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Don’t miss these opportunities to use AI to optimize your optometry practice
By Thanh Mai, OD
March 11, 2026
A few years ago, artificial intelligence (AI) felt like something happening in Silicon Valley labs—interesting, impressive and mostly irrelevant to a two-lane private practice in middle America.
That’s no longer true.
If you use Google Workspace, you’re already using AI. If you use Gmail’s suggested replies, Google’s search prioritization, automated spam filtering or meeting summaries inside Google Meet, AI is quietly embedded in your daily workflow. The question is no longer whether AI is coming to optometry. It’s whether you’re going to use it deliberately or let others outpace you by using it better.
Let’s get one thing straight: AI is not here to replace any of us.
- It is a cognitive assistant.
- It is a workflow optimizer.
- It is a staff training multiplier.
And small private practices can begin implementing it today, without hiring a tech team, building custom software or spending six figures.
Here’s what that looks like.
AI Inside the Google Ecosystem You Already Use
We live inside Google Workspace. With a BAA in place, we are HIPAA compliant. Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Sheets and Meet are the operating system of modern private practice. With Google Gemini and other AI integrations, that ecosystem just became dramatically more powerful.
Start with email. Instead of manually scanning 40 unread messages from labs, frame reps, landlords and referral sources, AI can summarize your inbox and prioritize what needs attention. Vendor negotiation threads can be condensed into bullet-point summaries so you immediately see pricing changes or contract terms that matter. If a lab rep sends a long message about turnaround time delays, AI can extract the key operational impact in seconds. Gemini can start your response and polish it up: see the little wand with the star close to the send button.
When referral letters need to be drafted, AI can generate a polished first draft based on your exam findings. You still review and sign it, just like you would with a technician’s preliminary note. But the time to produce it drops significantly.
Calendar review is another underutilized opportunity. AI can analyze scheduling patterns and help identify inefficiencies. AI can detect patterns in calendar data that would take a human hours to manually evaluate. My favorite thing to type into Gemini is “@workspace” which keys in Gemini to crawl all my emails, calendars, meets and docs to come up with a more customized answer for me.
If you record staff meetings in Google Meet, AI can summarize the discussion, extract action items and assign responsibilities. Instead of relying on someone’s handwritten notes, you have a structured recap within minutes. Action items don’t get lost. Accountability improves.
In my own practice, we use AI to summarize vendor discussions, draft referral communication, review staff meeting transcripts and flag operational bottlenecks in scheduling. It doesn’t replace decision-making. It compresses the time required to get clarity.
That compression matters.
AI Scribing in the Exam Room
One of the most immediately impactful applications of AI in optometry is clinical documentation.
AI scribing tools can listen during the exam and generate structured chart notes in real time. You maintain control, you verify accuracy and you edit as needed. But instead of typing throughout the encounter or finishing notes after hours, documentation happens in parallel.
The benefits are tangible.
Doctors regain face time with patients. Eye contact improves. The experience feels more personal, not less. Burnout decreases because charting doesn’t spill into evenings.
I was at the airport last week and there was a gigantic sign from Kaiser Permanente touting how their doctors will use AI scribes so that they can focus on you.
What does this mean financially?
If AI scribing saves even three to five minutes per exam and you see 20 patients a day, that’s roughly an hour of reclaimed time. That hour can be used to add one more specialty visit, improve patient education, or simply end the day on time without unfinished notes. Over a year, that operational efficiency compounds into meaningful margin improvement.
This isn’t theoretical. It’s practical.
AI for Staff Training and Quality Control
Here’s where small practices can quietly gain a massive edge.
AI can analyze recorded phone calls and identify missed opportunities. It can evaluate tone, clarity and empathy. It can highlight where conversion rates break down.
Imagine onboarding a new receptionist. Instead of hoping they “pick it up,” you feed recorded calls into AI and ask it to evaluate scripting adherence and suggest improvements. Within minutes, you have objective feedback.
Exam room communication can be reviewed as well. Are doctors consistently introducing dry eye treatment options? Are they explaining myopia progression clearly and confidently? AI can analyze transcripts and identify gaps in consistency.
This doesn’t replace human coaching. It enhances it.
Practically, a small practice can begin by recording a week of phone calls, feeding them into an AI system for analysis and identifying patterns. Are no-shows linked to weak confirmation scripting? Are specialty consults not being scheduled because benefits aren’t explained clearly?
The ROI comes from tightening execution. Better scripting improves conversion. Improved conversion improves patient outcomes.
And training time for new hires decreases because feedback becomes immediate and structured rather than anecdotal.
AI for Marketing and Content Creation
Many independent ODs avoid marketing because it feels overwhelming or expensive.
AI lowers that barrier dramatically.
Blog posts explaining dry eye, myopia control or scleral lenses can be drafted in minutes. Social media captions can be generated from exam-room conversations you’re already having daily. Patient handouts can be written in plain language and formatted professionally without hiring a designer.
Educational graphics are now accessible. You can generate visual explanations of axial elongation in myopia progression. You can create scleral lens diagrams for patient education. Referral packets for local pediatricians can be drafted, formatted and refined quickly.
That difference compounds over a year.
The Financial Impact of AI on Your Optometry Practice
Let’s quantify this conservatively.
If AI saves five hours per week across email management, documentation, meeting summaries and marketing drafts, that’s 260 hours per year. That’s more than six full workweeks of time.
If even half of that reclaimed time is redirected toward revenue-generating activity (adding specialty consults, improving optical capture, tightening recall systems) the return can be substantial.
More importantly, AI reduces staff burnout. It can take away tedious tasks so they can more readily focus on our patients.
AI helps tighten those systems without requiring additional management bandwidth.
This is not about replacing employees. It’s about elevating them.
Risks and Guardrails
AI is powerful, but it is not infallible.
Data privacy must be non-negotiable. Use secure, HIPAA-compliant systems. Turn off data-sharing features that allow public model training. Understand your vendors.
Avoid over-reliance. AI can draft a referral letter, but clinical judgment belongs to you. It can summarize a lease agreement, but you still review it carefully.
There are ethical considerations as well. Transparency with patients matters. AI should enhance care, not depersonalize it.
Think of AI as a highly capable intern. It works quickly. It drafts well. But you are still the doctor signing off.
The Forward-Thinking Reality
Optometry has always evolved with technology. OCT was once cutting-edge. Now it’s standard. EHR adoption once felt overwhelming. Now it’s universal.
AI is simply the next layer.
You don’t need to overhaul your practice tomorrow. Start small. Use AI to summarize staff meetings. Test an AI scribe for a month. Draft your next patient handout with assistance instead of starting from scratch. Analyze a week of phone calls.
You will see a clear ROI with these small experiments and controlled implementation.
AI will not replace us. But team members who use AI will replace those who don’t.
The independent OD has always won by being nimble, patient-centered and willing to adapt faster than larger systems. AI is not about becoming a tech company. It’s about reclaiming time, improving consistency and elevating execution.
And the best part?
You can start today, without hiring a tech team.
Read more insights from Dr. Mai here.
Read more on AI from ROB’s sister publication, AI in Eye Care, here.
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Thanh Mai, OD, is an owner of Insight Vision Center Optometry, a Vision Source practice in Costa Mesa, California; Optometry Corner, a Vision Source practice in Irvine, California; and Eyecon Optometry, a Vision Source practice in Reseda, California. In addition, Dr. Mai owns Project Eyecare, a Vision Source practice in Mission Viejo, California. To contact him: tmai@visionsource.com |
