Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing healthcare, higher education and the workplace. At the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Dental Medicine, AI is becoming part of daily work across the school, from teaching and learning to clinical care, research and administrative operations.
Faculty are using AI to build course materials, create educational content and streamline administrative tasks. Students are interviewing AI-powered simulated patients before entering the clinic. Researchers are analyzing large datasets more efficiently and exploring new ways to accelerate scientific discovery. Clinicians are working with tools that support radiographic review, treatment planning and patient communication.
"Our vision extends beyond teaching people how to use today's technologies," said Dean Denise Kassebaum, DDS, MS. "We are building AI literacy across the school so students, faculty and staff have the judgment, adaptability and critical-thinking skills to navigate an AI-enabled profession that will continue to evolve."
To help guide these efforts, an AI Steering Committee identified four focus areas for the school's AI strategy: training future-ready practitioners, building AI literacy, strengthening faculty development, and advancing research.
Some of CU Anschutz Dental's most visible AI innovations are emerging in educational and clinical settings.
Faculty members are using AI-powered avatars and virtual patient encounters to give students opportunities to practice communication and assessment skills before interacting with patients in the clinic.
Petros Yoon, DDS, and colleagues identified a need to strengthen interviewing and patient assessment skills before students enter clinical environments.
"Simulated patient encounters give students opportunities to practice gathering information, establishing rapport and making informed decisions in a low-stakes learning environment," Yoon said. "Establishing that foundation early allows students to build confidence, refine their communication and assessment abilities and enter their first patient encounters better prepared."
Annetty Soto, DMD, FAGD, FACD, has been exploring how generative AI can make educational experiences more dynamic and authentic. She has used AI to create case-based learning activities, develop scripts for instructional avatars, build grading rubrics and redesign learning materials.
More recently, Soto has been exploring branching scenarios that allow students to make clinical decisions and experience different outcomes based on their choices.
"AI is helping us move beyond static assignments and create more authentic clinical reasoning experiences for students," Soto said. "Students can explore different decision paths, see different outcomes and engage more deeply with the learning process."
These tools are designed not only to improve learning but also to help students enter clinical environments with greater confidence and stronger communication, assessment and decision-making skills.
Artificial intelligence is also becoming increasingly relevant in clinical care and patient communication.
The school is integrating AI into clinical education through tools that can support radiographic review and help clinicians communicate findings with patients. Students are learning not only how to use these technologies but also how to critically evaluate the information they provide.
Benjamin Crockett, DMD, MS, assistant professor and chair of the Division of Maxillofacial Radiology and AI Innovations, has helped guide these conversations.
"Our students need to understand both the capabilities and limitations of AI," Crockett said. "These tools can support clinical reasoning, but they don't replace clinical judgment."
As AI tools become more common, school leaders believe students and faculty need more than technical skills. They need digital literacy.
Elizabeth Ramos, DDS, MSD, EdD, associate dean for academic affairs, and Jennipher Murphy, MS Ed, faculty development program director, have worked together to create training opportunities focused on responsible AI use, critical thinking and digital citizenship.
Rather than emphasizing individual platforms, their approach focuses on helping people evaluate technologies, understand their limitations and determine when human expertise is required.
"What we're teaching isn't how to use a specific tool," Ramos said. "It's knowing what you want a tool to do and how to evaluate it to support your own thoughts and ideas. Technology will change, but those skills will stay with you throughout your career."
Ramos said one of the most important lessons for learners to understand is that AI can enhance, not replace, professional judgment.
"AI is going to strengthen our human capacity," she said. "With teaching, if AI can help with foundational knowledge and routine tasks, it gives us more opportunities as educators to engage students in deeper learning."
Murphy sees the same opportunity in faculty development. She has helped create workshops that encourage faculty to explore AI applications while maintaining a strong focus on ethics, professionalism and critical thinking.
"We're focused on digital literacy and creating a culture where people feel comfortable sharing and learning together," Murphy said. "The real question isn't whether you can use AI. It's understanding when AI can help and when a task needs uniquely human skills like creativity, curiosity, ethics and adaptability."
Faculty are already using AI to support course development, create case-based learning activities, generate quiz questions, improve accessibility, draft communications and assist with administrative tasks. AI also is helping streamline routine work such as scheduling, organizing information and troubleshooting technology, creating more time for teaching and student support.
While AI technology may improve efficiency, its greatest value lies in helping faculty and students focus on meaningful learning, collaboration and engagement.
Faculty members are also increasingly using AI to streamline literature reviews, analyze and organize research data, identify patterns in complex datasets and support scientific writing and reporting.
In the Department of Craniofacial, Oral and Materials Sciences, researchers are exploring how AI can help accelerate discovery while reducing the time between scientific innovation and patient care.
"AI is helping researchers in dental materials and oral health accelerate data analysis, identify patterns in material performance and clinical outcomes, while streamlining literature reviews and reporting results," said Devatha Nair, PhD. "This enables faster innovation, more efficient research and quicker translation of discoveries into patient care."
One example is an AI-enabled life cycle assessment project led by Nair and colleagues. The project examines the environmental impact of resin-based composite restorations in academic dental clinics while investigating how AI can improve the efficiency, accuracy and reproducibility of sustainability research.
Using AI tools, researchers are evaluating materials, energy use, sterilization processes, water consumption and waste generation to better understand environmental impacts and identify opportunities for improvement.
Looking ahead, Nair sees even greater potential for AI to help researchers uncover insights from large datasets, predict material and biological performance and strengthen collaboration across disciplines.
"By integrating knowledge from laboratory studies, clinical research, scientific literature and real-world data, AI has the potential to help researchers identify meaningful connections more efficiently," Nair said. "Together, these capabilities can accelerate the translation of scientific discoveries into clinically relevant solutions that improve patient outcomes."
Simply using AI isn't the goal; what matters most is improving outcomes for patients, students and communities.
From virtual patient encounters to faculty development workshops, artificial intelligence is being integrated across CU Anschutz Dental.
While many of the school's AI initiatives are already underway, leaders see them as the foundation for continued innovation. Future efforts include expanding student-support tools, exploring additional clinical applications and identifying new opportunities to enhance education, research, patient care and operational efficiency.
Among these efforts is the exploration of AI-powered chatbot technology that could provide students with easier access to information and support outside traditional business hours.
Kassebaum said the focus is not on keeping pace with AI, but on preparing graduates to help shape the future of dentistry alongside it.
"Artificial intelligence is creating new opportunities across education, clinical care, research and operations," she said. "Our goal is to thoughtfully integrate these technologies in ways that enhance learning, support patient care and advance our mission."