THURSDAY, April 9, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- Adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) scribes is linked to modest reductions in electronic health record (EHR) use and clinical documentation time, according to a study published online April 1 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Lisa S. Rotenstein, M.D., from the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues examined the association between AI scribe adoption and changes in EHR time expenditure and visit volume. The analysis included 8,581 ambulatory clinicians from five U.S. academic health care institutions.
The researchers found that 21 percent of clinicians were AI scribe adopters, with AI scribe adoption associated with 13.4 fewer minutes of EHR time, 16.0 fewer minutes of documentation time, and 0.49 additional weekly visits delivered. There was no significant change in EHR time outside work hours. Primary care providers experienced the greatest changes associated with AI scribe adoption, as did advanced practice clinicians, female clinicians, and clinicians who used AI scribes in ≥50 percent of visits.
"The modest reductions in documentation time we observed are unlikely to fully account for changes in burnout, underscoring the need to understand how these tools change how clinicians approach care delivery while using them," senior author Rebecca G. Mishuris, M.D., from Mass General Brigham in Somerville, Massachusetts, said in a statement.
Several authors disclosed ties to industry.