News from the Capitol

The Legislative Insider is published during the Legislative Session by the Georgia Dental Association. It contains updates on the activities of GDA's Government Affairs team as well as information about bills relevant to dentists and patient care.

AI Emerging Tech

Oct 6, 2025 by Jon Hoin
How emerging technologies, particularly AI, are transforming healthcare and dentistry. Using The Expanse series as a starting point, it highlights automated healthcare delivery in fiction and draws parallels to real-world AI applications. In dentistry, AI is being used for tasks like robotic implant placement, diagnostics, charting, and risk prediction, enhancing efficiency and quality of care. The blog also addresses the policy landscape, noting Georgia’s 2024 Senate Study Committee recommendations on AI governance, data privacy, and transparency, as well as other states’ legislative approaches. It emphasizes the importance of staying informed and involved, encouraging dental professionals to participate in advocacy efforts like GDA’s LAW Day and legislative reception.

Occasionally, encountering an emerging technology will feel like fantasy has become reality. Most often, these technologies mirror some sci-fi concept from recent decades. As they build their worlds, authors imagining the future can provide provocative food for thought in remarkably mundane ways. Consider The Expanse, a 9-book series from the writing team James S. A. Corey. Between space adventures, alien bioengineering, and political intrigue, the details of the books’ setting provide their own food for thought, and one piece that stands out is an understated detail where healthcare delivery is mostly automated. Throughout the series, shipbound characters receive much of their care from a shipboard “auto-doc” that provides treatments ranging from cancer care to emergency medicine.  

AI and Dentistry 

This author has no recollection of dental care being featured in the books, but automating various aspects of dental care is fast becoming a topic of conversation. New artificial intelligence (AI) tools are creating opportunities to streamline and enhance dental care across the whole practice. Several use cases for AI, including the use of AI-driven robotic systems for implant placement, have been proposed, and a variety of products are already available on the market.  

All over the healthcare world, providers are beginning to use AI tools for record composition and management. Testimony from Dr. Alistair Erskine, of Emory Healthcare, at Georgia’s 2024 Senate Study Committee on Artificial Intelligence focused on the adoption of AI that creates records in real time. Emory is already using ambient listening technologies to expedite charting and information recording in the hospital setting, and products for automatic charting, based on intraoral and extraoral x-rays, and voice charting for periodontal assessments, have already been brought to market.  

Another use that feeds into record keeping is the use of AI tools for diagnostics. Current technology is already being applied to caries detection to help facilitate timely treatment, and ongoing work is being done in the realm of risk prediction. Tools are already being developed to integrate data from radiographs, practice management systems, and other sources. Integration at this level will both assist diagnosis and enhance processes critical to the delivery of dental care, such as scheduling and filing with insurance.  

All of this research requires a lot of data and considered deliberation. Continuing to pair machine learning with new technologies is expected to drive further innovation and automation for providers, but privacy and quality concerns do exist. Regulators will help determine the future course of these new technologies.  

The Policy Landscape in Georgia and Beyond 

Georgia’s 2024 Senate Study Committee on Artificial Intelligence discussed ongoing AI-related advances with a degree of caution. Concerns about risk management, governance, ethics, human oversight, and more informed questions legislators asked. The result was a recommendation that Georgia adopt a comprehensive data privacy law, an updated deepfake law, and requirements for full transparency and disclosure when utilizing AI. Regarding healthcare, legislators observed that AI can offer significant benefits in patient care, predictive analytics, and administrative efficiency for the healthcare industry, and they proposed working with state agencies to support the accessibility of AI enabled tools.  

Beyond developing general guardrails governing AI enabled tools, some states are also putting together regulations to address new concerns brought about by the prospect of increased automation. As the 2025 session kicked off, Arkansas, California, and Maryland were all exploring potential AI regulations. Some of the proposals focused primarily on disclosing the use of AI, but some went further.  

Maryland’s HB 820 addresses utilization review and AI. It contains specific instructions for insurance carriers that choose to use AI or another software-based tool to evaluate claims. Carriers must make sure that their AI uses an enrollee’s specific clinical history and other circumstances, as opposed to solely using a group dataset, and their AI cannot operate entirely on its own to make decisions that deny, delay, or modify health care services.  

HB 820 represents a particular approach to AI that seeks to ensure that these tools work alongside people. Unlike the science fiction world of the Expanse, where robotics and algorithms may displace people, there is already a push toward models that enhance the abilities and judgment of the provider, revealing information and identifying indicators that promote both efficiency and quality decision-making. As further legislation is developed, states will begin to shape the future of AI and related tools.  

Up to Date and Involved 

To be a part of the conversation in Georgia, join GDA’s advocacy efforts. Every year, GDA’s contact dentists help local legislators understand how policies being considered under the gold dome impact dentistry. Advocacy happens at the Capitol, and it happens right in every dentist’s backyard. Don’t forget to sign up for LAW Day 2026 and attend the 2025 legislative reception in a district near you.