What the study found
AI scribe adoption was associated with modest decreases in total electronic health record (EHR) time and documentation time, and with a modest increase in weekly visit volume. Time spent on the EHR outside work hours did not change significantly.
Why the authors say this matters
The authors say AI-enabled scribes have been proposed to reduce EHR burden and improve clinician satisfaction, and the study suggests they may also affect workload and visit volume across multiple sites. The findings indicate the association may differ by clinician group, including primary care specialists, advanced practice clinicians, female clinicians, and clinicians who used AI scribes in at least half of visits.
What the researchers tested
The researchers conducted a multisite, longitudinal cohort study at 5 US academic health care institutions that introduced AI scribes between June 2023 and August 2025. The study included ambulatory clinicians, and AI scribe adoption was defined as receiving access to an AI scribe.
What worked and what didn't
In a difference-in-differences analysis, adoption was associated with 13.4 fewer minutes of EHR time, 16.0 fewer minutes of documentation time, and 0.49 additional weekly visits delivered, all normalized to 8 scheduled patient hours. EHR time outside scheduled hours or on unscheduled days did not change significantly.
What to keep in mind
The abstract describes associations, not proof of causation. It also does not provide detailed limitations beyond noting that evidence has been limited across multiple sites and for different clinician groups.
Key points
- AI scribe adoption was associated with less total EHR time and less documentation time.
- Adoption was associated with a small increase in weekly visit volume.
- EHR time outside scheduled hours or on unscheduled days did not change significantly.
- Changes were greatest for primary care specialists, advanced practice clinicians, female clinicians, and clinicians using AI scribes in at least half of visits.
- The study included 8,581 ambulatory clinicians across 5 US academic health care institutions.
Disclosure
- Research title:
- AI scribes were linked to less EHR time and more visits
- Authors:
- Lisa S. Rotenstein, A. Jay Holmgren, Robert Thombley, Aditi Sriram, Reema H. Dbouk, Melissa Jost, Debbie Aizenberg, Scott MacDonald, Naga Kanaparthy, Brian Williams, Allen Hsiao, Lee Schwamm, Sara G. Murray, Maria Byron, Jacqueline Guan-Ting You, Amanda Centi, Christine Iannaccone, Michelle Frits, Adam Landman, Karandeep Singh, Ming Tai-Seale, Jie Cao, Katharine Lawrence, Devin M. Mann, Christopher Holland, Bryan Blanchette, Jesse M. Ehrenfeld, Edward R. Melnick, David W. Bates, Julia Adler-Milstein, Rebecca G. Mishuris
- Institutions:
- University of California, San Francisco, Emory University, University of California Davis Medical Center, UC Davis Health, University of California, Davis, Yale University, Yale New Haven Health System, San Francisco Department of Public Health, Political Research Associates, Mass General Brigham, Brigham and Women's Hospital, UC San Diego Health System, University of California San Diego, New York University, Emory Healthcare, Medical College of Wisconsin
- Publication date:
- 2026-04-01
- OpenAlex record:
- View
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