Johns Hopkins bets big on AI to end healthcare’s phone call nightmare

Johns Hopkins Health System is turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to solve one of healthcare’s most persistent headaches: the chaotic phone experience that frustrates millions of patients daily. The Baltimore-based health system has tapped Talkdesk Healthcare Experience Cloud to rebuild its contact center operations, joining a growing roster of major medical centers turning to AI to untangle their communication mess.

Through Epic’s Workshop program, Talkdesk, an AI-powered contact center platform provider, will embed its tools directly into the health system’s electronic health record platform to create a unified workspace where contact center agents can handle everything from appointment scheduling to prescription refills without the constant tab-switching that slows response times and frays nerves.

The deal between Johns Hopkins and Talkdesk lands in the middle of an exploding healthcare contact center solutions market, set to grow from $8 billion in 2023 to nearly $50 billion by 2033, a 19.9% annual clip that signals an industry-wide reckoning. Health systems are finally acknowledging what patients have long known: the traditional model of putting people on hold for 45 minutes while they bounce between departments has never worked, and there’s finally a fix.

On hold and no one’s there

Research shows typical healthcare call centers operate at 60% of needed capacity during peak hours, running about 23 agents short of optimal staffing levels. Meanwhile, the average healthcare contact center burns through $13.9 million annually just to keep the lights on and phones ringing.

Promising to address these issues, the Talkdesk platform brings AI-powered self-service, intelligent routing, and genuine omnichannel capabilities to Johns Hopkins. Patients could start a conversation via chat, switch to phone, and finish through the patient portal without having to repeat their entire medical history each time. The system’s Customer Experience Automation platform aims to anticipate what patients need before they even ask.

The pandemic turned this nice-to-have technology into a must-have necessity. Telehealth exploded, digital interactions became the norm, and patients started expecting white glove service from their healthcare providers.

Automation takes the edge off the wait

AI-driven streamlining is already reshaping the economics of healthcare call centers. Organizations using AI have managed to serve 50% more patients with existing staff. That operational lift helps patients face shorter waits, reduces provider costs, and lessens staff burnout by offloading routine tasks to automation. When routine scheduling, prescription refills, or insurance verifications are handled by specialized AI agents, human workers can focus their energy on the complex and often emotional conversations that require empathy and clinical expertise.

This dual benefit, greater efficiency without losing human connection, aligns with the shift toward value-based care, where patient satisfaction and outcomes directly influence reimbursement. In practice, it means patients are less likely to hang up in frustration, and providers can strengthen loyalty while achieving measurable gains in quality scores and overall care delivery.

Specialized agents replace general-purpose bots

“Talkdesk Healthcare Experience Cloud is purpose-built for healthcare and designed to help organizations improve operational efficiency and service quality,” states Tiago Paiva, Talkdesk’s CEO and founder. His company represents a new wave of vendors building healthcare-specific solutions from the ground up rather than trying to retrofit generic business software for medical use.

The approach is getting more sophisticated. Instead of deploying one omniscient AI assistant, vendors now create specialized agents for specific tasks. Need to schedule an appointment? There’s an agent for that. Prescription refill? Another agent. Insurance verification? You get the idea. This modular approach lets health systems phase in automation gradually while maintaining quality control over each function.

Privacy rules create hurdles

Projections show the broader contact center software global market is expanding from nearly $64 billion in 2025 to more than $213 billion by 2032, with healthcare claiming an increasingly large slice of that pie. The drivers are clear: aging populations, rising chronic disease rates, and patients who won’t tolerate being put on hold for 45 minutes anymore.

But significant hurdles remain before this new approach can be fully implemented. HIPAA compliance adds layers of complexity that retail and banking don’t face. Patient privacy concerns create implementation challenges. And certain conversations about diagnoses, treatment options, or end-of-life care will always require human compassion and nuance that no algorithm can replicate.

Training will prove critical, as well. Staff must learn to work alongside AI assistants rather than compete with them. Workflows need rethinking from scratch. Most importantly, organizations must preserve the warmth and empathy that make healthcare human while capturing the efficiency gains that make it sustainable.

It seems all but inevitable that AI will transform healthcare contact centers. What remains to be seen is how quickly organizations can adapt, and if they can do so without losing their human touch. Johns Hopkins is placing its bet that technology can amplify rather than replace human connection, and their success or failure will send ripples through an industry searching for a win.