Adam Smith’s Post

Last week I ticked off something that's been on my list for years. My first ever keynote. ✅ Dentally Live, BMA House, a room full of practice owners staring back at me. No laptop to hide behind and no demo to click through, like my usual day. Just me, a stage and an idea. And I loved every second. My talk: "Are You Using AI the Wrong Way Round?" Here's the point I made. Your reception team are the most important people in your practice. They're the welcome or the warm hello that turns a nervous enquiry into a booking. They're the reason patients come back, the quiet upsell, the human face of everything you do. And what are most of them doing all day? Rebooking appointments. Chasing confirmations. Answering the same five questions on repeat. Robotic work. So here's the irony. Practices are buying robots to talk to patients, and leaving humans to do the robot work. It's the wrong way round. Flip it. Let AI handle the repetitive stuff brilliantly behind the scenes. Bookings, follow-ups, rescheduling, NHS queries, out-of-hours enquiries. Then free your best people to do the thing no machine ever will: make people feel looked after. AI doing the robot work. Humans doing the human work. That's AI the right way round. Backed up by brilliant fire side chats with John King and Elliot Hamilton alongside Loven Ganeswaran, Daniel Tindall, Mohamed Motter Laurie Glover Christina Patrick and Stefan Cataldo Thank you to everyone who came and chatted after. Those conversations were the best part. And thank you for hosting Yasmin Kinkaid Rick Gay James Harker Clayton Newell Duncan Leslie P.S who knew Abhinav Utkarsh could sell 😎