When a patient asks ChatGPT or Google’s AI which orthodontist to visit, the answer isn’t a list of links anymore — it’s a short, decisive shortlist. That shift is rewriting the rules of medical marketing, and KaleidoscopeAI’s chief growth officer is taking that message to one of the specialty’s biggest annual gatherings.
Jeff Slater, Chief Growth Officer
KaleidoscopeAI™ CGO Jeff Slater presents at GLAO 2026 on how AI chooses which orthodontists to recommend. Oct. 23, Columbus. kaldental.ai
Jeff Slater, Chief Growth Officer at KaleidoscopeAI™, is set to deliver a talk titled “Marketing Gets You Seen, AI-Powered Branding Gets You Chosen” at the Great Lakes Association of Orthodontists (GLAO) 2026 Annual Session. The 60-minute presentation is scheduled for Friday, October 23, from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. in Bellows Ballroom C at the Hilton Columbus Downtown.
How patient search is changing
The way patients find care is undergoing a fundamental shift. More and more, individuals are turning to AI platforms like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, and Perplexity and asking them to name a specific orthodontist. Rather than delivering a standard results page, these engines typically respond with a brief roster of practices. According to WebFX research covering 2.37 million U.S. queries, healthcare-related searches produce AI-generated answers at a higher frequency than any other sector. While Google still serves as the launch point for most patient inquiries, the actual endorsement increasingly comes from an AI engine.
What the research shows
Slater’s presentation is built around the 2026 Citation Gap Report, which draws on more than 120 KAL™ AI Visibility Audits conducted since March 2026. The findings are striking: no orthodontic practice examined in the study achieved an “AI Ready” status — the benchmark for consistent recommendation by AI answer engines — and roughly one-third of practices lack schema markup on their websites entirely. Practices tend to perform well on the visible signals patients notice, such as online reviews and Google Business Profile optimization, but they fall short on the technical cues that AI systems actually rely on when making their selections.
What attendees will learn
This session repositions branding for an AI-first world. Doctors and their teams will walk away with actionable takeaways, including:
– Why visibility and positioning are distinct challenges, and why even strong marketing may fail to secure an AI endorsement
– The five brand signals AI tools evaluate when determining which practices to highlight: practice, expertise, technical, reputation, and visual brand
– Which staff members are best suited to manage each of those signals
– A concrete action plan that can be implemented the week immediately following the conference
Who AI recommends
“Marketing has always been about getting seen. What has changed is who makes the recommendation,” said Slater. “When a parent asks AI which orthodontist to choose, it names only a handful of practices, and the ones it names have a brand it can recognize and trust. I want every doctor and team member in the room to leave knowing which of those signals they already have and which ones they are missing.”
About the speaker
Jeff Slater serves as Chief Growth Officer at KaleidoscopeAI™, where he collaborates with orthodontic practices throughout the U.S. and Canada on marketing strategy and AI visibility. His recent portfolio includes an American Association of Orthodontists webinar focused on AI recommendations, as well as bylined contributions to Orthotown and Orthodontic Products.
About KaleidoscopeAI
KaleidoscopeAI™ operates as an orthodontic marketing agency and is the creator of the KAL AI Growth System™, a proprietary AI-driven platform designed specifically for the orthodontic and dental fields. Built on 17 years of digital marketing experience serving orthodontic practices, KaleidoscopeAI has conducted more than 120 practice audits since March 2026. The KAL AI Growth System™ combines artificial intelligence with human oversight to address the Citation Gap through audits, content creation, SEO, AEO, ADA compliance, and web presence — helping orthodontic practices become visible and citable by AI answer engines such as ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and Copilot. More information is available at kaldental.ai.
Mary Kay Miller
KaleidoscopeAI™
+1 800-387-0121
marykay.miller@kaldental.ai
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Why it matters: As AI engines increasingly serve as the gatekeepers of patient choice, orthodontic practices that ignore technical brand signals risk becoming invisible in the very searches that drive new business. The findings from this session suggest that even well-reviewed practices may be missing the mark on the factors AI systems prioritize — a gap that could reshape competitive dynamics across the specialty.
