Using AI triage systems to keep patients engaged

How AI triage can help improve the patient experience

At their best, patient engagement solutions strengthen the connection between patients and care teams by improving access, communication, and clarity at every touchpoint. Still, challenges can happen at the front door of care due to overwhelmed administrative teams, long phone queues, and patients who want quick answers but don’t know where to turn.

Oftentimes, these challenges arise when patients encounter difficulties understanding how to access care. Engagement can break down or erode over time when the patient experience is slow, unclear, or inaccessible.

Patients increasingly expect on-demand, digital-first interactions. Sitting on hold is frustrating, and navigating patient portals for simple questions—especially when those questions are personal or time-sensitive—can seem to take longer than needed. Inefficient intake impacts medical practice staff, too. Front desk and administrative staff in many practices don’t always have the bandwidth to manage rising call volumes alongside scheduling, documentation, and in-office responsibilities.

But practices are beginning to explore the potential value of AI-powered patient engagement capabilities in helping to bridge the gap between patient expectations and practice capacity. According to athenahealth’s recent AI frontlines of care report, 69% of respondents believe AI helps clinicians engage more with patients; and 47% of respondents use AI to assist with patient intake or check-in.¹

One of the capabilities making an impact on the patient experience is AI-powered triage. Let’s discuss how AI triage can help guide patient access to either the information they need or to the right area within a practice as a digital-first entry point.

What is AI triage?

AI triage refers to the use of artificial intelligence to assess, categorize, and route incoming patient communications (most often via text message) based on context, intent, and urgency. It has different applications in healthcare technologies.

In patient engagement workflows, AI triage can help determine:

• What a patient is asking, including the intent behind the query.
• What information the system can safely provide to the patient on its own.
• When a conversation needs to be escalated to a staff member or clinician.

All of the above can prove invaluable in helping patients determine which action they might take next. Incoming text messages or phone calls to practices are fielded by AI assistants that provide patients with immediate communications to help directly answer questions or provide clarity on next steps. Aside from reducing friction, this also helps free up time for practice staff.

Unlike traditional chatbots or keyword-matching systems, modern AI triage systems can be context-aware, meaning they can use Natural Language Processing (NLP) to identify key terms and patterns. These systems can interpret questions based on patient history, past interactions, and administrative data. Many AI triage systems also use deterministic guardrails—predefined pathways and safety limits—to ensure that responses are consistent and compliant with care standards, especially when clinical questions arise.

Rather than generating open-ended answers, deterministic AI triage follows structured protocols that help ensure routine questions are answered automatically, while more complex or sensitive inquiries are flagged for human review.

How AI triage connects to the patient experience

Most patient engagement tools help people stay connected after they’ve entered the system. But they don’t solve the more immediate needs of quickly addressing patient questions when contact is made.

AI triage fills this gap by giving patients guidance at the moment they’re deciding what to do next. Instead of forcing patients to choose the wrong path—or abandon the process altogether—AI triage helps provide direction from that first interaction. That clarity matters immensely because engagement can only begin once patients know where and how to interact with your practice.

Use cases: How medical practices use AI triage

Early adopters across the healthcare landscape can use AI triage to help address several practical engagement and access challenges:

• Automating initial patient engagement by interpreting inquiries, clarifying intent, providing answers, or routing patients to the proper access points.
• Handling routine administrative questions like office hours, location directions, or billing inquiries.
• Prioritizing urgent needs by identifying patterns or keywords that indicate higher-acuity issues, elevating these issues to clinical staff at key moments of care.
• Supporting digital access outside business hours by offering 24/7 first contact.
• Reducing repetitive work for clinical staff so they can focus on complex and elements of patient care and upskill in other areas.

These applications can help create smooth patient experiences while empowering practices to do more with existing resources. That can help negate potential staffing questions and give practices the opportunity to invest time for current front-desk and clinical staff in other key areas.

Benefits of AI triage for patients and practices

AI triage can unlock several meaningful benefits² on both sides of the care equation. Yes, these include establishing a baseline of communication for patients and allowing front-desk staff and clinicians to spend less time handling incoming messages and phone management. But the impact on leveraging AI triage during initial engagement and make the care journey more navigable while supporting care gap closure and satisfying quality metrics.

Faster, clearer communication

For patients, AI triage enables immediate responses to common questions without waiting on hold or navigating tangled phone trees. Because the system can interpret natural language and recognize intent, responses feel more tailored and relevant than what patients would get from static FAQs or generic chatbots.

This functionality helps reduce confusion and frustration, which are common barriers to engagement and follow-through.

Consistent guidance

Automated systems deliver consistent information backed by protocols and data. That consistency builds trust and helps provide guidance rather than variable responses depending on who answers the phone or when they ask a question.

Reduced administrative burden

AI triage acts as a first filter for incoming inquiries. Routine questions get resolved quickly, and only those that truly require human judgment are escalated to staff. This not only reduces workload but also helps staff focus on higher-value interactions that deepen engagement and retention.

Support for closing care gaps

AI-powered tools that help streamline patient communication and operational workflows can support broader care gap initiatives. Health systems that deploy AI to automate administrative tasks and improve data-driven communication may see improvements in care efficiency, which is key to closing gaps in preventive care and chronic care management. Some AI triage technologies are also showing promise in terms of risk assessment³ and helping improve patient flow.

Many care gaps originate before clinical care begins, when patients are unable to complete intake, reach the right team, or move forward with scheduling. By reducing friction at the initial stage of inquiry, AI triage can play a foundational role in helping prevent patients from disengaging before preventive or chronic care opportunities even surface.

AI triage in athenaOne® Patient Conversations

Within athenaOne, AI triage is embedded into Patient Conversations to help practices manage patient-initiated communication more effectively by seamlessly combining two-way texting and secure web chat. Patients, using the portal or the athenaPatient® app, can text or chat their practice with questions at any time about appointments, logistics, or care needs. An intelligent AI assistant will be available 24/7 to provide instant, friendly responses to common inquiries. Additionally, the two-way texting capability will allow practice staff to send and receive text messages directly with patients, offering a direct and personal line of communication.

For many practices, this makes Patient Conversations another digital front door entry point that can support patients by capturing questions, context, and intent before staff ever joins the interaction. When a question requires a human touch, the conversation transitions smoothly to a live staff member with easy, contextual handoff.

Secure chat environments ensure that sensitive information can be exchanged safely and privately, while deterministic routing ensures that anything outside predefined safety guidelines is appropriately escalated rather than answered automatically.

Future GA releases will deepen integration with scheduling, billing, and other clinical workflows while also offering a voice AI capability. These features will help practices coordinate access and care more seamlessly while offering flexibility in how patients can use their digital tools.

Looking ahead: AI triage and patient engagement

Patient expectations for increased digital access, personalization, and responsiveness are likely to keep rising. AI triage offers practices a way to meet these expectations by aligning automation with patient needs and operational realities.

By combining thoughtful automation with human oversight, practices can strengthen engagement from the very first interaction. In so doing, they can create smooth, reliable experiences that keep patients connected throughout their care journeys.