retain final say and can override tech systems without penalty, spell out clear boundaries for how data can be used, and be explicit that new tech systems don’t come with hidden surveillance tools that undermine trust.

5. Design workflows to make your team’s jobs easier. It should go without saying, but new tech shouldn’t add to your staff’s workload. Often, however, it does. This is a recipe for dissatisfaction and burnout. A simple standard to stick to: Every new digital deployment must remove one meaningful task for every new click added.

Bottom line: As sophisticated tech and AI moves from “nice to have” to basic infrastructure, DSOs that can reliably deploy new systems without losing clinicians (and alienating patients) will have a durable advantage.