AI agents need a human to book the appointment
Zocdoc’s CEO says AI will make their business more valuable—but only if it can verify a dermatologist’s availability.
The story
Zocdoc's CEO discusses the rapid growth of AI agent traffic on their platform and how they're adapting to ensure their infrastructure remains valuable in an AI-driven future.
Source: fortune.com
Our reading
Zocdoc’s CEO is betting that AI agents will make their business more valuable, not vulnerable, by acting as a bridge between patients and real-world healthcare. But if an AI agent can’t verify that a dermatologist is in-network and available at 10:15 a.m., then the real work is still done by humans—just not the ones you see.
It’s a strange position: the company is trying to be both the infrastructure and the gatekeeper, like a bouncer who also runs the club. The more AI agents rely on Zocdoc, the more the company’s value is tied to the same old problem—healthcare’s fragmented systems—only now with a new layer of complexity.
Eventually, the AI will know everything, and Zocdoc will be the one who told it. But for now, they’re just the middleman, making sure the appointment actually shows up on the calendar.
