Artera AI Agents are autonomous voice and SMS agents that hold dynamic conversations with patients. This article walks through what a patient experiences when they call, text, or hear from a scheduling AI Agent, so your team understands what the AI agent handles on its own and when it brings in staff.

NOTE: Artera AI Agents are configured for your organization with your AI Service Squad. The conversations described here are how AI scheduling agents work in general. The conversations your patients can have with the AI Agent and the rules it follows are set up for your organization. Your AI Service Squad or Customer Success Representative can confirm your configuration.

What an Artera AI Scheduling Agent Does

A single AI scheduling agent can handle three kinds of scheduling work:

• Inbound scheduling for existing patients: A patient who already has a record contacts your organization to book an appointment, and the AI agent completes the booking.

• Inbound scheduling for new patients: A patient with no record registers and books an appointment in one conversation.

• Outbound scheduling: The AI agent reaches out to patients who are due for a visit or who missed an appointment and books them.
  
  

The AI agent works from the scheduling rules that exist in your EHR and Artera, including provider mappings, visit types, location and insurance requirements, and clinical routing rules. It offers only appointment times that satisfy those rules, so patients cannot book a visit that your practice would have to move or cancel later.

How Patients Reach an AI Scheduling Agent

Patients reach an AI scheduling agent by voice or by text. Your organization chooses one of two setups during implementation:

• Through your existing phone number: The AI agent sits inside your phone tree. For example, callers who choose an option, such as appointments, are routed to the correct line.

• Through a dedicated Artera line: Patients call or text a number configured specifically for your AI agent and connect without going through your main phone tree.

Text does not route through a phone tree. Under either setup, texts reach the AI agent directly.

Outbound conversations begin differently. Your organization reaches out first, by text or by call, and the conversation begins when the patient replies or answers. For more on access and phone number setup information, click here.

Inbound Conversations: Existing Patients

This is what a patient with an existing record experiences when they contact your organization to schedule:

1. The patient calls or texts. The AI agent greets the patient and identifies itself as an automated assistant.

2. The AI agent asks what the visit is for. It asks this before it verifies the patient's identity. Patients whose requests the AI agent does not handle reach the right team quickly, instead of completing verification first and being transferred anyway.

3. The AI agent confirms the patient's identity.

4. The AI agent locates the patient's record, checks your organization's scheduling rules, and offers available times.

5. The patient chooses a time. The AI agent books the appointment and confirms it before the conversation ends.

Some organizations add clinical intake questions before booking so the patient reaches the right provider or service line. Examples include asking whether a visit relates to a work injury or whether the patient is seeking a second opinion.

NOTE: If a patient's preferred provider has no availability, the AI agent can offer the closest alternatives rather than ending the conversation.

Inbound Conversations: New Patients

A patient with no record in your EHR can register and book an appointment in the same conversation. Nothing is completed on a form or a callback.

1. The patient calls or texts. The AI agent greets the patient, identifies itself as an automated assistant, and finds no existing record for them.

2. The AI agent collects the demographic information your organization requires. This commonly includes name, date of birth, address, contact information, and preferred language.

3. The AI agent captures the patient's insurance information, or records the patient as self-pay. Insurance is not a gate on scheduling.

4. The patient gives the reason for the visit.

5. The AI agent finds an available appointment that fits both the visit type and your routing rules.

6. The AI agent registers the patient in your EHR and books the appointment.

NOTE: Your organization decides which fields are required or optional, so the questions a patient is asked reflect your intake standard rather than a fixed script.

Outbound Conversations: Recalls and Missed Appointments

In an outbound conversation, your organization reaches the patient first. These conversations fill open schedule times and close care gaps without staff conducting manual outreach. Outbound outreach can reach the patient by text or by phone call. Which channel your patients receive is part of your configuration, and the steps below are the same either way.

Recall and follow-up visits

1. Your EHR flags patients who are due for a follow-up or preventive visit.

2. Artera contacts the patient about the visit that is due, by text or by phone call. 

3. Outreach is timed against the recall due date, on a cadence your organization sets. Cadences usually include outreach before and after the date the visit was due.

4. When the patient replies to a text or answers a call, the AI agent takes over the conversation, honors the day and time preferences the patient gives, and books with the patient's own provider when your rules require it.

5. Booking the appointment closes the recall in your EHR. Staff do not have to clear it manually.

Missed appointments

When a patient is marked as a no-show, Artera can contact the patient to offer rescheduling, and the patient rebooks in that same conversation, by text or by phone call. No staff callback is needed.

What Varies by Configuration

AI scheduling agents are built around each organization's workflows, so the details below differ between organizations. Your AI Service Squad can confirm any of them for your organization:

FAQs

Does the AI agent support languages other than English?

Yes. AI scheduling agents can hold these conversations in various languages. Which languages are enabled is part of your configuration. For a full list of supported voice languages, click here.

Why does the AI agent ask what the visit is for before it verifies the patient?

The AI agent asks what the visit is before it verifies the patient so that patients the AI agent cannot help are not held through verification first. A patient with an out-of-scope request reaches the right team faster.

Does a patient need insurance to schedule with an AI agent?

No. The AI agent can record a patient as self-pay and continue scheduling.

Can a new patient register without filling out a form?

Yes. The AI agent collects demographics, contact information, language preference, and insurance conversationally, and registers the patient in your EHR.

What happens if no appointment fits what the patient asked for?

The AI agent offers the closest available alternatives. If it still cannot book the visit, it hands the patient to your staff.

Does a booked recall appointment need manual cleanup in the EHR?

No. Booking through the AI agent closes the recall in your EHR.

Does outbound outreach reach patients by text or by phone call?

Either. Your organization sets the channel during implementation. A patient who receives a text replies to it to start the conversation, and a patient who receives a call speaks with the AI agent directly. The AI agent completes the booking the same way in both cases.