Ryan Miller Of Peerlogic Is Disrupting Our Industry, and What We Can Do About It

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive into our discussion our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?

Starting a company to serve the dental industry was nowhere on my radar, but then my wife, who works in medical device sales, kept coming home with stories from struggling dental offices. I have a background as a technologist and have always been entrepreneurial, so it was second nature to begin brainstorming potential solutions.

By way of background, AI is revolutionizing dentistry, but most of the focus has been on leveraging it to improve diagnostics, imaging, robotic systems and the like. But who really needs support are the front offices of dental practices. Today, Peerlogic is powered by AI and processes data points captured from human speech to help practices quickly identify and win-back missed opportunities, improve processes, and streamline communications.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

Peerlogic’s technology platform has significant implications for the industry at large by directly addressing pain points dental practices and front office employees have run into for decades.

Peerlogic is servicing more than 1,000 dental offices in the United States. So far dental practices are thrilled by how quickly Peerlogic is helping transform businesses and operations. They’re seeing benefits like a 60% reduction in call times, a 70% increase in appointments, and a 40% reduction of costs. This underscores how useful conversational AI is as an engine that empowers high-performing front office teams to increase dental practice efficiency and revenue.

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

1. Hiring for culture, not for need. In my experience, prioritizing cultural fit over immediate necessity has been crucial in the hiring process. Any time I simply bring someone on board based solely on their skills, without considering their alignment with the company culture, it often does a disservice to both of us.
2. A shared mission within the full team. At Peerlogic, it’s essential that every team member can wholeheartedly endorse our mission, fostering a sense of collective purpose and commitment. A cohesive team is built upon a shared mission that transcends financial objectives.
3. A blind willingness to know you’re going to succeed. I’ve had to tell myself — and believe — that I’m going to succeed, and anybody that says differently is wrong. It’s what keeps me going.

Let’s now move to the main point of our discussion about AI. Can you explain how AI is disrupting your industry? Is this disruption hurting or helping your bottom line?

Before Peerlogic, office support was accepted as being manual, time consuming and repetitive. With economic downturns, budget cuts and staff shortages, it’s not realistic to manage phones in the ways that are needed. Peerlogic is disrupting the dental industry by saving practices time and money. Our conversational AI technology gives practices real-time custom insights based on their unique call data, proven dental industry trends and correlations combined with their individual practice call data. These call performance metrics take the guesswork out of how to improve front office performance. The bottom line is impacted directly when conversion rates increase from calls to scheduled appointments.

Which specific AI technology has had the most significant impact on your industry?

In our industry, the most impactful AI technology has been in the realm of natural language processing (NLP). This encompasses various applications with a primary focus on facilitating seamless interactions through natural language in conversations, text-based communication, chats, and voice interactions. The other important AI tech is computer vision, which involves the analysis of visual data such as images, which holds a significant impact in image identification and interpretation, such as identifying dental anomalies from radiographs.

I believe the biggest opportunity is in capturing the conversation between practice and patient. That’s where the majority of disconnect is. As a result, our efforts are directed toward enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of these interactions, aiming to streamline processes for patients to access primary care and dental services promptly.

Our vision extends beyond mere x-ray reviews and clinical documentation. We aim to capture the nuanced conversations between patients and practitioners, recognizing that valuable information often remains unrecorded or overlooked. By leveraging NLP technologies, we seek to enrich the patient experience by ensuring that vital information communicated during consultations is accurately captured and integrated into the patient’s care journey. This holistic approach not only enhances the quality of care but also fosters stronger patient-provider relationships.

While our initial focus may have been on addressing front-office challenges, our long-term strategy involves integrating NLP solutions into clinical workflows. By seamlessly integrating doctor notes and patient conversations into the care continuum, we aim to fill the existing gaps in healthcare delivery. Our goal is to move beyond surface-level interactions captured in electronic health records and delve deeper into the subtleties of patient communication, ultimately improving the overall quality and efficacy of healthcare delivery.

Can you share a pivotal moment when you recognized the profound impact AI would have on your sector?

A pivotal moment for me occurred during a conversation with a prominent dental practice, where I gained insight into the substantial investment they were making each month in marketing efforts. What struck me was their lack of confidence in their front office team’s ability to effectively convert inquiries into actual patients. In response, they resorted to outsourcing new patient calls to a third-party call center, primarily due to the absence of visibility and coaching mechanisms within their organization. The realization that such critical aspects of patient engagement and conversion were being overlooked underscored the profound need for innovative solutions.

It became evident that traditional coaching methods were insufficient in addressing the specific challenges faced by dental practices in optimizing front office performance. While platforms like Gong excelled in providing coaching solutions, there was a glaring gap in tailoring these solutions to the unique needs of the dental industry. This realization served as an ‘aha moment,’ prompting the recognition of the transformative potential of AI-driven solutions tailored to vertical-specific challenges.

How are you preparing your workforce for the integration of AI, and what skills do you believe will be most valuable in an AI-enhanced future?

To prepare our workforce for the integration of AI, we recognize the need to assume responsibility for educating our customers. Rather than expecting dental office staff to become AI experts, we are committed to equipping our customer success, sales, and engineering teams with the necessary skills to effectively guide and train our clients. Our approach involves delivering targeted, bite-sized training modules tailored to address specific challenges our customers face. By focusing on practical solutions to immediate needs, such as handling missed calls from new patients, we aim to demonstrate the tangible benefits of AI implementation in driving practice revenue.

In terms of skill sets, adaptability and a willingness to embrace AI technologies are incredibly important. Teams must adopt a mindset that acknowledges the transformative potential of AI in dentistry and actively seek opportunities to leverage it for enhanced efficiency and performance. Additionally, effective communication and training abilities are crucial for our workforce to facilitate seamless integration and adoption of AI solutions among our clientele. Through comprehensive documentation, personalized onboarding processes, in-app training resources, and dedicated customer success support, we want to empower both our team members and customers to navigate and capitalize on the AI-enhanced future of dentistry.

What are the biggest challenges in upskilling your workforce for an AI-centric future?

We are focused on building a great Arizona tech company. One of the primary challenges in upskilling our workforce for an AI-centric future lies in fostering effective collaboration and talent acquisition within the context of our company culture and location. While the trend towards remote work is prevalent in the tech industry, we firmly believe in the value of in-person collaboration and have thus prioritized an office-centric approach at Peerlogic. However, attracting top-tier engineering talent to Arizona presents a unique hurdle. Many skilled professionals gravitate towards tech hubs like Silicon Valley, Austin, and New York, posing a challenge in recruiting and retaining talent locally. There’s only a handful of people in Arizona that we can go after that meet our skill set, but yet we’re doing it. Our strategy involves cultivating a strong company culture that resonates with potential candidates and emphasizes the opportunity to contribute to the growth of a dynamic organization.

What ethical considerations does AI introduce into your industry, and how are you tackling these concerns?

It’s always going to be a challenge to navigate the ethical implications that come from AI. For instance, there’s an inherent risk of AI generating inaccurate or misleading outputs. This is why it’s so important to recognize that AI shouldn’t replace human oversight and decision-making — it should complement it. AI isn’t the end-all, be-all of solutions. But as an industry, we can make the most of it. At Peerlogic, our team of engineers constantly works to refine AI algorithms, focusing on eliminating biases and preventing the oversharing of sensitive patient data. We’ve also collaborated with experts in healthcare data science to ensure our AI solutions exceed ethical standards.