Why Every Practice will Soon Have an AI Operator

Cameron Hemphill talks with Shannon Blake, Podium's Director of Aesthetic Partnerships, and Cortney Hall, COO of True Medical Spa, about how Podium's all-in-one platform combines an EMR and CRM with two AI employees — Avery, the client-facing assistant, and Operator, the back-office business partner — to help med spa and aesthetic practice owners convert more leads, save staff time, and run their business with real data instead of guesswork.

Cortney shares how her practice uses Avery to book appointments without a human touching the calendar and uses Operator like a texting "bestie" for instant reports, one-on-ones, and reactivation campaigns, while Shannon explains why Podium built its own EMR, how migrations have gotten faster, and what's coming next with lab integrations, treatment plans, and compliance tools.

Key takeaways

• When True Medical Spa let Avery handle booking end-to-end instead of sending a scheduling link, the practice saw a 7% increase in conversions in the first month.

• Podium has raised $450 million and employs about 250 engineers, letting it build features like AI charting and lab integrations far faster than legacy EMR vendors.

• Practices using Podium Operator report time savings of 8 to 10 hours a week, though Shannon notes the bigger win is work that simply wasn't getting done before, like pulling KPI reports and rebooking lapsed clients.