UChicago Medicine is revolutionizing patient access and experience by incorporating AI agents into their system. Currently, millions of calls are answered by human agents, with many inquiries being routine and repetitive. By implementing AI agents to handle these basic requests, UChicago Medicine aims to streamline the process, reduce delays, and enhance overall patient satisfaction.
Tyler Bauer, Senior Vice President, System Ambulatory Operations at UChicago Medicine, stated at the Salesforce Dreamforce 2025 event, “We’re on a mission to transform access and to transform the patient experience.”
The AI bot rollout will initially focus on handling low-risk intents such as general inquiries, directions, clinic information, cancellations, confirmations, and simple scheduling for primary care. This will allow human agents to focus on more complex issues that require empathy and judgment.
With the help of Salesforce Agentforce for Health, UChicago Medicine aims to automate tasks like prescription refills, appointment scheduling, and wayfinding, providing round-the-clock access to patients. This shift towards AI augmentation will enable agents to provide a more personalized and efficient service to patients.
Despite the slow adoption of AI in healthcare, UChicago Medicine is leading the way by embracing this technology to improve patient care. By centralizing inbound referrals and utilizing AI to summarize and parse referral data, the system aims to reduce the time between request and booking, ultimately enhancing the patient experience.
While the implementation of AI in healthcare comes with its challenges, such as regulatory concerns and data complexity, UChicago Medicine is committed to ensuring a smooth transition by focusing on bot-to-human handoffs and providing training and support to staff.
Overall, UChicago Medicine’s journey towards incorporating AI agents into their system is driven by the goal of transforming the patient experience and streamlining access to care. With the first use case set to go live at the end of the calendar year, the team is excited about the positive impact this technology will have on both patients and staff members.
