AI Fluency in Eye Care Is Moving From Advantage to Table Stakes

A few months ago, knowing how to use AI in your practice was a competitive edge. Today it's quickly becoming something else: a baseline expectation.

That was one of the most pointed observations in a recent conversation between Barti CEO Colton Calandrella and Dr. Masoud Nafey, a longtime industry leader and three-time AI company founder. Over the course of the discussion, both speakers kept coming back to the same theme. The pace of AI adoption in eye care isn't just accelerating, it's compressing the timeline that practices have to figure this out.

The window is narrower than it looks

It's tempting to think AI is something practices can wait on. Let the technology mature, let the early adopters work out the kinks, then move when the path is clear.

That framing made sense a year or two ago. It doesn't anymore. As Colton put it during the conversation, doing nothing might feel like the safe choice, but it's actually the riskiest move a practice owner can make right now. The pace of change is compounding, which means a practice that's not even thinking about AI today will find itself significantly behind in just a few years, not because it failed at adoption, but because the practices around it kept moving.

Fluency isn't optional

Dr. Nafey was direct about what's required. AI fluency isn't something you can outsource or skip. Doctors and practice owners need to start dabbling now. Use the tools. Get comfortable with how they think. Block time on the calendar to experiment, even with the basics.

The biggest misconception, Colton noted, is that AI works automagically. People try a single prompt in ChatGPT, get a generic answer, and decide the technology isn't useful. But using AI well is a real skill set. It requires understanding how to give context, how to evaluate output, how to integrate it into actual workflows. Practices that build that muscle now will be the ones running smoothly when AI is woven into every part of how an eye care practice operates.

What this means for your practice

The decisions you make in your practice over the next six to twelve months will shape how prepared you are for the next decade. Not because everything changes overnight, but because the compounding nature of AI adoption means small actions now lead to outsized gains later.

The good news is the bar to start is low. The harder part is starting at all. As Dr. Nafey put it, the practices that begin experimenting with simple tools today will have a meaningful edge over those that wait for the perfect moment. That moment isn't coming.

Watch the full conversation

Colton and Dr. Nafey go deeper on where to start with AI, what's actually working in practices today, and what the eye care practice of two to three years from now looks like.

Get instant access to the on-demand webinar →

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