AI in Chiropractic Practices: What's Working, What's Not, and What's Next

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Everyone is saying AI is going to change everything in our daily lives, both personally and professionally. But if you run a chiropractic clinic, the more useful question is: what does that actually mean in terms of real-world impact for my practice, my team, and my patients?

In our September webinar, ChiroHD Founder and Chief Product and Technology Officer Gabriel Doty and SKED Founder and CEO Dr. Erik Kowalke sat down with host Megan Norris to cut through the noise. They covered how big this shift really is, how clinics are using AI right now (the good and the risky), what to watch out for, and a first look at the AI tools being built into the ChiroHD and SKED platforms.

Here are the biggest takeaways.

1. The AI shift is bigger than you think, and it looks different than you'd expect

AI has gone from unknown to everyday use faster than almost any technology before it. According to TechCrunch, ChatGPT reached 900 million weekly active users in February 2026 — more than double the 400 million reported in February 2025.

And the pace is only picking up. For years, most engineers were skeptical that AI could write production-quality code. Then, earlier this year, a single new AI model changed the software development world almost overnight.

AI today is a lot like the internet in the '90s. Back then, newscasters talked about "the www" as a strange new thing. Today we don't talk about "the internet." We just use Google. AI will follow the same path. The buzzword will fade, and AI will simply be quietly built into the tools you already use.

The challenge for chiropractors is that everything is moving fast and it's noisy. That's where ChiroHD wants to lead: sorting through the noise and delivering AI-powered tools that make a measurable difference in your clinic, so you don't have to.

Done right, this shift could put chiropractic ahead of the rest of healthcare, helping the profession grow and serve more people worldwide.

2. The biggest problem AI can solve in chiropractic practice: getting your team back in front of patients

No chiropractor got into this profession to do paperwork, call insurance companies, or troubleshoot servers.

Picture a clinic with one doctor, one or two CAs, and no back office. The whole team is patient-facing: doing exams, taking X-rays, educating, and engaging with the community, while AI handles phones, digital messages, and admin work behind the scenes. It would feel like adding two or three team members to every office.

The biggest wins will come first in a few key areas:

• Data and reporting. Every clinic defines and tracks its numbers a little differently, which has made reporting slow to build for the whole profession. AI removes that barrier. You'll be able to ask for your data the way you think about it.
• Insurance verification and RCM. Hold times, verification calls, and the labor-heavy insurance process are prime areas for automation.
• Simple phone questions that don't need a person on the line.

There's also a simple test for whether you're using AI the right way:

If AI is pulling you toward screens and away from patients, it's probably being utilized in the wrong workflow.

3. How chiropractic clinics are using AI right now

Care plans and financial plans. Many doctors are using AI tools to build care plans and work through financial scenarios. They're not alone: 30% of physicians now use AI for care plans, discharge instructions, or progress notes, according to a 2026 AMA survey. It's powerful, but it comes with a big risk (more on that below in the caution section).

AI phone systems. Some clinics love them. Many have had bad experiences. The reality is that patients only like talking to AI if it gives them a better answer and solves their problem faster. Most AI phone systems in 2026 aren't there yet. But that's changing quickly. Like training a new front desk hire, the more you train an AI system on your scripts and processes, the better it gets. And unlike a new hire, you won't have to retrain it every year on "Do you take insurance?" and "How much are X-rays?"

Running the business. Associate compensation plans, HR documents, team manuals, and handbooks. What once took weeks to develop can now go from idea to first draft in minutes.

Scribes (with a reality check). AI scribes are among the most requested tools in chiropractic, and ChiroHD is developing one. But there are real tradeoffs. You have to tell every patient you're recording, and to get a useful note, you have to specify what you want in it. Most adjustments are full of conversation about vacations and football games, not "fixation at C3."

Scribes fit best in:

• New patient exams, re-exams, and reassessments, which already have a natural, clinical flow
• Dictation, where doctors take 10 seconds between patients to record their notes

Metrics. Chiropractors want better insight into their trends, what's working, and where patients fall off. Many are exporting data to run through AI tools outside of their EHRs.

4. What to be cautious about with AI in a chiropractic healthcare environment

This is where clinics need to be most careful.

Using unapproved AI tools is common in healthcare. About 1 in 5 healthcare workers admit to using AI tools their organization hasn't approved.

Be careful what you connect. Many clinics are linking their Google accounts, EHRs, and other systems to AI tools without understanding how that data moves. Connecting accounts isn't necessarily wrong, but it deserves extra scrutiny.

Watch for regulation. AI in healthcare is likely to face more rules over the next year, and scribes may be affected. Build on workflows that will hold up to save your team time down the road.

Don't forget how to be a chiropractor. AI works best when it automates something you already understand — the redundant tasks, the manual workflows that steal time from your day. Don't hand off your clinical expertise; that's the part worth keeping human.

Choose a partner you can trust. Ransomware attacks on clinic EHRs can be devastating. In one NCMIC case study, a single phishing click at a multi-provider chiropractic clinic led to a ransomware attack that exposed about 8,500 patient records, with response costs of $60,500 to more than $137,000. That's why the ChiroHD and SKED team chose not to cut corners, even when it meant shipping features more slowly. Protecting your data is worth the wait.

5. A look at ChiroHD's newest release: AI intake summaries

AI-generated summaries of patient intake paperwork is one of ChiroHD's most exciting releases of the year. Adoption was nearly instant. When the feature went offline briefly, the team received hundreds of emails that day.

When a new patient completes forms online, the summary appears right on the new patient appointment and includes:

• A watch area that flags high-risk or important items like surgeries, fusions, accidents, and major health events
• A doctor briefing built specifically for chiropractors — it highlights the patient's quality-of-life goals, like being able to pick up their kids again or attend their child's football games
• A full subjective that can go straight into your note

Final advice on how to approach AI