I recently came across a very interesting article by Harvard Business Review. It speaks to the impact of relying too heavily on AI in the workplace. While many HBR articles aren’t super relevant to the dental practice, this one definitely is.
The concept is that workers are being encouraged to use AI in the workplace but they are relying too much on AI and the work generated is not accurate or complete. When it’s passed on to another team member or manager, they have to spend excessive time verifying, editing or adding to what turns out to be sloppy and incomplete work.
Here are some examples of ‘workslop’ in dentistry:
- Relying on AI to fully identify bony defects that can only be detected with close human analysis. By using AI as a final authority rather than a guide, inaccurate diagnoses and treatment recommendations are made.
- Copying and pasting perio chart readings from one visit to another rather than taking careful and accurate measurements that can reveal important changes in health.
- AI software contacts an overdue recare patient and when they call to schedule a ‘cleaning’, the notes and/or patient history are not reviewed and the patient is scheduled for an inappropriate procedure and time.
This sloppy work can create so much frustration, wasted energy, team tension and even worse, a poor experience for the patient and potentially expensive treatments and/or unnecessary trips to the dental practice that could have been avoided.
Bottom line: Dentistry is a healthcare field and sloppy work is simply unacceptable. While you may not be making life or death decisions on a daily basis, your decisions and actions do ABSOLUTELY have consequences and impact your team and patients’ well-being.
Don’t let ‘workslop’ sneak into your workplace. Speak up and clean it up!
