Healthcare is undergoing a digital revolution. In the years since the Covid-19 pandemic, providers have adopted various technologies to improve the patient experience.
Cloud-based software has enabled remote access of patient data. Video platforms have empowered clinical experts to carry out virtual consultations. Health and wellbeing plans are being delivered via apps.
These changes have been transformative for both patients and healthcare professionals.
But the speed of change isn’t happening fast enough for patients. A recent study by Talkdesk, an AI-powered customer contact centre software provider, revealed a gap between expectation and delivery. Some 63% of patients surveyed said their healthcare provider wasn’t equipped to deliver an excellent digital experience.
Yet it is imperative that providers meet the growing expectations of their patients. In fact, 75% of patients are more loyal to providers that actively invest in the patient experience, while 67% say a single poor experience affects their brand trust.
This isn’t news to providers: 90% recognise their contact centres are key to improving patient experience in the next two years. But fragmented systems and outdated technologies are still slowing their progress.
The need for continued investment in digital infrastructure at contact centres is clear and many providers are choosing to invest in artificial intelligence (AI) in the form of AI agents.
“An AI agent has the ability to have a natural two-way conversation with a patient like you would have with a human at a contact centre,” explains Jim Burke, head of global healthcare and life sciences marketing at Talkdesk. “Agents can then perform a series of specific actions pre-defined by the healthcare provider.”
A good example of this in action is when patients contact their provider to rearrange an appointment. Rather than waiting for a human operator to become available, a patient could call, text, email or send a voice note to an AI agent to discuss rescheduling an appointment.
The agent would then automatically enter the new information provided into an electronic record system and send confirmation to both the patient and relevant healthcare professional without the need for human intervention.
The benefits of AI agents are seismic for healthcare providers. Historically, contact centres have also been considered cost centres - ones that require huge amounts of manpower and financial resources to deliver a quality service. But AI agents could transform them into value-drivers.
Healthcare professionals are often burdened by administrative tasks that require time and mental bandwidth that should be reserved for interactions with patients. But agents can give providers the tools to free up their experts to focus on improving healthcare outcomes.
Burke says this point is key. The aim of Talkdesk’s agents isn’t to replace or disrupt the doctor-patient experience - it’s to optimise it. “Patients don’t want to talk to an AI agent about deeply personal and important medical conditions,” he says. “Our data shows that 81% of patients prefer to consult a human for medical advice, which still feels low to me. We have no ambition to develop AI to replace doctors in the future. It’s to enable experts to spend more time doing the high-level clinical work they’re trained to do.”
AI agents could also be transformative for healthcare providers in a host of other ways:
Personalise patient care
Historically, healthcare providers have delivered a one-size-fits-all approach to the patient experience. But AI agents give them the opportunity to tailor their service and allow patients to choose between AI-powered, human or hybrid communications for specified interactions. Agents also learn from past engagements to facilitate interactions that are relevant to a patient’s history and unique needs.
Improve response times
Delays in speaking to human operators at contact centres can frustrate patients, particularly in situations that require basic interactions with an operator. These can include booking or rescheduling an appointment, changing basic information such as addresses or asking questions around treatment aftercare. AI agents can instantly respond and answer patient queries and operate 24/7, enabling flexible, round-the-clock communication.
Streamline tasks
Medical professionals are required to manually send appointment reminders and input data into their online healthcare system. This means experts spend vast amounts of time performing basic, routine tasks that could be spent on speaking to and treating patients. AI agents can automate these routine tasks and relieve this administrative burden.
Simplify AI management
Organisations can easily monitor, test and optimise AI agents because they relay and understand clear, direct instructions from human operators. They are also built with specific guardrails, meaning agents focus on performing specific tasks to minimise and remove security concerns. Unlike some generative AI (GenAI) tools, agents can also be trained to rely exclusively on approved knowledge sources, increasing their reliability and accuracy.
Facilitate seamless communication
AI agents synchronise voice, text and email in real time, ensuring patients receive consistent information across all channels. A patient could book an appointment via a chatbot, receive confirmation via email, and a voice reminder the day before. The form of communication can be tailored based on the patient’s specified preferences.
The path to better care
The benefits are clear, but technology adoption always comes with risks and objections. For healthcare providers, the security of patient data and accuracy of information is essential to provide accurate information and enhance health outcomes.
Accuracy has been an issue with Gen AI software such as ChatGPT, but this is because the large language models behind them have been trained using data that often contains biases and inaccurate data. Talkdesk’s AI agents are trained using only approved knowledge sources from the healthcare provider organisation.
Accessibility is another issue often raised by providers when adopting new tech. Older patients may prefer traditional forms of communication, such as letters and phone calls, and don’t have the same access to technologies such as smartphones and email. But Burke says this isn’t an issue with agents.
“It’s very conversational,” he says. “It can understand and issue a response based on pretty much any type of input in any language. Patients don’t have to purchase or learn a new technology and they can speak to an agent 24/7.”
For healthcare providers ready to execute a patient experience strategy, the starting point is creating a roadmap. “Firstly, you need to map out the entire patient journey,” says Burke. “The aim isn’t to just apply AI to your current journey. We want to unlock as many gains in terms of patient experience and organisational efficiency as possible.
“You need to identify exactly how patients are interacting with you via various digital and non-digital channels. “This could be calling up operators, sending an email or visiting a healthcare practice.”
A phased approach can also help to ensure a smooth integration and ensure patients and staff are comfortable with using agents. Providers could begin by identifying and addressing the highest volume, lowest complexity interactions. This could be using digital, text-based AI agents to deal with appointment rescheduling. Or introducing voice-activated AI agents to answer basic patient queries.
Burke adds: “We’ve worked with enough healthcare providers now that we’ve got ready-made templates and workflows that you can integrate and get started on at least testing and optimising for your organisation very quickly.”
Once providers have undergone a successful integration, they can monitor and enhance their agents’ knowledge base if there are any gaps. “You may receive some common questions that it can’t answer if it only has access to a basic level of training data,” says Burke. “In this situation you can identify the gaps and increase its access to a validated knowledge base by feeding it data and human conversations we believe will improve its response to queries. From there you continue to monitor and adapt its success rate.”
Providers are already reaping the benefits of AI agents. In Florida, a Federally Qualified Health Center treats 60,000 patients per year, resulting in around 250,000 visits. A large number of these patients are from economically challenging backgrounds. The majority of appointment conversations in primary care are now being resolved by Talkdesk’s AI agents. The result has been a 98% decrease in patient wait time at contact centres. Integrating AI has also freed up medical staff to provide a higher level of service to this community.
In the same system, IT staff have been empowered by AI. Talkdesk created a workflow that enables patients to reset their medical portal passwords using an AI agent without the intervention of a human operator. Previously, lengthy conversations were needed to validate the patient and ensure the centre wasn’t providing access to the wrong person. But AI is now capable of verifying the patient autonomously.
If healthcare providers can use AI agents to enhance the patient experience, they could succeed in hitting or even surpassing their most important KPIs. “There are so many opportunities to drive improvements in population health, preventative care, chronic condition management and many other areas,” says Burke.
“For us, it’s not just about making everything as low-cost and fast as possible - although that is a big part of what we do. It’s about driving value for the organisation and the patients and families they’re taking care of.”
AI agents are already reshaping patient interactions, streamlining operations and improving access to care. As healthcare providers continue to invest in these technologies, the focus must remain on delivering both efficiency and empathy by ensuring that digital transformation enhances, rather than replaces, the human touch in patient care.
Those that fully embrace AI-driven contact centres will be best positioned to deliver seamless, personalised and accessible healthcare experiences, transforming contact centres from cost centres into critical drivers of patient satisfaction and operational success.
For more information please visit talkdesk.com
Healthcare is undergoing a digital revolution. In the years since the Covid-19 pandemic, providers have adopted various technologies to improve the patient experience.
Cloud-based software has enabled remote access of patient data. Video platforms have empowered clinical experts to carry out virtual consultations. Health and wellbeing plans are being delivered via apps.
These changes have been transformative for both patients and healthcare professionals.
