Title: How artificial intelligence (AI) can transform dentistry: Navigating opportunities and risk.

Biography:

Dr. Natalie Archer is the CEO and Founder of Archer Dental Corp which has three locations in Toronto, Canada.  She's also a past Vice-President of the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario (the dental professional regulatory, in Ontario, Canada).  More recently she’s an angel investor in technology companies and has co-founded OpenWide. Natalie is the subject matter expert for dentistry  at OpenWide and shares development credits on dental chatbot platforms. She has spent some time helping design and test systems for delivering AI-based chatbots to engage dental patients and convert potential new patients via useful conversations through websites and social media.  Always curious and living and working in one of the world’s hubs for AI innovation, Natalie is an emerging thought leader on the role that AI can play in dentistry. 

Abstract

New technology continues to improve dentistry and the next transformation will be the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI).   

AI systems are coming to market in all major industries today, but deploying the software and system protocols in dentistry requires embracing and creating solutions to some unique challenges. Some of the problems are false perceptions.  

What is AI? What practical value can the technology offer to dental practices?  How is the cost / benefit balance weighed for this technology and does that calculation change in short term, mid-term, or long term planning models?

What are chatbots? How do they drive value, help consumers and improve a website's presence?  What are the risks of deploying artificially intelligent systems, especially considering data privacy, in dentistry?  How do you balance increasing demands for “ethical AI”, and possible backlash from patients due to perceived depersonalization of dental care as a result of technology? 

Dr. Natalie Archer will recount her personal experience as an early adopter of chatbot software in her own dental practices and she’ll present what she has learned about 1) evaluating whether and not to deploy AI in a dental practice, and 2) the surprising benefits of the technology in terms of patient care improvements and brand development, and 3) the importance of developing proper controls for managing legal / ethical / privacy /operational considerations of AI adoption.