A group of industry leaders have come together in response to the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence technology in dentistry.
Dental AI company VideaHealth established the AI Leadership Council earlier this year to help ensure the responsible adoption of AI technology to support quality, long-term use in dentistry.
The council includes nine DSO executives. The group’s first initiative will be to create a guide for organizations to navigate AI adoption, including how to evaluate tools, establish governance and measure impact.
Becker’s recently spoke with VideaHealth CEO Florian Hillen and three council members about the initiative.
Editor’s note: Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: What gap did you see in dentistry’s current approach to AI that made an AI Leadership Council necessary?
Florian Hillen: AI is moving quickly in dentistry, but adoption is still happening in pockets. Different groups are using different criteria to evaluate tools, rolling out with different training methods and measuring success in different ways. That creates variability across providers and locations, and it makes it harder to build repeatable operating habits. The council brings together some of the most experienced clinical and operational leaders to align on practical standards for evaluation, governance and rollout, and to build a shared roadmap for what scalable, responsible AI adoption should look like next. The goal is to help organizations move from pilot mode to consistent use, clear accountability, measurable outcomes and readiness for a future where AI is embedded across everyday clinical and operational workflows.
Q: Why is now the right moment for dentists to take the lead in shaping AI adoption rather than letting vendors or third parties define the standards?
FH: The next few years will set the norms for how AI manifests in diagnosis, documentation, patient communication and RCM. If dentistry doesn’t lead, standards will drift toward what’s easiest to ship rather than what’s safest and most useful in the operatory and across the practice. Dentists and DSO leaders are the ones living the realities of care delivery. They see what creates clarity in the operatory, what improves treatment planning conversations, what adds work and what reduces it. The council is meant to keep dental clinicians in the driver’s seat, working in tandem with innovators so AI supports clinical empowerment rather than dictates it.
Seth Gibree, DMD. Senior Director of Clinical AI and Innovation at Heartland Dental: We are at a crossroads where technology is moving faster than regulation. If we stay on the sidelines, we allow the “business of dentistry” to dictate the “practice of dentistry.” By maintaining a doctor-led mindset, we ensure that AI tools are built to enhance our diagnostic precision and patient outcomes, rather than just optimizing a vendor’s bottom line. We must be the architects of our own digital future to ensure it remains rooted in clinical excellence and the doctor always remains in the loop of clinical decision-making.
Q: What risks/disadvantages are there if AI continues to be adopted in dentistry without any shared guidance?
FH: The biggest risk is a patchwork outcome in which AI adoption appears widespread on paper but delivers uneven results in practice. Without shared guidance, teams can struggle to learn from one another, slowing progress toward sustained usage. It can also create confusion and skepticism if there’s no common ground and no knowledge sharing about what’s working and why.
Theresa Neuhauser. Chief Growth Officer of Great Expressions Dental Centers: At best, the risk is that AI will continue to be implemented in silos without full value realization. At worst, it could further burden the provider and patient experience of delivering and receiving care.
Q: What inspired the first initiative to create a Dental AI Playbook?
FH: We wanted to start with something immediately useful and broadly applicable, so the playbook functions as a resource that meets the industry where it is right now. Leaders are looking for practical guidance on evaluating AI beyond demos, integrating it into clinical workflows, supporting change management, and defining success that holds up across different practice models. The playbook is the most direct way to capture what we have learned from onboarding 90,000 clinicians to VideaAI, together with the council’s perspective, and turn it into a clear framework that organizations can use to scale adoption with greater consistency, confidence and long-term readiness.
Mitchell Ellingson, DDS. Chief Clinical Officer of Gen4 Dental Partners: AI means more accurate diagnosis and, therefore, better treatment outcomes. We are just at the tip of the spear in terms of how this will impact our profession. The level of information AI provides may seem simple at first, but it must be harnessed within a workflow designed by clinicians. If done correctly, this will be one of those major turning points that enhances the accuracy of diagnosis while making it easier for patients to understand their needs. If the dentist isn’t bought in on the front for any reason, the use and adoption will not be optimal.
Q: What is the estimated timeline to create and publish the playbook?
FH: We’re building it in phases so it’s useful quickly and can improve based on what leaders learn in the field. The initial version will be available at the beginning of March, and we’ll continue to iterate from there. Anyone interested in early access can sign up here.
Q: What items are being considered as potential next initiatives for the council?
FH: After the AI playbook, the council will focus on what’s next, not what’s already obvious. That means identifying where friction is building across the value chain before it shows up in performance, then shaping guidance and priorities around those pressure points. We’re centered on a “system of action” approach, where diagnostics, care delivery and revenue workflows connect rather than live in silos. The goal is to help practices and DSOs consolidate tools, reduce overhead and operate with more consistency as AI becomes part of everyday dentistry.
Q: What does success look like for the AI Leadership Council in one year? Five years?
FH: In one year, success means the ALC is established as dentistry’s ongoing think tank and collaborative forum where DSOs align on practical standards, share what works and create repeatable frameworks for responsible AI adoption. You will see this work translate to real-world results through higher utilization, smoother workflows, clearer accountability and more consistent outcomes across teams, with the AI playbook helping organizations move from pilots to scalable, day-to-day use.
In five years, success means the ALC has helped dentistry prepare for technologies that have not even been invented yet. The tools will evolve, and new categories such as ambient intelligence, predictive care models and autonomous workflows will emerge. What should remain constant are the standards, governance frameworks and clinical guardrails defined by dentists. The council’s role is to ensure the industry is not reacting to innovation, but shaping it. If we have done this well, AI will be embedded into the operating model in a way that strengthens clinical judgment, supports long-term health management and gives organizations the confidence to adopt what comes next responsibly and at scale.
TH: In one year, success should reflect a standardized approach on how to implement AI with a roadmap to success, from pre-planning to adopting staged workflows, for varying types of organizations. There should be clear problem definitions that can be solved, strategic frameworks for action and how to measure success. In five years, there should be clear pathways for standardized decision frameworks from treatment plans to operational best practices, grounded in the most innovative and relevant clinical and operating standards in the industry, defined by a broad network of industry experts.
SG: After one year, success for the AI Leadership Council is defined by the creation of a robust, clinician-led feedback loop that moves AI from a standalone tool to an integrated partner in the operatory. This means establishing standardized protocols for how AI findings are communicated to patients to preserve trust, while ensuring the product roadmap is dictated by real-world clinical utility rather than just technical capability.
Five years in, success looks like establishing the global benchmark for predictive dentistry, where the council’s guidance has shifted toward long-term health management. By then, AI should be seamlessly embedded into the standard of care, successfully navigating the balance between technological efficiency and the irreplaceable clinical judgment of the dentist.
ME: The AI Leadership Council will be successful if we can continue to evolve how to harness this level of information. Using AI is only step one.
