Positive Shift: Doctors Embrace AI Scribes Despite Ongoing Challenges – KFF Health News
January 27, 2026
KFF Health News: Doctors Increasingly See AI Scribes in a Positive Light. But Hiccups Persist.
When Jeannine Urban visited her doctor for a checkup in November, she experienced a significant shift in how her appointment unfolded. Instead of the usual clatter of keyboard typing, her primary care physician at the Penn Internal Medicine practice in Media, Pennsylvania, utilized an ambient artificial intelligence scribe to take notes. By the end of the 30-minute visit, Urban was presented with a comprehensive AI-generated summary of her appointment, neatly organized into sections covering her medical history, physical exam findings, and treatment plans for her rheumatoid arthritis and hot flashes.
Urban found the clinical note to be exceptionally thorough, capturing all her questions and the doctor’s responses. “The scribe made sure we didn’t miss anything,” she remarked.
Ambient AI scribes are being celebrated by physicians as transformative tools that allow them to concentrate on patient care rather than documentation. Early studies suggest that these AI scribes could alleviate physician burnout and reduce the dreaded “pajama time” spent catching up on paperwork after hours.
The potential for AI to revolutionize healthcare—from enhancing patient care to improving clinical efficiency—has garnered significant attention, including from the Trump administration. In January, President Donald Trump issued an executive order aimed at fostering American leadership in AI. Later, the Department of Health and Human Services released a press release inviting stakeholders to discuss how to accelerate AI adoption in healthcare.
In recent years, several startups have launched ambient AI scribe products that integrate seamlessly with electronic health records (EHR). Market leader Epic is currently piloting its own AI scribe technology, with plans for a wider release early this year, according to Jackie Gerhart, a family medicine physician and chief medical officer at Epic.
Health tech experts estimate that about one-third of providers currently have access to ambient AI scribe technology. As adoption rates are expected to rise rapidly, many anticipate that these tools will become essential for recruiting new clinicians, who increasingly prioritize work-life balance.
“It’s part of keeping doctors happy,” said Robert Wachter, a professor at the University of California-San Francisco. His forthcoming book, A Giant Leap, discusses how AI is reshaping healthcare. “Health systems that initially focused solely on return-on-investment are realizing that the cost of recruiting and retaining doctors is significant.”
However, several questions linger. Does the use of ambient AI scribes genuinely enhance patient care and health outcomes? Will doctors utilize the time saved to improve the quality of their patient interactions, or will they simply increase the number of patients seen? Furthermore, could the detailed notes generated by AI lead to higher bills if integrated with coding apps that optimize provider charges?
For now, these questions remain largely unanswered. Urban noted that the AI scribe did not significantly alter her experience as a patient. Typically, after receiving verbal consent, the AI records the visit on a phone, organizing the conversation into a clinical note while filtering out irrelevant small talk. The doctor later reviews and signs off on the note.
While the visit may feel similar to patients, some clinicians report that ambient AI scribes are changing patient encounters in unexpected ways. “Now, when I’m doing a physical exam, I have to verbalize what I’m doing and what I’m finding for the AI scribe to document it,” said Dina Capalongo, Urban’s primary care doctor. “Patients find that very interesting.”
For instance, when Capalongo listens to a patient’s carotid artery with her stethoscope, she might mention not hearing a “bruit,” which could indicate atherosclerosis. Patients have expressed surprise, saying, “I never knew why a doctor would listen there.”
However, verbalizing findings during sensitive exams can pose challenges. Doctors may feel compelled to adjust their language to avoid alarming anxious patients. “Sometimes, saying things that patients don’t understand can be insensitive,” noted Genevieve Melton-Meaux, a professor at the University of Minnesota. “I’ll keep that in mind and record it after the visit.”
Effective communication about these tools is crucial for maintaining trust and ensuring accurate information, Melton-Meaux emphasized. Studies indicate that notes created by ambient AI scribes are generally as good as, or even better than, traditional documentation in terms of completeness, timeliness, and coherence, according to Kevin Johnson, a pediatrician at the University of Pennsylvania Health System.
Despite these advancements, concerns about AI “hallucinations”—instances where false information appears in AI outputs—persist. Kaiser Permanente, an early adopter of ambient AI scribe technology, provides it to over 25,000 healthcare providers and has found hallucinations to be “quite rare,” according to Daniel Yang, an internist and vice president of AI at KP. However, they do occur. For example, an AI-generated note might inaccurately state that a doctor planned to refer a patient to a neurologist when that conversation never took place.
“The technology is not perfect, which is why physicians review it,” Yang explained. The AI learns from regular physician visits, making human oversight essential. Yet, maintaining vigilance over time can be challenging, as Wachter pointed out.
As ambient AI scribes become commonplace, some clinicians worry about widening disparities in healthcare access. Large health systems can adopt this technology, but what about critical access hospitals or small private practices? “More resources are needed,” Melton-Meaux stated.
Physicians’ enthusiasm for ambient AI scribes contrasts sharply with their frustrations over electronic health record systems that have become ubiquitous in recent years. “During the last decade, when EHRs became prevalent, we all felt like overworked data scribes,” Wachter remarked.
The introduction of AI scribes gives physicians a sense that technology is finally working for them, rather than the other way around. According to Wachter, AI scribes serve as “training wheels” for more significant AI adoption in healthcare. To enhance healthcare value and reduce costs, he argues, we need a system that encourages physicians to practice evidence-based medicine, ensuring appropriate tests and prescriptions.
“It’s a few years away, but it’s all AI-dependent,” he concluded. Epic has already introduced around 60 AI use cases for patients, clinicians, and administration, with over 100 more in development. “It’s so much bigger than a scribe,” Gerhart emphasized. “It’s literally listening and acting in ways that prepare me to take action.”
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.
January 27, 2026
KFF Health News: Doctors Increasingly See AI Scribes in a Positive Light. But Hiccups Persist.
When Jeannine Urban visited her doctor for a checkup in November, she experienced a significant shift in how her appointment unfolded. Instead of the usual clatter of keyboard typing, her primary care physician at the Penn Internal Medicine practice in Media, Pennsylvania, utilized an ambient artificial intelligence scribe to take notes. By the end of the 30-minute visit, Urban was presented with a comprehensive AI-generated summary of her appointment, neatly organized into sections covering her medical history, physical exam findings, and treatment plans for her rheumatoid arthritis and hot flashes.
Urban found the clinical note to be exceptionally thorough, capturing all her questions and the doctor’s responses. “The scribe made sure we didn’t miss anything,” she remarked.
Ambient AI scribes are being celebrated by physicians as transformative tools that allow them to concentrate on patient care rather than documentation. Early studies suggest that these AI scribes could alleviate physician burnout and reduce the dreaded “pajama time” spent catching up on paperwork after hours.
The potential for AI to revolutionize healthcare—from enhancing patient care to improving clinical efficiency—has garnered significant attention, including from the Trump administration. In January, President Donald Trump issued an executive order aimed at fostering American leadership in AI. Later, the Department of Health and Human Services released a press release inviting stakeholders to discuss how to accelerate AI adoption in healthcare.
In recent years, several startups have launched ambient AI scribe products that integrate seamlessly with electronic health records (EHR). Market leader Epic is currently piloting its own AI scribe technology, with plans for a wider release early this year, according to Jackie Gerhart, a family medicine physician and chief medical officer at Epic.
Health tech experts estimate that about one-third of providers currently have access to ambient AI scribe technology. As adoption rates are expected to rise rapidly, many anticipate that these tools will become essential for recruiting new clinicians, who increasingly prioritize work-life balance.
“It’s part of keeping doctors happy,” said Robert Wachter, a professor at the University of California-San Francisco. His forthcoming book, A Giant Leap, discusses how AI is reshaping healthcare. “Health systems that initially focused solely on return-on-investment are realizing that the cost of recruiting and retaining doctors is significant.”
However, several questions linger. Does the use of ambient AI scribes genuinely enhance patient care and health outcomes? Will doctors utilize the time saved to improve the quality of their patient interactions, or will they simply increase the number of patients seen? Furthermore, could the detailed notes generated by AI lead to higher bills if integrated with coding apps that optimize provider charges?
For now, these questions remain largely unanswered. Urban noted that the AI scribe did not significantly alter her experience as a patient. Typically, after receiving verbal consent, the AI records the visit on a phone, organizing the conversation into a clinical note while filtering out irrelevant small talk. The doctor later reviews and signs off on the note.
While the visit may feel similar to patients, some clinicians report that ambient AI scribes are changing patient encounters in unexpected ways. “Now, when I’m doing a physical exam, I have to verbalize what I’m doing and what I’m finding for the AI scribe to document it,” said Dina Capalongo, Urban’s primary care doctor. “Patients find that very interesting.”
For instance, when Capalongo listens to a patient’s carotid artery with her stethoscope, she might mention not hearing a “bruit,” which could indicate atherosclerosis. Patients have expressed surprise, saying, “I never knew why a doctor would listen there.”
However, verbalizing findings during sensitive exams can pose challenges. Doctors may feel compelled to adjust their language to avoid alarming anxious patients. “Sometimes, saying things that patients don’t understand can be insensitive,” noted Genevieve Melton-Meaux, a professor at the University of Minnesota. “I’ll keep that in mind and record it after the visit.”
Effective communication about these tools is crucial for maintaining trust and ensuring accurate information, Melton-Meaux emphasized. Studies indicate that notes created by ambient AI scribes are generally as good as, or even better than, traditional documentation in terms of completeness, timeliness, and coherence, according to Kevin Johnson, a pediatrician at the University of Pennsylvania Health System.
Despite these advancements, concerns about AI “hallucinations”—instances where false information appears in AI outputs—persist. Kaiser Permanente, an early adopter of ambient AI scribe technology, provides it to over 25,000 healthcare providers and has found hallucinations to be “quite rare,” according to Daniel Yang, an internist and vice president of AI at KP. However, they do occur. For example, an AI-generated note might inaccurately state that a doctor planned to refer a patient to a neurologist when that conversation never took place.
“The technology is not perfect, which is why physicians review it,” Yang explained. The AI learns from regular physician visits, making human oversight essential. Yet, maintaining vigilance over time can be challenging, as Wachter pointed out.
As ambient AI scribes become commonplace, some clinicians worry about widening disparities in healthcare access. Large health systems can adopt this technology, but what about critical access hospitals or small private practices? “More resources are needed,” Melton-Meaux stated.
Physicians’ enthusiasm for ambient AI scribes contrasts sharply with their frustrations over electronic health record systems that have become ubiquitous in recent years. “During the last decade, when EHRs became prevalent, we all felt like overworked data scribes,” Wachter remarked.
The introduction of AI scribes gives physicians a sense that technology is finally working for them, rather than the other way around. According to Wachter, AI scribes serve as “training wheels” for more significant AI adoption in healthcare. To enhance healthcare value and reduce costs, he argues, we need a system that encourages physicians to practice evidence-based medicine, ensuring appropriate tests and prescriptions.
“It’s a few years away, but it’s all AI-dependent,” he concluded. Epic has already introduced around 60 AI use cases for patients, clinicians, and administration, with over 100 more in development. “It’s so much bigger than a scribe,” Gerhart emphasized. “It’s literally listening and acting in ways that prepare me to take action.”
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.
