AI and the Future of Work: What Dental Practices Can Learn from Zapier's Hiring Playbook

Every dental practice is asking some version of the same question right now: what does AI actually mean for our team? Will it replace front-desk staff? Will it change what we look for in our team members? And how do we keep patient data safe while adopting new AI-powered tools?

In the latest episode of Dental TeX-ray, host Alan Rencher, Chief Technology Officer at Henry Schein One, sits down with Bonnie Dilber, who leads business recruiting at Zapier, an AI orchestration company with more than a decade of experience in automation and workflow technology. While the conversation ranges well beyond dentistry, the lessons translate directly to dental practices and DSOs working through their own AI adoption strategy.

Why This Conversation Matters for Dental Teams

Henry Schein One approaches AI through three lenses: improving internal productivity, changing how software itself gets built, and embedding AI directly into the products dental practices use every day. Bonnie's perspective, shaped by hiring at scale for an AI-native company, offers a useful outside view on a question every practice owner and DSO leader is facing: how do you build a team that's ready for a technology that keeps changing?

AI Is Expanding Everyone's Role, Not Just Automating Tasks

One of the most useful reframes in the episode is that AI doesn't simply remove work. It changes the shape of every role. As AI takes on repetitive tasks like scheduling, documentation, or administrative coordination, employees increasingly find themselves managing workflows and agents rather than executing every step by hand. That means more accountability for outcomes, not less responsibility overall.

For a dental practice, this might look like a treatment coordinator overseeing an AI-assisted scheduling system rather than manually booking every appointment, freeing them up to spend more time on patient relationships and case acceptance conversations. The tools change; the need for good judgment does not.

Adaptability Is the New Third Hiring Category

Hiring has traditionally weighed two things: hard skills (can this person do the job?) and soft skills (do they fit the team and communicate well?). Bonnie agrees that AI has effectively created a third category employers now screen for: adaptability — comfort with ambiguity, willingness to experiment, and the ability to pick up new tools quickly.

This matters for dental practices building teams around new technology. The candidates and team members who thrive won't necessarily be the ones with the deepest existing expertise. They'll be the ones with a track record of learning new systems quickly and staying calm while doing it.

Jobs Aren't Disappearing. They're Being Redefined.

A recurring theme in the episode is that AI is far more likely to reshape jobs than eliminate them outright. Bonnie draws a comparison to automation's history: when ATMs were introduced, the industry assumed bank teller jobs would vanish. Instead, ATMs made banking easier and cheaper, banks expanded their footprint, and the total number of teller jobs grew.

The episode also explores a striking real-world example: humanoid robots already being tested for household and skilled trade tasks, from changing a car's oil to replacing a toilet. Rather than eliminating mechanics or plumbers, the more likely outcome is that these roles evolve. Professionals will spend more time supervising, verifying, and communicating with both machines and customers, similar to how a pilot supervises autopilot systems rather than being replaced by them.

For dental practices, this suggests a similar pattern: AI tools may absorb repetitive administrative and documentation work, but the people in those roles are more likely to shift toward oversight, patient experience, and judgment calls than to disappear from the org chart.

The Hidden Risk: AI-Generated Candidates and Hiring Governance

One of the most directly relevant points for any HR or practice-operations leader is a warning about AI's impact on hiring itself. Bonnie notes that candidates can now use AI to build highly convincing but inaccurate applications and profiles, which raises the stakes for hiring processes, especially in fields where new hires will handle sensitive patient information.

For dental practices and DSOs, this is a governance issue as much as a technology issue: who is accountable for verifying AI-assisted hiring decisions, and what safeguards are in place before a new hire gets access to patient records or billing systems? As practices adopt more AI-powered recruiting and patient-facing tools, the same question applies broadly: governance and human oversight need to scale alongside the technology itself.

What Should Dental Professionals (and Their Kids Heading to College) Study Now?

Asked what she'd advise an incoming college freshman today, Bonnie points to a blended strategy: build real technical fluency (she specifically cites computer science and software engineering as skills that aren't going away) alongside "generalist" skills like project management and cross-functional communication, because managing a mix of human and AI-driven workflows is itself becoming a core skill.

That advice holds up well for the dental field, too. Practices don't need every team member to become a software engineer, but they do benefit from people who understand how to evaluate, question, and work alongside AI-powered tools rather than either rejecting them outright or trusting them blindly.

The Bottom Line for Dental Practices Evaluating AI

The episode closes on a note of cautious optimism: AI is unlikely to be a net job destroyer, but only for organizations that invest in enablement, training, and governance alongside adoption. As Bonnie puts it, plenty of companies have told teams to "just use AI" without building the guardrails to support it safely, and that gap is where real risk lives, whether the industry is recruiting, dentistry, or anything in between.

For dental practices navigating AI adoption in patient communication, revenue cycle management, imaging, or scheduling, the takeaway is consistent with what Henry Schein One sees across the industry: the practices that benefit most are the ones pairing new AI tools with real training, clear governance, and a team that's encouraged to adapt rather than fear the change.

Listen to the full episode of Dental TeX-ray, Henry Schein One's dental technology and AI podcast, wherever you get your podcasts, or visit dentaltexray.podbean.com.

Dental TeX-ray is hosted by Alan Rencher, Chief Technology Officer at Henry Schein One, and features conversations with dental leaders, founders, and innovators on the technology shaping the future of dental practice.