Dental AI Weekly
Dental AI Weekly: Why AI Scribes Get Abandoned
This week in dental AI, the hard part is not buying the tool. It is getting the team to use it after week two.
Welcome to this week’s Dental AI Weekly, honest analysis of where dental AI is going, from someone building in it.
The quiet failure mode for dental AI is not usually the demo.
The demo looks clean. The feature list makes sense. The team can imagine saving time. Then two weeks later, nobody is pressing start.
That is the adoption problem I am watching this week.
Dental AI is getting more capable, but capability does not become value until it survives the actual habits of the practice. The dentist has to lead it. The output has to be useful. The workflow has to fit the team before the novelty wears off.
WHAT HAPPENED THIS WEEK
01-CLINICAL WORKFLOW
The ADA is asking dental stakeholders to weigh in on interoperability, prior authorization, and cybersecurity before the June 15 comment deadline.
The ADA’s May 21 stakeholder call is focused on a proposed CMS rule that would replace the current electronic prior authorization standard with a FHIR-based system, change how dental offices submit data through payer portals, and push more attention onto cybersecurity for small practices.
What this means for your practice: If the plumbing is not ready, the AI layer above it will just create more friction.
02-GOVERNANCE SHIFT
The ADA’s revised CERP standards and AI use policy are now live, which tightens the rules around approved tools and compliance.
The ADA’s revised CERP standards took effect June 1, 2026, and the Commission also received information on the ADA’s AI Use Policy and Approved AI Tools. That is not a headline about a specific product, but it matters because the governance layer is catching up to the speed of adoption.
What this means for your practice: AI in dentistry is no longer just a feature conversation. It is becoming a policy and compliance conversation too.
03-PLATFORM PRESSURE
PMS-native AI keeps making the adoption pitch easier.
Archy launched Archy Scribe inside its PMS in May, Pearl moved deeper into Dentrix Ascend, and the broader market keeps pushing AI closer to the software practices already use. That lowers the perceived friction of trying AI, but it does not answer the harder workflow question.
What this means for your practice: Built-in does not automatically mean adopted. A feature can live inside the PMS and still fail if the dentist does not reinforce the habit, the notes need too much cleanup, or the workflow only helps one role while creating work for another.
“The product bar is moving from can it hear me to does it understand how my team actually talks.”
BY THE NUMBERS
16.9%
of dentists planned to invest in new software in 2026.
What it signals: Practices are still willing to spend on software, but the adoption bar is higher now. A tool has to prove it can become part of the day, not just part of the budget.
Source: ADA Health Policy Institute, Q4 2025 State of the U.S. Dental Economy.
READER Q&A
“We tried an AI scribe last year and the team stopped using it after two weeks. What should we look for before trying again?”-Dr. A.L., Practice Owner
BH: I get disappointed when I hear this because a scribe can be such an amazing addition to a dental tool kit. Unfortunately, I hear this all too often.
The primary barrier, in the way you are describing it with the team stopping after two weeks, is generally tied to the doctor. People follow the leader naturally. If the leader is not driving the need for the technology, the team will not either.
Anything new, even if it is as easy as pressing start and stop, is still a new habit. If people do not develop that habit, and nobody is reinforcing the need to develop that habit, it naturally gets dropped. That is human nature, and that is why this question is not uncommon.
I am assuming that because you are asking how to get this back into place, you want the tool to work. The first thing I would do is make sure the leaders in the practice are holding the rest of the team accountable. At the end of each appointment, ask how the note turned out. If the team knows that question is coming, they are going to make sure they have a note for you.
The other issue I see is people getting a scribe that does not provide the output they were hoping to achieve. This is common with something generic and not dental specific.
At OraCore, we find that when a team stays quiet, they stop using the tool. When they are the squeaky wheel, they find out quickly that we customize everything for everyone on our platform and work diligently to make sure they are getting the quality they expect. After all, we feel like we are putting out the highest quality dental scribe on the market.
Thank you so much for your question. I know there are many other factors here, so I hope I answered it well. Please reach out to me if you have further questions. I really enjoy engaging with everyone.
FROM THE ORACORE BLOG THIS WEEK
Workflow | 9 min
Dental AI Agents Need More Than Scheduling Access
Dental AI agents are only useful when they can connect the visit to the work after the visit. This is the right read if you are trying to separate a real workflow from a feature that only has calendar access.
Patient Experience | 11 min
Dental AI Should Not Train Patients to Wait Until It Gets Worse
AI should help the team explain prevention earlier, not train patients to delay care until the problem feels urgent. It connects directly to adoption because teams use tools longer when the output helps them have better patient conversations.
See how OraCore makes scribe adoption a team workflow, not another tool people quietly abandon.
That’s the week. Reply with what you’re seeing in your own practice. I read every one.
Brad Hutchison
CEO, OraCore AI