Can artificial intelligence help clinicians spend less time documenting and more time caring for patients?
That was the central question explored during a recent North American Community of Practice (NACOP) webinar, “From Conversation to Clinical Chart: Using Ambient AI Scribes in Primary Care.” The session brought together experts from UC Davis Health to share their real-world experience implementing ambient AI scribe technology across a large academic health system.
The discussion highlighted both the promise and the practical considerations of this rapidly evolving technology.
Why Ambient AI – and Why Now?
As Dr. Ulfat Shaikh explained, administrative burden in healthcare has reached a critical point. Primary care clinicians can spend hours each day working within electronic health records, often completing documentation long after clinic sessions have ended.
Ambient AI scribes offer a different approach.
Rather than functioning as simple voice-to-text tools, these systems listen to clinical conversations, identify relevant information, and generate structured clinical notes for clinician review. The goal is not to replace clinical judgement, but to reduce the documentation burden that contributes to stress and burnout.
As Dr. Shaikh noted, this shift allows clinicians to move “from being people who do data entry… to being clinicians who can actively listen and process information that the patient tells us.”
Implementation Matters
Drawing on UC Davis Health’s experience, Daniel Stein emphasised that successful implementation extends well beyond selecting the right technology.
Their approach focused on three key areas:
- Understanding the underlying technology and its integration into existing workflows;
- Establishing strong governance, training, and oversight processes; and
- Identifying meaningful metrics to evaluate both benefits and risks.
Importantly, UC Davis Health began with a small-scale usability and feasibility assessment before expanding to a larger pilot and eventual enterprise-wide deployment.
Early Results Are Encouraging
The data presented during the webinar suggested several potential benefits of ambient AI scribes.
Clinicians reported improved ability to focus on patients during consultations, reduced cognitive burden associated with documentation, and greater satisfaction with their work. Objective measures also demonstrated reductions in documentation time.
Patients were generally receptive to the technology, with many reporting that it improved their interactions with clinicians. Most patients also felt that the resulting clinical documentation accurately reflected their encounters.
Perhaps most telling were clinicians’ own reflections on the impact of the technology. Several described ambient AI scribes as allowing them to “be a doctor again” by shifting attention away from the computer screen and back to the patient.
Balancing Innovation with Responsibility
At the same time, the presenters stressed that ambient AI is not without risks.
Issues relating to privacy, consent, governance, note accuracy, potential bias, and the possibility of AI-generated errors require careful consideration. Human oversight remains essential, and clinicians must continue to review and validate all documentation generated by these systems.
The speakers also highlighted the importance of ongoing evaluation, recognising that successful adoption depends not only on technological capability but also on trust, training, and thoughtful implementation.
Looking Ahead
Ambient AI scribes represent one of the most visible applications of artificial intelligence in everyday clinical practice. While the technology continues to evolve, the experiences shared by UC Davis Health demonstrate that, when implemented responsibly, these tools have the potential to improve both clinician experience and patient care.
The conversation around AI in healthcare is only beginning, and quality and safety considerations must remain at the forefront of future developments.
If you missed the live webinar, we invite you to watch the recording to hear directly from the experts about the opportunities, challenges, and lessons learned from implementing ambient AI scribes in practice.
Watch the webinar recording here: From Conversation to Clinical Chart: Using Ambient AI Scribes in Primary Care
We thank our speakers, Dr. Ulfat Shaikh, Dr. Scott MacDonald, and Daniel Stein, for sharing their expertise and insights with the NACOP and ISQua communities.
