Can a dental practice or clinic use ChatGPT, Claude or Copilot for reception and admin work? What the business plans cost and what their terms say about health data

Yes, for work that has no patient in it. On 1 October 2026 the business plans of the four large assistants cost a clinic with four users between £566.40 and £868.80 a year, and each vendor says content on those plans is not used to train its models by default. What the terms say about health data is the reason to keep patient details out of every prompt.

Our guide to AI and patient data covers what has to be in place before any tool reads a record. This page covers the purchase.

What the plans cost

Prices are for one user for one month, read on each vendor's UK pricing page on 1 October 2026.

Notes on the table:

• Claude's £18 includes VAT, so it is £15 before VAT. A practice that cannot reclaim VAT should add 20% to the Microsoft and Google annual prices before comparing: £16.56, £21.72 and £14.16 a month.
• Microsoft's £13.80 is an offer for the first year of an annual commitment, open from 1 July to 31 December 2026. The page gives £16.10 as the original price, which is £772.80 a year for four.
• Google's page also showed a three-month discount for new customers. £11.80 is the standard price on a one-year commitment.
• ChatGPT Business starts at two users. Claude Team is for 2 to 150.

The two Business Standard rows include email and office software.

What the terms say about training and health data

Every health-data line above is about HIPAA, the US health privacy law. None of the pages we read addresses UK patient data. For a UK clinic the rules are the UK GDPR's rules on special category data, and they fall on the practice.

So the working rule for these plans is: no patient details in a prompt.

Personal plans are a different product. ChatGPT's pricing page shows content on its Free, Go, Plus and Pro plans used for training unless the user opts out. Staff using a personal account at the desk is the first thing to stop.

What the regulators have published

• CQC. Its list of dental mythbusters had no page on AI when we read it. Its GP series does: mythbuster 109, published 14 July 2025. It says practices must show AI is used "as a support tool – not a replacement for human oversight", and that patients should be told when it is used. It says using a chatbot to support diagnosis "is not recommended".
• GDC. We found nothing on AI on its news and blog index pages. Standard 4.2 already applies: protect patient information and "only use it for the purpose for which it was given". Standard 4.2.2 extends the duty to non-registered members of the team.
• ICO. Its AI guidance says that "in the vast majority of cases" using AI on personal data will need a data protection impact assessment.

Three prompts with no patient in them

1. Plain-English rewrite. "Rewrite our new patient welcome letter below so a 12-year-old could follow it. Keep every price, time, phone number and policy term exactly as written. Add nothing. List any sentence you found unclear."
2. Policy into questions and answers. "Here is our missed appointments policy. Write six questions and answers for the website using only what the policy says. Do not add a charge, a time limit or an exception." The policies are in our private cancellation and NHS failed-to-attend guides.
3. Meeting notes into actions. "From the staff meeting notes below, which contain no patient names, list each action with its owner and date. Then draft next month's agenda with unfinished actions first."

The admin scorecard counts the hours jobs like these take.

The job we would not hand over

Answering a patient's message about their symptoms, or deciding how urgent it is. The prompt would need the patient's details, and the answer is a clinical judgement. The reply to send is that a clinician will call, and the clinician is told the same day.

Before buying

1. Buy a business plan in the practice's name and close personal accounts used for work.
2. Write the rule down: no names, dates of birth, contact details, images or treatment details in a prompt.
3. Save a dated copy of the terms and note the admin settings chosen.
4. If a tool is to read records, start with the patient data guide, and ask your practice management supplier about its own AI terms.

Overlyft is not one of these plans; an AI assistant it sets up drafts booking replies and recall reminders for the practice manager to review. A GDC-registered professional or the practice manager reviews anything a tool drafts before it reaches a patient. This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.