What's an AI Agent, just another buzzword?

At Clark Street Health, every team we meet is busy. Really busy. The best way to think about how you can take advantage of AI is to start by the work you are already doing.

If you had two extra hours at the office each day, what would you do? If we gave you tickets to a 4pm show, what work would get pushed back to tomorrow?

AI systems are changing how we think about work. Instead of coding rigid software that follows a single set of instructions, we can now define a goal (a task, an outcome) and have a coordinated team of AI models figure out how to achieve it as effectively and efficiently as possible.

For example, software engineers today use AI agents to write and test code they've already designed, freeing them to focus on what really matters: reviewing outputs, improving architecture, and building great systems faster. The goal isn't to replace people, the goal is to redirect human effort toward higher-value work. You get twice as much done without doubling your team.

This is a major shift from traditional software, which simply changed where you did your work or how you monitored it. We're building AI agents that blend directly into your workflows, like automatically picking up the phone the moment a patient calls, responding just as a human team member would.

Building Block #1: Context

When you hire someone new, you don't just hand them a manual — you onboard them. You show them around, introduce them to the team, explain your policies, and give them the tools they need to succeed.

For AI agents, we call this Context. It's what allows them to understand your practice, your patients, your hours, your tone and everything else that makes your practice unique. The magic here? With a single update, you can instantly update context for every agent. Change your location, hours, or billing system? All your agents know, immediately. Training becomes instant.

Building Block #2: Goals

Every practice has work that keeps people late. I'm sure there are tasks you've tried to outsource, automate, or just wish could run more smoothly. That's where Goals come in. Instead of rigid scripts or phone trees that ask patients to "press 3 to connect," AI agents listen, understand, and respond with empathy to guide each person to the right outcome in real time.

You define the high-level goal ("help patients schedule faster," "ensure you have their last name spelling and preferred pharmacy," "let them know we are closing early"), and the agent finds the best way to get there. It's flexible, human-like, and built around your priorities.

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What's New With Clark Street?

Here are a few updates from us on our product. We are helping practices serve patients every day around the clock. Our on-call agents have lead to a 40% reduction in additional call time and patient on hold time across customers and we have been rolling out several automatic updates to the platform.

Multiple Agents and Routes

We've been listening! One of the first questions we received when we onboarded our first customers this summer was whether you can use different agents for different Goals.

This is now live on the platform for all users. You can create custom routes to collect info and document inquiries about scheduling, billing, Rx, pharmacy inquiries and more.

Emotional Intelligence

We are also increasing our automatic testing across all agents. We test each agent against a rigorous set of emotional benchmarks to ensure patients have the best interaction possible.

The vast majority of our calls end with the patient thanking the AI assistant. The past three months have lead to many breakthroughs on this front from frontier research and we look forward to sharing these benefits with our latest updates.