Roboreception Eyes GP Market After Successful Rollout in UK Dental Surgeries

After a successful deployment across nearly 100 dental practices, AI-powered patient communication platform RoboReception is turning its sights on GP surgeries.

Working with telecoms provider Focus Group and unified communications specialist Wildix, the company aims to tackle one of primary care’s most persistent pain points – overwhelmed reception desks and missed patient calls.

Founder Dr Grant McAree, who spent 25 years in dental practice, said the idea was born out of daily frustration. “I realised that there was a problem bottleneck within healthcare,” he explained. “I was sitting there, drilling away, and I’d hear the phone ringing – and then ring out. That ringing out is the difference between my business working and my business failing.”

McAree co-founded RoboReception to automate routine patient interactions, such as appointment bookings, cancellations, and FAQs – without replacing staff. “Reception was the bottleneck in the dental industry, and it still is,” he said. “We wanted an easier way.”

From Dental AI to Digital Triage

Within six months of launch, the AI system handled more than 70,000 calls across 65 clinics, with “zero missed calls” and “96 percent of inquiries resolved without human intervention,” according to McAree.

The software’s success is measurable: “Five hundred new patients booked across those locations in about six months,” said Wildix’s Jason Uslan. “The result isn’t just happier patients, it’s measurable business impact.”

But the focus, McAree insists, is on efficiency and patient care, not job cuts. “We’ve never got rid of any staff, and we’re adamant we’re not going to do that,” he said. “It’s about increasing efficiency and profit without losing staff. We want reception teams to have time to look after the people who really need that face-to-face contact.”

Next Stop: GP Surgeries

After refining its AI “flows” in dentistry – essentially the scripted conversational pathways that patients follow when engaging with the system – RoboReception is now preparing to roll out across GP surgeries.

“We’ve already got five GPs interested in a trial,” McAree told Think Digital Partners “We use GPs as consultants to build flows… specialists within that field help us change the flows from the dental flows to the GP flows.”

The technology is already being adapted for healthcare integration. “The massive challenge is actually integrating with their present PMS (primary management systems),” said McAree. “System One and EMIS are quite difficult to integrate with, but Focus Group are helping us with that. That’s why this relationship works – each of us has a common goal.”

Kate Berry, from Focus Group’s CX division added that localisation is also key: “Certain countries and even regions have specific telecoms requirements – like Welsh-language transcription in Wales. We’re making sure those needs are built in from the start.”

‘Empowering, Not Replacing’, Reception Staff

As with its dental deployments, the company is keen to stress that the AI’s role is to assist, not replace, human teams. “Can you imagine the little old lady that goes into her doctor’s and is then cared for?” said McAree. “They show her to her seat; they look after her – that’s what it’s all about. We need to give receptionists time to care properly. We’re not forcing anyone to use AI. If someone says, ‘I don’t want to speak to a bloody AI,’ they’ll be put straight through to a human.”

With GP trials beginning this month, RoboReception’s founder believes they’re just getting started. “Tomorrow,” said McAree, “my to-do list starts with getting to GPs. Dentistry’s taken care of – now it’s time to bring that same efficiency and humanity to primary care.”