athenahealth has unveiled the next generation of its AI-native patient engagement suite within athenaOne, introducing agentic text and voice tools designed to modernize how patients interact with their providers. The company, whose network serves roughly one in five Americans, is embedding these capabilities directly into existing clinical and administrative workflows to simplify communication and reduce operational strain on practices.
The announcement reflects growing pressure on healthcare organizations to modernize front-office operations as patient volumes rise and staffing challenges persist.
“Patient–provider communication still operates much like it did decades ago, and that model can't scale in today's environment as practices get busier,” said Paul Brient, chief product and operations officer at athenahealth. “Our AI assistants can handle these routine interactions reliably, reducing unnecessary work and making the system more dependable for both patients and care teams.”
The expanded suite includes several phased capabilities rolling out throughout the year:
Patient Conversations: Text functionality, currently in alpha with broader availability in the first half of the year, enables real-time two-way texting and secure web chat for common inquiries. A voice-enabled virtual front desk assistant, expected in the second half of the year, will support multilingual inbound calls and routine scheduling without wait times.
Waitlist Scheduling: AI automatically identifies canceled appointments and proactively texts patients to fill open slots.
Intelligent Patient Assistant: Integrated into the patient portal and athenaPatient mobile app, this conversational agent will support appointment rescheduling and payment-related inquiries.
Enhanced Patient Self-Scheduling: Patients will be able to describe their needs in plain language, with AI matching them to the appropriate provider and time slot.
“These new text and voice conversation capabilities will transform how we connect with patients by providing instant responses that speed issue resolution and save valuable time. For quick exchanges, texting makes communication significantly more efficient and greatly improves the patient experience,” said Lesley Terry, practice manager at Red River Family Practice in Austin, Texas. “For our practice, these tools will reduce phone call volume and backlog by allowing us to handle conversations promptly without putting patients on hold. Overall, this is transformative for both patient convenience and practice workflow.”
The rollout forms part of athenahealth’s broader investment in AI-native capabilities spanning clinical documentation, revenue cycle management, and patient engagement, positioning automation not as a standalone tool, but as embedded infrastructure within everyday healthcare operations.
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