Heartland Dental cuts staff query time from minutes to seconds with Vertex AI chat agent across 1,800+ practices

Heartland Dental's Business Assistants (BAs) — the front-line staff handling all administrative patient interactions across 1,800+ supported practices — had to sift through lengthy documentation to complete complex tasks. Finding answers could take up to five minutes per query, reducing time available for direct patient interaction and contributing to staff frustration.

Heartland Dental deployed an AI chat agent powered by Google Cloud Vertex AI, integrated into their Heartbeat Engage platform (which consolidates up to 40 critical applications into a single UI). BAs can now ask the agent how to complete complex administrative tasks in natural language and receive an immediate answer, eliminating manual documentation searches. Vertex AI is also used to review doctor contracts and leasing agreements.

The AI agent reduced staff query resolution time from approximately five minutes to five seconds. Initial feedback from supported practices was extremely positive, with staff praising improved job satisfaction and the ability to prioritize patient interactions. The initiative also accelerated Heartland Dental's broader AI deployment momentum using Vertex AI.

• Embedding an AI chat agent into an existing unified staff portal (rather than a standalone tool) drives adoption by meeting staff where they already work.
• Quantifiable time savings on micro-tasks (minutes → seconds) compound significantly across 1,800+ practices and thousands of daily queries.
• Starting with internal staff-facing AI use cases (vs. patient-facing) allows a DSO to build AI deployment competency before tackling higher-stakes clinical applications.