NextGen Healthcare Unveils NextGen® Navigator: An AI-Powered Customer Service Agent to Transform Patient Engagement and Ease Staff Workload
NextGen Healthcare, a leading provider of innovative, cloud-based healthcare technology solutions, has expanded its patient engagement portfolio with the launch of NextGen® Navigator, an advanced AI-driven customer service agent developed in partnership with Luma Health. The new solution is designed to reshape how healthcare organizations manage patient communications, reduce administrative burdens on staff, and ultimately enhance both patient and provider experiences.
The debut of NextGen Navigator comes at a time when healthcare organizations across the United States face mounting pressure to improve patient access and communication while coping with chronic staff shortages and growing administrative demands. By introducing an intelligent, conversational AI agent that can respond to inbound calls and patient queries in real-time, NextGen Healthcare aims to strike a balance between operational efficiency and personalized care.
Addressing the Challenges of Patient Communication
For many healthcare practices, managing patient communications has become a complex and resource-intensive task. From handling appointment scheduling to processing prescription refill requests and answering routine inquiries about office hours or directions, call center staff and front-office employees often spend a disproportionate amount of their day fielding repetitive questions.
This not only places unnecessary strain on staff but also creates bottlenecks for patients who may experience long hold times, unanswered calls, or delayed responses through voicemail and portal messaging. Research consistently shows that communication inefficiencies can lead to patient dissatisfaction, care delays, and even lost revenue opportunities for healthcare organizations.
NextGen Navigator directly addresses these challenges. By providing patients with a reliable, always-available AI service agent, the solution minimizes call abandonment, reduces the backlog of voicemails and portal messages, and ensures that common requests are resolved quickly without requiring direct staff intervention.
What NextGen® Navigator Can Do
At its core, NextGen Navigator is designed to handle a wide range of patient requests in a natural, conversational manner. Unlike traditional automated phone systems that rely on rigid menus and limited routing options, the AI-powered agent leverages advanced natural language understanding to engage patients in meaningful dialogue.
Patients can use Navigator to:
- Request prescription refills without waiting for staff intervention.
- Manage appointments, including scheduling, rescheduling, or canceling visits.
- Ask for practice information, such as directions to the clinic or clarification on office hours.
- Seek guidance on next steps, with the AI recognizing when to escalate the conversation to a human staff member for more complex needs.
Because of this, patients benefit from shorter wait times and smoother interactions, while staff are freed to focus on tasks that require deeper clinical expertise or human judgment.
Tangible Benefits for Healthcare Practices
One of the most compelling aspects of NextGen Navigator is its measurable impact on operational efficiency. According to NextGen Healthcare, practices that have adopted the technology are already reporting significant improvements:
- Time savings: On average, staff members save 2–3 hours per day by offloading routine communications to the AI agent.
- Revenue growth: By improving patient access and reducing friction in scheduling and communications, organizations are experiencing increased revenue opportunities.
- Staff productivity: Employees can redirect their attention to higher-value activities, such as direct patient interactions, care coordination, and clinical support.
These benefits are particularly critical in an industry where labor shortages and burnout remain pressing issues. By automating repetitive workflows, healthcare organizations not only protect their staff from fatigue but also enhance overall job satisfaction.
Integration into NextGen’s AI Ecosystem
The launch of Navigator is not a standalone effort but part of NextGen Healthcare’s broader vision to integrate AI into healthcare operations in a meaningful way.
The customer service agent is a powerful addition to our lineup of integrated AI solutions,” said Srinivas (Sri) Velamoor, president and chief operating officer of NextGen Healthcare. “We are committed to helping our clients unlock greater efficiency and front-line productivity while also empowering patients to take greater control of their care journey with our NextGen® Closed Loop™ experience.
The NextGen Closed Loop Experience refers to the company’s strategy of creating a seamless connection between patients, providers, and technology. By embedding AI into patient communications, NextGen ensures that healthcare organizations can deliver proactive, responsive, and transparent services at every stage of the care journey.
Collaboration with Luma Health
The development of NextGen Navigator is powered by Luma Health, a leading patient engagement platform known for its expertise in intelligent communications.
This collaboration combines NextGen’s deep expertise in cloud-based healthcare solutions with Luma’s advanced AI-driven communication capabilities, resulting in a tool that is not only technologically sophisticated but also tailored to the real-world challenges of healthcare delivery.
Key Features of NextGen® Navigator
To further differentiate itself from traditional call-handling systems, NextGen Navigator comes equipped with a set of advanced features that enhance both patient and staff experiences:
- Intelligence – The AI agent is designed to provide a seamless, frictionless experience. Patients interact with the system as if they were speaking to a real staff member, thanks to its strong conversational abilities.
- Awareness – Navigator goes beyond basic IVR (interactive voice response) systems. It can recognize when a query requires escalation to human staff and ensure that such transfers happen smoothly. Additionally, the system offers automatic follow-up if calls are dropped, reducing patient frustration.
- Transparency – Practice staff retain full visibility into the AI agent’s interactions. Every call and action taken by the AI can be monitored, ensuring accountability and enabling staff to step in whenever necessary.
Bilingual Capabilities
Recognizing the diversity of patient populations in the United States, NextGen Navigator has been launched with bilingual support in English and Spanish—the two most widely spoken languages among patients.
This functionality not only expands accessibility but also ensures inclusivity, allowing healthcare organizations to better serve communities that may face language barriers in traditional call center environments.
The Bigger Picture: AI in Healthcare Operations
The launch of NextGen Navigator reflects a broader trend in the healthcare industry: the integration of artificial intelligence into everyday operations. From clinical decision support tools to automated scheduling and virtual assistants, AI is becoming a critical enabler of efficiency and innovation.
For healthcare providers, the challenge lies in adopting solutions that do not compromise the human touch but instead enhance the patient experience. By focusing on conversational intelligence, seamless escalation to human staff, and transparent oversight, NextGen Navigator strikes this delicate balance.
