Healthcare call centers are still growing — even as patient portals improve. Patients call to confirm appointments they already know about, reschedule across multiple departments, and check on billing. They wait on hold. They get transferred. They hang up.
In this episode of Health Reimagined, host Jon Myer (Powered by Myer Media) sits down with Jeff from SoundHound AI to unpack what agentic AI actually means for healthcare, why voice is the future of the patient experience, and how health systems are using conversational AI to handle complex multi-step tasks — without a single hold time or transfer.
🔗 Learn more at soundhound.com
Topics covered:
Why healthcare call centers keep growing no matter how good patient portals get
The difference between old IVR systems and modern agentic voice AI
What the first wave of healthcare chatbots got wrong — and what the industry learned
SoundHound’s streaming voice recognition engine and real-time word processing
The hybrid model — deterministic authentication plus free-flowing agentic AI
How one call can now handle scheduling, billing, and IT support without transfers
Call center attrition rates of 25 to 35% and how AI solves the staffing problem
Practical advice for healthcare organizations taking their first step into agentic AI
Starter packs — highest volume lowest complexity use cases first for fast ROI
What makes a healthcare-specific agentic voice platform different from wrapping an LLM
⏱️ YouTube Timeline
0:00 — Introduction — Agentic AI is no longer just answering questions it is taking action
0:32 — Meet Jeff from SoundHound AI at HIMSS
0:34 — Where the real AI opportunity sits in healthcare — the call center
1:22 — Why patients still pick up the phone even with patient portals
2:29 — The shift in trust — from skepticism to expecting a digital agent to answer
3:32 — After hours calls multilingual support and not waiting on hold
3:57 — How agentic AI handled an earlier appointment without a single hold
4:23 — Rescheduling to the day after St. Patrick’s Day — natural language in action
4:53 — What the first wave of healthcare AI got wrong — chatbots IVR and basic automation
5:46 — The move from scripted flows to continuous natural conversation
6:08 — One call for scheduling billing and IT without transfers or reauthentication
7:39 — Streaming voice recognition — processing each word in real time like a human
8:34 — SoundHound’s background in restaurants and drive-throughs and why it matters for healthcare
9:01 — Where voice fits in the broader healthcare landscape and why vendor sprawl is a problem
10:11 — IVR vs agentic AI — MapQuest directions vs Waze navigation
11:04 — The hybrid model — deterministic authentication plus free-flowing agentic conversation
11:28 — Security identity verification and giving the right patient the right information
12:09 — The biggest pain points in healthcare call centers — attrition wait times and growth
13:10 — Practical advice for healthcare organizations taking their first step into agentic AI
13:57 — Starter packs — highest volume lowest complexity use cases for fast provable ROI
14:47 — What makes a healthcare-specific voice AI platform different from just wrapping an LLM
16:11 — Measurable KPIs containment rates and proving value year over year
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