Jul 28, 2026 · 40 min · 11 segments
In this episode, Dr. Steve Vargo sits down with Corey Pinegar, founder of Team, for a grounded conversation about what AI actually means for optometry practices in 2026—beyond the hype and the fear…
Corey PinegarGuest
Steve VargoHost
For those who aren't, you're the, the owner/founder of, of Team, which is a, a remote staffing company.
Um, I don't know if you recall, but one of our earlier conversations, and might even be going back a, a year and a half, two years, we got to talking a little bit about AI.
And honestly, I don't even remember if it was on camera or off camera, but it was the ...
I won't say the early days of AI because it's been around for a long time, maybe more the early days of, of the LLMs that started coming out.
And things were not quite as clear back then, but I think we've seen over the last couple years the issues start to take shape a little bit as to what's the best way to use AI, and how should optometric practices, how should medical practices be thinking about AI in 2026? I think that's what we're gonna talk about today.
And I tend to see a couple extremes here with how people use it, and, and I don't think this will come as any surprise to you.
But on one end of it, it seems like you've got the people that aren't touching it at all, and they, they don't trust it.
They got some bad information, and they said, "I'm just gonna stay away from AI." And on the other end, you've got people that are all in on the, the technology.
And you, with your company, if I understand correctly, have, have sort of taken a position of we're gonna plant a flag in the middle.
So did I get that accurate? And, and can you build on that for us? How are you using it with your team? Because I think what we discussed the other day is a pretty good example of how optometrists, practice owners should be thinking about using AI in their practice.
And even before hopping into that, you said something right as we got started, and I think that people with AI, and everybody has their right to reservations.
Personally, not businessly, I have my reservations about AI being does this eat our lunch in the future? But it's interesting if you go back and read the reviews or the comments of people right before the internet was starting to come out and be mass accepted, they are eerily similar.
Why am I gonna go type something in online? Now today, if people don't have basic internet understanding, it is very limiting in doing certain things in life.
And you read the reviews or the comments, sentiment of the market, it is eerily similar to the internet days.
The second thing is in the early, I think it was in the '90s, the first, uh, automated bank teller, ATM, came out And people are like, "This is going to be the death of the in-bank bank teller." Since then, bank tellers have actually grown in head count.
And you can look at this, you and I discussed this when we were kind of discussing what we were gonna talk about, that people are looking at AI as being a job killer instead of an enabler.
For those who aren't, you're the, the owner/founder of, of Team, which is a, a remote staffing company.
Um, I don't know if you recall, but one of our earlier conversations, and might even be going back a, a year and a half, two years, we got to talking a little bit about AI.
And honestly, I don't even remember if it was on camera or off camera, but it was the ...
I won't say the early days of AI because it's been around for a long time, maybe more the early days of, of the LLMs that started coming out.
And things were not quite as clear back then, but I think we've seen over the last couple years the issues start to take shape a little bit as to what's the best way to use AI, and how should optometric practices, how should medical practices be thinking about AI in 2026? I think that's what we're gonna talk about today.
And I tend to see a couple extremes here with how people use it, and, and I don't think this will come as any surprise to you.
But on one end of it, it seems like you've got the people that aren't touching it at all, and they, they don't trust it.
They got some bad information, and they said, "I'm just gonna stay away from AI." And on the other end, you've got people that are all in on the, the technology.
And you, with your company, if I understand correctly, have, have sort of taken a position of we're gonna plant a flag in the middle.
So did I get that accurate? And, and can you build on that for us? How are you using it with your team? Because I think what we discussed the other day is a pretty good example of how optometrists, practice owners should be thinking about using AI in their practice.
And even before hopping into that, you said something right as we got started, and I think that people with AI, and everybody has their right to reservations.
Personally, not businessly, I have my reservations about AI being does this eat our lunch in the future? But it's interesting if you go back and read the reviews or the comments of people right before the internet was starting to come out and be mass accepted, they are eerily similar.
Why am I gonna go type something in online? Now today, if people don't have basic internet understanding, it is very limiting in doing certain things in life.
And you read the reviews or the comments, sentiment of the market, it is eerily similar to the internet days.
The second thing is in the early, I think it was in the '90s, the first, uh, automated bank teller, ATM, came out And people are like, "This is going to be the death of the in-bank bank teller." Since then, bank tellers have actually grown in head count.
And you can look at this, you and I discussed this when we were kind of discussing what we were gonna talk about, that people are looking at AI as being a job killer instead of an enabler.
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