BOSTON — athenahealth said it is launching a new generation of AI-powered patient communication tools across its provider network, which serves roughly one in five Americans, aiming to improve patient access while easing administrative strain on medical practices.
The company said the expanded AI-native patient engagement suite is embedded within athenaOne and adds new text and voice capabilities that allow patients to interact with a virtual front office assistant at their doctor’s office. The tools are designed to help patients ask routine questions, schedule appointments, and manage care more efficiently, while reducing workload for practice staff.
“Patient–provider communication still operates much like it did decades ago, and that model can’t scale in today’s environment as practices get busier,” said Paul Brient, chief product and operations officer at athenahealth. “Our AI assistants can handle these routine interactions reliably, reducing unnecessary work and making the system more dependable for both patients and care teams.”
Among the new features is Patient Conversations, which will provide both text and voice-based communication. The text capability, currently in alpha testing and expected to roll out more broadly in the first half of the year, combines two-way texting with secure web chat to address common patient questions. When needed, conversations can be seamlessly transferred to staff without losing context. A voice-based virtual front desk assistant, slated for release in the second half of the year, will support multilingual inbound calls and handle routine requests without wait times. Future enhancements are expected to include real-time language translation and intelligent task automation.
“These new text and voice conversation capabilities will transform how we connect with patients by providing instant responses that speed issue resolution and save valuable time,” said Lesley Terry, practice manager at Red River Family Practice in Austin, Texas. “For quick exchanges, texting makes communication significantly more efficient and greatly improves the patient experience. For our practice, these tools will reduce phone call volume and backlog by allowing us to handle conversations promptly without putting patients on hold.”
athenahealth is also introducing AI-powered waitlist scheduling, available in the first half of the year, which automatically identifies canceled appointments and sends text messages to patients to fill open slots. The company said the feature is intended to improve access to care, increase patient satisfaction, and help practices make better use of clinician availability.
Later in the year, athenahealth plans to launch an Intelligent Patient Assistant within its patient portal and mobile app. The conversational tool will help patients reschedule appointments, address questions about payment balances, and better understand their medical records, with the goal of reducing routine inquiries handled by staff.
In addition, enhanced self-scheduling capabilities are expected in the second half of the year, allowing patients to book appointments by describing their needs in plain language. The system will match patients to the most appropriate appointment type, provider, and time slot based on availability, simplifying scheduling and giving patients greater control over managing their care.
