Ambient AI Catching on Fast

Ambient artificial intelligence (AI) scribes, the digital notetakers listening in on conversations between patients and physicians, are becoming the fastest-adopted technology in healthcare and helping to reduce clinician burnout, according to a recent report. These digital tools generate clinical documentation for providers to review, cutting the amount of after-hours time typically spent logging in these notes, according to the report from the Peterson Health Technology Institute.

The report found that the technology has attracted over $600 million in investment in just three years and is now being piloted or deployed in various settings. “These solutions have the potential to reduce the paperwork burden on clinicians — which is a widespread source of discontent — and, in turn, reduce burnout, increase productivity and improve the patient experience,” the report authors wrote.

Real-world evidence

Vendors often tout the promise of time savings, but evidence from researchers points in the same direction. A February 2025 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association evaluated how 45 physicians at a large academic medical center used AI scribes over the course of three months and found documentation time fell “significantly,” saving about 20 minutes per day spent in electronic health records.

Findings from a Mass General Brigham clinician study on the use of AI scribes showed several key improvements. Users saved an hour entering clinical notes. A solid majority (60%) of respondents indicated they were more likely to extend their careers because of the technology, and nearly 80% said they were more focused on their patients. A study published in the NEJM Medicine Catalyst last year showed that AI scribes saved Kaiser Permanente physicians in Northern California nearly 1,800 working days in a single year.

The Cleveland Clinic experience

Eric Boose

In February 2025, Cleveland Clinic announced it would roll out an ambient AI platform from Ambience Healthcare across its ambulatory practices after a successful pilot project covering more than 80 specialties. Eric Boose, M.D., Cleveland Clinic’s associate chief medical information officer, says the technology has been “extremely popular” with clinicians. The organization onboarded about 1,000 physicians within eight days of launching the technology and currently has 3,000 using it, or approximately half of the staff eligible to use the tool.

“It’s truly transformative, the idea that you can have software just listen to a normal everyday conversation in our offices and make it into a medical note,” he says. “For many physicians, that’s the tedious part of the job — sitting there trying to type everything out.”

Patients also seem to like it, according to Boose. They have noted having more eye contact with their physicians, who would normally be typing in notes during the visit. They also receive clear, well-written after-visit notes generated by the AI, compared with potentially confusing or inconsistent notes written by human doctors. “That’s been a big game changer and very clarifying to the patient who may go home and forget what I just mentioned to them an hour ago,” Boose says.

For physicians, the big difference is not having to spend as much time at the end of their day — sometimes at home — entering clinical notes. This “pajama time,” or hours spent at home doing data entry, has been associated in many studies with physician dissatisfaction and burnout.

“I’m not so worried about writing down every little detail that the patient’s expressing,” says Boose about the adopting physicians. “I’m just sitting there engaged, listening and trying to help them. The patients are noticing. It’s pretty neat.”

Despite the enthusiasm and early evidence of improved clinician satisfaction, the question with new enterprise technology is whether it is worth the cost. Boose says more time will need to pass before they can accurately assess the financial impact, but the new system is already improving with reimbursement.

Both the Peterson institute and investigators who have published research on ambient AI see a need for standardized evaluation metrics and continued transparency around documentation accuracy, efficiency and downstream effects.

Cleveland Clinic’s phased rollout includes plans for ongoing assessment and allows providers to opt in at their own pace.

For Boose, bringing the technology to his organization has already provided one intangible personal benefit. “It’s been the most fun project I’ve worked on in decades,” he says.