The first time I told my team we were bringing AI tools into the practice, I couldn't hide my excitement. I pictured more patients cared for and a front desk that wasn't constantly stretched thin. I assumed my team would be just as excited, but what I learned was that they saw things differently.
Imagine opening your favorite news site or social feeds and hearing over and over, that AI will soon do your work faster and cheaper. Then your boss walks in, thrilled about exactly that. I didn't realize how my excitement sounded from their side of the desk.
Why Teams Resist AI
Like any dentist, I love CE and I love new toys. We all fall for a new tool long before our teams have even touched it. The scanner, the software, now AI. We assume everyone feels the relief we feel. Usually they don't, at least not yet, and a tool your team doesn't trust can end up gathering dust.
The reasons are almost always human. Some team members worry they won't pick it up quickly, and yes, some are scared they'll become replaceable.
That fear makes sense, and as a business owner, I believe it deserves real conversations. Turnover, and the search for replacements, costs far more than the time it takes to help your team confidently adopt AI tools.
Over the past two years I've met with my own team to talk about how I want to grow our practice now that AI is part of everyday dentistry. When you're trying to create the perfect patient experience, the last thing you want is a tool that adds friction or costs you your patients' trust. I know that whenever something feels hard, it meets resistance.
What a Hybrid Model Looks Like
I tell every practice owner and team member that AI isn't taking their jobs. Rather, it takes the tasks your team either shouldn't be doing, or doesn’t have time to do in the first place; the mundane, routine work that eats up their day. Things like clinical voice notes, answering inbound calls, sending text messages to new patients who request appointments. These repeated tasks are simple but time-consuming, and adding front-office support is one way AI is already making team members' lives easier.
This goes beyond the front desk, too. Think about how much time someone on your team spends bouncing between vendor websites, trying to figure out who has the best price on gloves that week. For the US dentists I work with, I point them to Net32, where prices from different suppliers show up together. Their teams spend less time ordering and nobody misses the old way.
Before any of these tools touch your practice, vet them for privacy and security. Patient information deserves the same care we give patient health, and every tool should meet the privacy requirements where you practice. Your team and your patients will trust a new tool far more when they know you've done that homework first.
My office runs as a hybrid model now, with humans and AI each covering the ground they're best at. Patients, new and existing, reach out whenever it suits them, whether that's after hours or in the middle of a lunch rush. I've delegated routine front-office tasks to AI, so the right information is gathered before they arrive.
From there, AI hands off to my team. When a patient reaches one of us, we already know why they called and what's important to them, so that first human conversation can go straight to care. And when my team gets pulled into the operatory or buried in a full schedule, AI relieves the pressure. Patients don't get dropped in between, and nobody on my team has to do everything alone.
What My Patients Taught Me
Most dentists assume patients will be the ones pushing back on AI. In my experience, they aren't. My patients love that they can get what they need without waiting on hold or leaving a voicemail and hoping for a callback. Whenever I know a patient has interacted with our AI, I ask them how it went. Every single time, the answer is some version of "It was pretty good, actually."
That tells me people are getting used to it, faster than many of us expected. Patients already use AI when they bank and shop, so a dental office that works the same way feels normal to them.
As long as the tools we bring in keep serving our patients well, I don't see why I would stop.
Bringing Your Team Along
This shift isn't slowing down. Younger team members arrive expecting smart tools, and the practices down the street are already adopting them. Whether or not we feel ready, the modern dental workplace has become hybrid.
Choosing to sit this out is still a choice, but it's an expensive one. Costs keep climbing across the board and losing a talented team member because they felt left behind hurts more than any line item.
So bring your team along. Start with why and name the fear out loud. Tell them directly that this is here to support them. Go slower than you want to. Owners want results by the end of the week, but teams need time to learn a tool before they trust it, and they need to be part of the process. When I've rushed a rollout, my team pushed back. Ask where your team feels the friction and include them in the discussion around which tasks go to AI first. When my team got involved, they owned it.
A hybrid model is also a wellness decision. My practice is built around wellness, and that has to include the people working inside it. When AI takes on a real share of the workload, no one is finishing a long clinical day wondering how they're going to make it to the end of the week. The pressure gets lighter for everyone, and my team comes to work with more energy.
The future of dentistry will be hybrid because AI is not going away. Our roles look different today than they did just a few years ago, and that's what makes this moment so exciting.
