ModMed Puts AI at the Top, Naming Co-Founder Dan Cane Its First Chief AI Officer
One of South Florida's biggest homegrown software companies reshuffled its leadership to center the business on AI, with an agentic front-office platform for practices planned for 2027.
BOCA RATON — One of South Florida’s best-known homegrown software companies is reorganizing itself around artificial intelligence. ModMed, which makes electronic health records and practice software for specialty physicians, announced on Oct. 28 that co-founder Dan Cane will become its first chief AI officer, and that Joe Harpaz will lead the company as sole CEO.
The changes were laid out in a company press release, and Refresh Miami described the move as the company betting that AI will define its next chapter.
Who’s Doing What
Harpaz had shared the CEO title with Cane for the past three years. Under the new structure, he runs the company alone. Celine Kaiser becomes chief operating officer, bringing product management, customer success and ModMed’s revenue cycle management business under her leadership.
Co-founder Dr. Michael Sherling stays on as chief medical and strategy officer and continues to lead the company’s clinical AI work. Both co-founders remain on ModMed’s board of directors. ModMed is backed by private equity firm Clearlake Capital Group.
As chief AI officer, Cane will drive AI strategy across ModMed’s products and internal operations, with direct executive responsibility for the ModMed RCM AI Platform. RCM, or revenue cycle management, is the business of getting a practice paid: submitting claims, fighting denials and collecting what insurers owe. The company says that platform is aimed at helping practices handle denials, speed up claim resolution and reduce the paperwork tied to billing.
“We founded ModMed because we believed technology could fundamentally improve the way physicians practice medicine and run their practices,” Cane said in the release. “AI expands what we can deliver on that promise.”
Cane will also keep leading what ModMed calls its internal AI transformation, helping its own teams rethink how work gets done.
Three Fronts for AI
The company says the new structure gives dedicated leadership to three areas: revenue cycle management, clinical care and patient engagement.
On the clinical side, Sherling oversees tools such as ModMed Scribe, an AI documentation product that the company says has supported nearly 3 million patient visits in the 11 months since its release.
On patient engagement, ModMed is leaning on an acquisition. It bought Bonsai Health in April 2026, and Bonsai co-founder Luke Kervin will now lead patient engagement product development inside the chief technology officer’s organization. Fellow Bonsai co-founder Travis Schneider is general manager of patient engagement. The two will oversee a new agentic AI platform for medical practice front offices, planned for 2027, according to the company and citybiz. “Agentic” refers to AI that can carry out multi-step tasks, such as scheduling or patient messaging, rather than only answering questions.
Why It Matters in South Florida
ModMed is one of the region’s established tech success stories, and its moves carry weight in a local ecosystem that often gets attention for newcomers relocating from other cities. A company of its size retooling around AI sends a signal about where local tech hiring and investment are headed.
It also fits a pattern Entrepreneurs Of Miami has been tracking this fall. A growing list of South Florida companies are building AI back offices for businesses run by owners and operators, and medical practices are one of the most complicated examples. Every denied claim is revenue a practice already earned, which is why so much AI money is flowing into billing and collections.
What Practice Owners Should Watch
For the many independent and specialty practices in South Florida that use or are considering ModMed, the practical questions are about rollout. The company has given a 2027 target for its front-office platform but has not published pricing or a detailed timeline in its announcement.
Owners weighing AI tools should look closely at measurable results, such as fewer denials and faster payment, and at how vendors handle patient data. ModMed’s claims about Scribe usage come from the company itself.
The leadership change itself is a statement of priorities. When a company’s co-founder moves from co-CEO to a role devoted entirely to AI, the direction of the business is not subtle.
Sources: ModMed, Refresh Miami, citybiz, South Florida Business Journal.