The Beauty Standard with Dr. Roy Kim

Meet Lift AI: Your 24/7 Virtual Aesthetic Assistant

• Dr. Roy Kim

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The beauty industry is experiencing a technological revolution with artificial intelligence now taking center stage in client management. Dr. Roy Kim sits down with Nina Chen, a Carnegie Mellon computer science graduate and former LinkedIn and Twitter engineer, who's reshaping how aesthetic practices connect with patients through her groundbreaking company, Lift AI.

Drawing from her unique background as both a fashion influencer and tech expert, Nina identified a critical gap in aesthetic medicine: the need for comprehensive, personalized client communication that extends beyond office hours. Her solution? An AI client manager that works 24/7, answering patient questions with the doctor's own voice and approach rather than generic medical information. This isn't just another chatbot—it's a virtual extension of the practitioner.

The discussion reveals how this technology can transform practice operations in remarkable ways. One patient asked nearly 200 questions in a single session, something that would overwhelm any human staff member but was handled seamlessly by the AI. The system maintains HIPAA compliance while integrating with existing medical software, tracking patient history, and reminding clients about follow-up treatments. Rather than replacing staff, it augments their capabilities by handling repetitive tasks and providing valuable insights about patient interests and emerging trends.

What sets Nina's approach apart is her focus on high-value aesthetic services where consultation quality directly impacts conversion rates. She understands that expensive procedures require building trust and providing exceptional service—elements her AI is designed to deliver consistently. For practices with original content like blogs and social media, the results are even better as the AI incorporates their unique perspectives and recommendations.

Ready to explore how AI could transform your patient experience? Email Nina at nina@liftai.biz to learn more about incorporating this powerful tool into your practice.

Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of "The Beauty Standard" with Dr. Roy Kim! If you enjoyed this episode, please make sure to subscribe, rate, and leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your support helps us continue to bring you the latest insights in aesthetic medicine and beauty trends.

Connect with us on social media on Instagram - @drroykim - or X - @drroykim- for more exclusive content, behind-the-scenes looks, and expert advice from Dr. Kim. Feel free to submit your questions or suggestions for future episodes – we'd love to hear from you!

Join us next week as we explore another fascinating topic in the world of beauty, and remember: your body, your choice, your standard!

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Beauty Standard with Dr Roy Kim.

Speaker 2:

Hello, this is Dr Roy Kim and I am here with Ms Nina Chen, so we are working together on a very exciting AI project. So a little about Nina. She definitely is an amazing person. Her educational background we'll get into it is very techie, but you also have an influencer background on Red Note. So this is where she got the idea of her company, lyft AI. Lyft AI is an AI client manager for the aesthetics, plastic surgery, dermatology space. So how did you get this idea and if you could explain it a little more?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I started as a fashion influencer in Red Note very early, about eight years ago, and I had about 10,000 followers and what I realized is my followers often ask me for questions about what to buy, how to buy certain things and my experience about it. As you can imagine, those are fashion items and the beauty service could be even harder to exploit because people want the full package about what to get and why certain things are being very effective. So my influencer background on fashion space actually led me to these beauty services, which are harder to explain, but if you get it, it's better than fashion, because it's with you every single day, your skin, your body. It's just a way more permanent accessory you could carry around yourself. So that's what drives my passion.

Speaker 2:

Gotcha and then I am a beta tester, but the software is pretty amazing. If you could explain it. It's sort of like an AI client manager.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, these days I see it less as a software. I see I'm selling the work to you, to be honest, software I feel like it's like a decade ago kind. See, I'm selling the work to you, to be honest, software I feel like it's like a decade ago kind of concept. It's people buying SaaS, people buying cloud software. What I am really trying to accomplish is that you're buying the work. You're buying the client manager work, the person who can sell for you, who can explain the beauty services to your customers, just like how a fashion influencer explaining to all their audience about what, what certain things is in the package, why they are good, why they are effective, being a good salesperson for your clinic.

Speaker 1:

That's the work I'm selling. At the same time, the other work I'm selling is that, once the sales come through, there is this kind of scheduling. There is this kind of like follow-up. There is this kind of scheduling. There is this kind of like follow-up. There is this kind of work about working with you be your good assistant. What does that mean, right? So I think the work I'm trying to sell over here, one part is your client manager, the other part is be your good assistant.

Speaker 2:

So, for those of you sort of not familiar with what I do, yes, I'm a plastic surgeon. I do med spa services as well, but there's a sales funnel so the AI client manager can work 24-7. It actually has pulled data from, like all of my social media platforms and my blog and my YouTube videos and all that stuff, so it's able to give a more tailored response, less corporate, less bland response compared to if I just pulled data from WebMD or the Mayo Clinic or the National Institutes of Health. It's an accurate answer. It's a little dull. Now, having said that, tell me a little bit, or tell the audience a little bit, about your educational background, because you do come from a pure CS background and I mean you've worked with some pretty big companies.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, my background is a lot on the social media companies. I studied in Carnegie Mellon in 2010. I graduated with their master program and ever since then I've been in the Silicon Valley in the software engineering space. I worked at LinkedIn, I worked at Twitter and now it's X and where you are, you have a lot of good content over there.

Speaker 2:

Oh, thanks you are. You have a lot of good content over there.

Speaker 1:

Oh, thanks, yeah, so you've been on the software programming side. I'm a lot on that part and that's like my. You know it's very fulfilling for me because software is different. It's like you work on one piece of software, that right now we're working on one piece of AI service. It can serve to thousands of people and that's very different from, like you, being a plastic surgeon. Every hour you can only serve one patient. That's the magic of software is that you come up with one piece.

Speaker 1:

If it works well, it could work for thousands of people. That's what really drives my passion.

Speaker 2:

Great. So getting back to the sales funnel, of course we're trying to answer questions, questions, so patients, consumers out there may have some questions. Then we ask more questions. They have a lot of questions. Exactly how does the AI client manager work?

Speaker 1:

yeah, I think just. Thank you so much. First of all, it's like being my beta tester and like I think the AI client manager has helped you answer about 330 messages so far. There is one customer who asked about 193 questions two days ago.

Speaker 2:

Oh, that's right.

Speaker 1:

So I do think like a static website is what most plastic surgeons or most mass spa right now employ. Some people like you have social media, but still it's a static content. People really are trying to know more about you and I think a way to know more about you guys is through consultation. However, you guys have limited time, and how do you actually like to employ this consultation to be really yourself? That's what I'm trying to achieve over here as a first step. Of course, I want to do a lot more, but the first step is about how do I help your clients to be better consulted and when they come to your website they have a question, they leave with a kind of like good impression about these doctors, that they are trying to be helpful, and I remember that, and next time if I want to do certain treatment, I want to go to this doctor. That's what I'm trying to achieve right now.

Speaker 2:

So I think one of the cool things about your AI client manager with you know it's called Lyft AI is it works 24-7.

Speaker 1:

It works 24-7.

Speaker 2:

It pulls my social media posts, my information. So, yes, I factually correct information, but it gets a flavor of my personality or the strategy that I approach with my patients.

Speaker 1:

And I bet those are conversations you have a lot of repetitive questions coming from your patient. I think every patient also. When they walk into a clinic they want to be better educated as well. In that way they know they can have a good judgment about who is the good doctor over here, who is a good nurse over here, who I am going to employ as my provider to make me more beautiful, right? So I think what I'm trying to do is be a good help of you and, at the same time, help all the customers coming to you to be better educated, save your time, improve their satisfaction.

Speaker 2:

So when you created the AI Client Manager? Where are you pulling this information from, just to make sure it's accurate?

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So I think definitely the large language model behind it lean towards general information and, at the same time, the line of defense over there is the doctor yourself right, you have your own content, you have your own profession, such as one day there was one customer was asking you something out of aesthetic space. The AI was able to tell them that I'm not the right person to answer you that kind of question and you should consult some other people. There was another patient who come around and trying to repetitively just seeking for comfort. The doctor, the AI there, will keep telling the customer side. This is what I know, but I strongly suggest you to take appointment with Dr Kim if you are really worried, then it's up to the client what they really want to do. So to answer your question, it lean towards general large language model knowledge, at the same time tailored towards the profession. You have the knowledge you have to speak for you. What is actually on your clinic manual is also trying to sell at the right moment.

Speaker 2:

And then can you say or tell some of the features where it can help the office staff?

Speaker 1:

Yes, definitely. I see it's not a thing to replace your office staff. I see it's a good piece of work. It's going to augment what your office staff can do to help them to be more efficient. For example, now the office staff can get kind of information about who has consulted in the Dr Kim's office. They are better informed about what's trendy out there. For example, you get a lot of breast reconstruction kind of question. You also get a lot about body contouring because that's what's trendy, especially after these GLP-1s popularity. So it's informing the staff's like oh, these are the things. Probably when the patient comes in, this is what they're going to expect.

Speaker 1:

Second, they are very busy in the office. You can see your office staff. They're taking the calls all the day and sometimes they could be forgetting stuff. Ai is there to remind you when certain things get missed, and also you need to manage your clients. At the same time you need to manage your staff. You would rather AI to be a good assistant for you as well, to remind you what could be missing, what could be even improved in your clinic and what your customers are looking for these days.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's very cool because, yes, right now, with the way that the software is set up, our office just gets an email. In other words, whether it's an email inquiry from the website or an email notification from the AI client manager, it's still just an email, but it has the entire record of the conversation. So my office staff, my patient coordinators they don't actually have to really change the way they work in terms of getting the information. Now, another thing that you haven't fully built out yet, but we've already talked about this, is integrating with existing EMRs or CRMs, in other words, integrating with existing patient software that all aesthetic spas doctors really use.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think there is one interesting thing I noticed after work with you, dr Kim, is that all you guys are using medical software. You should, because there was a compliance, all these kind of regulations out there. However, I think medical software to some degree only provides a pointed solution. The reason is people are in pain. They call you guys right, that's the traditional how doctor works. But aesthetic space is very different. You want to maintain this customer relationship. That's what the older software really is lacking. They are lacking this part of like maintaining your customer relationship.

Speaker 1:

You do Botox once you want them to follow up. You do a laser treatment that you want to remind them coming back every year. But this is the traditional medical software. Do not provide you who is doing it your office staff. But your office staff often is busy with all the other things they have to do. So that's why what I want to do it differently is really a vertical kind of solution. It can keep record about who your patient is, what kind of treatment they have and they may need in the future and, at the same time, maintain a long-term relationship with them. I think that's what's really missing right now in the medical space and I think preventive care. There's so many different kinds of preventive care services. They could employ this having a good relationship with their clients.

Speaker 2:

Yes, because it's not just about reminding patients hey, you should come back. Their clients. Yes, because it's not just about reminding patients, hey, you should come back. It's. You've had this procedure, you've had this experience. We have the data and the AI can actually tell the patient that each individual patient that and then remind them about new services or remind them to come back.

Speaker 1:

I think reminding, just as you said, reminding is like a very kind of trivial, let's say very mechanic kind of task. I think it's really about knowing what they need. Be their good friend, be their good consultant, by their side, provide this kind of service when you can right. You want to be that for your client, for your patients.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's a power, I see, of AI where it can individualize this for everybody. So what have you found to be the most rewarding thing working on this AI?

Speaker 1:

I really enjoy working with you, dr Kim, and all the other doctors, nurses in the space, you guys actually to me is welcoming AI a lot to the space and I definitely have worked in other areas People are a little bit still like kind of rejecting AI to come around.

Speaker 1:

I really see like when I see AI being a great assistance for you guys, especially that day when I see that being a great assistance for you guys, especially that day when I see that 193 messages comes in and the lady at the end leaving the message is saying I'm not sure it's a lady or a guy, but yeah, the last message they left was thank you so much, you're making me sleep better. And the other person was like thank you so much, it's so kind of you. But imagine if there was no this kind of virtual consultation AI virtual consultation to be around. They have to wait for so long to get a call with you guys and that really gives me a lot of satisfaction. It's like I'm helping people and, secondly, like the doctors in this space wanting me to help them more. That just light up my life.

Speaker 2:

Oh great. So yes, I don't know as much about IT and computer science as you, but I do know a little and specifically getting this installed, getting it up and running, was pretty seamless. It was very simple. So, for all the people out there who might be interested in beta testing, what are you looking for in a beta tester? And I can tell you up front. It's pretty easy to install it on your website.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I provide white glove services, so any kind of onboarding. Right now, with my beta tester, I will really personally sit with you trying to understand what kind of infrastructure you have, what kind of integration is needed. As I said, I'm pretty early. I'm doing the first step. It's trying to be a good virtual consultant for all your clients and I will really sit beside you, beside your team and Dr Kim I call his office staff all the time trying to work this out, work out a smooth plan. So, yeah, white glove services and onboarding take less than I would say, less than a week and you can get it up and running.

Speaker 2:

So just to let other people know out there, it is very seamless. But what's interesting is that, if you think about it, there's never been an AI client manager from anyone, there's never been something sort of sitting on your website that can talk to patients, help them book a procedure, answer all the questions, even over time, and really help your office staff simultaneously. So this is a very new thing, I think, because the ability for a unique, personalized tiny bit of software the AI client manager from Lyft should be very, very helpful. We're going to see new behaviors coming from patients, because right now we have to have a human call the patient back out there. Well, this will really reduce a lot of the workload.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think AI can do a lot more and if you want to employ AI to be good for your clinic, for your office, certainly reach out to me. Right now, pretty much, you can pick up the call, you can speak, can listen and it's to some people it's kind of scary, but I really hope it's like to the good use of everybody. And that's what I'm trying to do over here, and really not about replacing anybody. It's really about augmenting the work, the work you decide your office staff to work on. Instead of thinking about I may hire another person. Now you have an AI virtual employee you could consider.

Speaker 2:

So for the workers out there the office staff of all these crazy plastic surgeons and dermatologists and aesthetic med spas I wouldn't be worried about losing your job. This AI client manager is newer. It can actually help you. It doesn't hurt you. It actually reduces the repetitive tasks that you may need to do. And you still have to call patients. You still have to talk to them. You're still going to see them in the office. So AI is not really going to replace that anytime soon.

Speaker 2:

And I also have a hint for the owners of the med spas doctors out there I do think it's better. You would be a better beta tester if you actually have more of your own content. So what we've discovered is that the LLM the data that the AI client manager is trained on or uses to pull answers it's a little bland if you don't have your own stuff. So, specifically, yes, I'm bigger on Instagram and X. I'm actually not that big on TikTok at all, but I do have a blog and I do have my opinion, so I report about the latest updates and aesthetics.

Speaker 2:

I talk about how I approach things and that, yes, is factually correct, but it gives my own voice to the AI client manager, which is a little more personal, shows my personality and character. So if you have already developed or, you know, made a lot of content, fantastic. If you haven't made that much personalized contact, I would urge you to start doing so, because this will differentiate you with the future of AI. So what were some of the biggest challenges you faced when implementing? Coming up with the nuts and bolts of the AI client manager?

Speaker 2:

I would say the existing EMRs, our existing wonderful software that runs med spas and doctor's offices right.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I would say that AI come close, to be able to have its own vision and to be able to actually operate on top of software. We're not fully there yet, but I'm very confident it's going to get there. But we will be in this period where there is no computer use just yet. For AI, However, certain old school kind of integration is still needed to ensure it can run smooth on software, because that's how actually your office staff right now is working on right Multiple software open over there trying to hop in between. Ai can do something very similar soon, but not yet. That means a lot of integration. I just have to do myself and with my team as well, and I feel overall like that's the biggest challenge. It's like we have to take medical records very carefully and we do have to respect that you guys do have a lot of data over there in the last generation software.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and so for all the doctors out there who own the med spa, who are plastic surgeons, dermatologists, whatever, of course we're HIPAA compliant. This nobody really I'm aware of runs their office on Slack or Microsoft Teams or something of that nature, which is huge in the tech world, and the reason why is HIPAA compliance. So rest assured, lyft AI is HIPAA compliant and this is the obstacle you just described. That's sort of a little tweak, but it is an obstacle. Working with doctors and med spas.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, compliance is very critical. At the same time, we should take all the client data, or even just inquiry data, very carefully, and I see it's a barrier a lot of times for other software to come into this space and, as I said earlier, I think medical software is not really right for this space, given what you guys are doing. Client relationships are very important. I think in general, americans are also moving towards being a little bit more preventive care instead of just on-point solutioning care and I think everybody's more aware they have to take care of themselves, stay fit, stay healthy, stay beautiful.

Speaker 2:

So another thing out there is that we'll leave the name of your company slash website in the links below, but it is called lift ai. So how does lift ai differ from other competing ai client managers or chatbots?

Speaker 1:

yeah, you must have heard a lot of ai receptionists right in a space like for dentists and for for a lot of other like kind profession, and what I would say is that I'm very much focused on medical space, preventive care and, yeah, maybe in the future we'll expand. However, to very be rooted in this vertical, a lot of care needs to go into building the software, building the service. I really see it as building the service, providing the work over here and in-depth knowledge about a medical profession. Right now I'm very much focused on plastic surgeon, med spa provide beauty services, beauty consult. Being a beauty consultant, I think just rooted in this vertical is what I'm trying to, my differentiator from all the other AI receptionists which caters to all.

Speaker 1:

And second, what I would say is that I focus on high ticket item in a way that it needs a lot of selling. I think that you sit out there. You must know like it doesn't take so much for a person to pay $100, $200, but when it gets to $2,000, $3,000, people need to compare. They really want to know whether they are getting the best experience. The expectation is also higher. I see this consultation and I see later on the relationship management. It's all part of the experience you are providing to the customer. So that's why people are sometimes wondering why a master handbag could charge that much and why a utility handbag only charges you probably $10.

Speaker 2:

You can get a utility handbag.

Speaker 1:

Hermes charges you $10,000 for it. What is really there? It's really the high-quality service, the individualism and the feeling of I'm being taken care of. That's what customers are looking for and that's what you can charge for. And that's where I am. I'm trying to mimic as much as I can to provide that level of care to every single client you have yes, and that's the whole purpose of lift AI to actually replicate that level of knowledge and service. Correct.

Speaker 2:

So, nina, I know they can contact you and we'll leave the clicks below in terms of LinkedIn, your website, any other way, that's a good way to contact you.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, just email me at nina at lyftaibiz Anytime. As I said, I'm very happy to sit along with you and your team to help you employ this AI client manager. And thank you so much, dr Kim.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, thanks for sharing with the world like this amazing new product and I hope that you continue to follow her as this company grows. So for any of the listeners or viewers out there, if you have any questions or comments, please fire below. Let us know and, as always, thanks so much for watching or listening thank you so much.

Speaker 1:

As I said any, just email me anytime. Thank you for listening to the beauty standard with dr roy kim. Make sure to follow for future topics and episodes.