Chatbots and virtual health assistants may be coming to a hospital near you. As providers look to better engage patients and improve efficiency, many are turning to artificial intelligence to help them succeed. AI-powered medical assistants can book appointments, remind patients to take their pills, monitor a patient's health status and perform other time-intensive tasks. They can also assist with inventory, billing and claims management. In Arizona, a doctor designed an influenza campaign around a chatbot that alerted patients when flu shots were in and invited them to get protection.

In popular culture, artificial intelligence is often portrayed as confident, street-smart and more than a little malevolent – think Ultron, HAL and Skynet. But what if AI's actual inclinations are kind, helpful and empathetic? What if we can be friends? That may be one hopeful byproduct of Molly, a virtual medical assistant being developed by San Francisco startup, Sensely, which on Tuesday announced $8 million in series B financing. Founded in 2013, Sensly is leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning to help patients get better care.

San Francisco startup Sense.ly has raised $8 million in a Series B round of venture funding to bring its virtual nurse technology to clinics and patients of every kind. The company's app helps physicians stay in touch with patients, and prevent readmission to the hospital. Adam Odessky describes the platform as "A cross between Whatsapp and Siri that captures all the important signals about a person's health." On the patient side, Sense.ly asks users to tell a nurse avatar how they're doing with 5-minute "check ins" either once a day, or every few days, on their smartphones. Patients can simply talk to the app, no typing required.