Every week, another vendor shows up promising a new AI product that will revolutionize your practice. Smarter scheduling. Automated billing. Documentation and coding handled at the click of a button. You’ve heard the pitches. You’ve sat through the demos. You may have already signed the contracts. How is this different from before? How many products have you already bought that were supposed to fix these problems, and yet they still persist? In some cases not only did they not solve the problem, or improve costs, they’ve actually gotten worse, and your costs have risen. Because here’s the truth: automation doesn’t magically fix broken processes. If anything it amplifies them. There is no question that AI holds the promise of revolutionizing healthcare. However AI, like automation, needs to be applied to well-optimized processes; it is not a substitute for bad processes. Automating Chaos Is Still Chaos Healthcare doesn’t suffer from a lack of technology. You already have EHRs, scheduling systems, revenue cycle platforms, CRMs, patient engagement and a dozen other “solutions.” If pain points remain, layering AI on top won’t solve them. It just means: Speed without proper direction isn’t progress, it’s recklessness. It’s like putting a Ferrari engine on a Model T.  A Cautionary Tale: Salesforce’s AI Layoffs This isn’t a healthcare problem alone, it’s a management problem. And nowhere is that clearer than at Salesforce, whose AI strategies have come under scrutiny recently.  In 2025, CEO Marc Benioff announced that Salesforce had cut 4,000 support jobs shrinking the team from 9,000 to 5,000 and replaced much of the work with its AI system, Agentforce.. He proudly pointed to AI handling 1.5 million customer conversations, saying it reduced the need for “heads.” Here’s what really happened: The result? Salesforce became the case study in what happens when leaders reach for automation instead of fixing what’s broken. They didn’t solve inefficiencies. They amplified them. Why Healthcare Should Pay Attention If Salesforce with its money, talent, and tech pedigree can get this wrong, what happens when a physician practice bets on AI to fix scheduling, billing, or documentation without fixing workflows first? The stakes in healthcare are even higher than in tech customer service. Here, the cost isn’t just lost revenue or market trust. It’s physician time. Staff morale. Patient care. Optimize Before You Automate  Executives already know this, deep down. The problem usually isn’t the technology. The problem is misaligned team goals, unclear processes, and dysfunction that no algorithm can clean up. Yet vendors keep selling magic dust. Leaders keep buying it. And everyone acts shocked when the “solution” doesn’t solve the problem.  The uncomfortable truth: if your house is out of order, AI won’t straighten it up. It will just make the mess permanent. AI is not a cure for dysfunction. It’s an amplifier. After you’ve optimized your processes, automation can be transformative through better scale and improved efficiency. If you haven’t, it just makes the eros happen  faster, cause more damage, and become harder to undo. Salesforce is a cautionary tale. Don’t make the same mistake in healthcare. Optimize before you automate or you’ll pay more to make your problems even more permanent…and happen faster… and probably at higher cost.