A new report reveals that while ambient AI scribes can help reduce cognitive load and burnout among clinicians and improve the patient experience, their financial impact remains unclear.
The report from the Peterson Health Technology Institute (PHTI) is based on insights gleaned from the organization’s AI Taskforce, which includes leaders from health systems, AI companies and industry experts. Launched in September 2024, the task force met in late 2024 and early 2025 as a group and in one-on-one member meetings with PHTI to discuss AI-enabled administrative technologies.
All the health systems in the AI Taskforce have piloted or scaled ambient AI scribe technology. These tools use speech recognition, natural language processing and large language models to record, transcribe, summarize and organize patient-provider conversations into structured notes.
According to the report, addressing clinician burnout is the primary driver of ambient AI scribe adoption. The tools appear to be effective on this front. Health system leaders shared anecdotal and survey data highlighting the positive impact on clinician burnout. Results from a six-week survey pilot of ambient AI scribe technology at Mass General Brigham show a 40% relative reduction in reported burnout.
Further, health systems report that their clinicians are able to spend more time with patients, which boosts patient experience. An Ochsner Health analysis of its Press Ganey surveys shows an 8% improvement in patient experience for visits where ambient AI scribe technology was used.
However, the report also revealed that many systems are not seeing meaningful improvements in certain metrics, such as clinician time saved, patient throughput or patient revenue. There is mixed feedback regarding the impact of ambient AI scribes on patient volumes, with some health systems saying they are seeing increases in patient visits, while most report no increase. Additionally, the report noted that it is too early to assess the impact of ambient AI scribes on the accuracy of coding to enhance billing processes and, thereby, revenue.
With limited evidence of financial return on investment, the report notes that health systems may risk implementing AI solutions that will increase rather than reduce overall costs.
“Ambient scribes are a logical application of generative AI, with strong potential to reduce the paperwork burden on providers and improve patient experience,” said Caroline Pearson, executive director of PHTI, in a news release. “Yet health systems need to be clear about what they hope these tools will achieve in terms of overall performance and efficiency, and they need to measure the results.”
Though research on AI’s return on investment is ongoing, the positive effects of AI ambient scribe use on clinician burnout are becoming increasingly apparent.
In a study published in September 2024, researchers surveyed 230 clinicians before and after the implementation of Nuance’s Dragon Ambient eXperience (DAX) Copilot, an ambient AI scribe tool.
They found that 43.5% of intervention respondents reported less time spent on clinical documentation after visits compared to 18.2% in the control group that did not use the tool. Additionally, 44.7% of intervention respondents reported less frustration using the EHR compared to 14.5% in the control group.
Similarly, in a recent interview with Healthtech Analytics, James Blum, M.D., chief health information officer and associate professor of anesthesiology at the University of Iowa (UI) Physicians, shared that UI Health Care clinicians reported a 26% decrease in burnout following a five-week pilot of an ambient AI tool.
Source: https://www.techtarget.com/
