AI-assisted contact centers boost patient care, says Talkdesk exec
FLORIDA, UNITED STATES — Contact centers equipped with the latest generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) technology help in delivering high-value patient care, says a software firm executive.
In an interview with Healthcare IT News, Patty Hayward, vice president and general manager for healthcare and life sciences at Talkdesk, says that contact centers laced with GenAI have helped hospitals tend to a high volume of inquiries.
Automation frees up staff so they can address urgent inquiries or those who need a ‘human touch. Hayward pointed out that AI will not necessarily replace human agents but rather work with them to achieve greater efficiency.
For example, if a caller wants a new medical prescription, the AI platform can automatically access the patient’s electronic health record while the agent tends to the patient. In this way, the agent develops good rapport and also efficiently solves the caller’s query.
“AI can take the massive amount of data that a provider or payer knows about a consumer and make it summarizable and actionable for human staff in real time,” Hayward added.
With regard to using AI in clinical settings, Hayward claims that no one will deploy these technologies alone as it still struggles with hallucinations.
“That’s why it’s absolutely critical to use [GenAI] only in conjunction with humans in the loop,” Hayward said, noting that contact centers are a great example of how humans and computers can co-exist harmoniously.
