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| Moderator Scot Morris, OD, led an expert panel that included Darryl Glover, OD, Brianna Rhue, OD, and Easy Anyama, OD, discussing the future of AI in eyecare at yesterday’s SECO 2026 keynote session. | |
ATLANTA—At SECO 2026, a keynote session titled “Eye Care Reimagined: The AI Advantage” held Thursday offered a visionary look at how artificial intelligence (AI) will revolutionize clinical eyecare practice over the next 10 years. The panel, moderated by Scot Morris, OD, detailed the current technological landscape and provided practical demonstrations for integrating AI to improve every facet of a practice, spanning patient exams to administrative tasks. The expert panelists included Darryl Glover, OD (focusing on audience engagement), Brianna Rhue, OD (representing the clinical provider perspective), and Easy Anyama, OD (serving as an industry advocate and technology expert).
The keynote provided a roadmap for practice transformation, stressing the necessary mindset shift from “protecting old processes” to “optimizing for value,” outlining a five-year game plan for tech adoption, and detailing how professional and continuing education must evolve to teach human-AI collaboration and data literacy.
The keynote also addressed the future of AI in eyecare by first analyzing the current system’s friction points across four main areas: clinical intake, clinical care, retail eyewear, and operational management. Key challenges addressed included fragmented data, redundant manual tasks, high cognitive load on providers, and limited predictive analytics.
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“We have to remember that at the end of the day, it’s not about us, it’s about the patient and the patient experience,” said Dr. Morris. “We have to get over some of the friction points, and one of the biggest friction points we have is simply the way we look at records. What we need to do is rethink the information train and where that information comes from. The future is about data and the integration of data. It’s also about a better connection with our patients.”
The presenters noted that the future practice will require integrated operational intelligence spanning human resource, finance, technology, inventory, marketing and KPIs—all unified in a single view. They went on to note that 10 years from today’s challenges, the eyecare practice of 2036 will be unrecognizable in workflow, capability and patient experience—but profoundly human in its purpose and relationships, with AI being a key player in the process.
“Remember, AI is a tool to augment what we do. It allows us to spend more time with patients and improve the patient experience,” Dr. Morris said.
“We all have competition but my competition isn’t online or the doctor up the street. My competition is me and how I’m keeping my patients connected to my practice,” added Dr. Rhue.
The panel recommended starting this transformation with a pilot program by identifying the areas that individual practices need the most help with. They noted that preparation for this transformation begins with honest assessment, strategic clarity, and a willingness to evolve. The question, the panel told the audience, is no longer if AI will reshape eyecare, it is whether they will be among those who shaped it first.
