Moving from "Passive" to "Active" Practice Management

On this episode of In Touch with Terri, host Terri Ross welcomes back Shannon Blake, Director of Aesthetic Partnerships at Podium, to talk about why fragmented software is quietly costing med spas and aesthetic practices real money, and how an AI-driven operating system can fix it. Shannon walks through why Podium decided to build its own EMR from scratch so that Avery, its AI employee, could take over scheduling, forms, and reminders instead of just answering questions, and why the company pulled back a planned AI voice product because it wasn't yet good enough for real-time patient relationships.

Terri and Shannon dig into what actually happens when a practice runs on three to five disconnected systems, why most practice owners don't love their EMR, and what's coming next: an AI revenue-mining platform that uses purchase history and treatment plans to proactively re-engage patients. For med spa and aesthetic practice owners weighing a new tech stack, Shannon makes the case that the real differentiator isn't having an all-in-one system, it's how deeply AI is built into it.

Key takeaways

• Two months after launching its AI operating system, Podium has already saved aesthetic practices more than 60,000 hours and had its AI employee Avery book over 70,000 appointments with no human involvement.

• Podium built its own EMR so Avery could access scheduling, charts, and payments directly, letting her manage reschedules, device conflicts, and pre-appointment forms, with AI charting expected within weeks of this episode.

• With about 40% of patient traffic arriving after hours and roughly 1,500 AI employees already deployed across aesthetics practices, Shannon says the next phase, targeted for around June, is "revenue mining," where Avery proactively re-engages patients based on treatment plans and buying history.