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AI scribes deliver modest time savings, but still boost clinician experience
New research shows that AI scribes reduce EHR and documentation time, adding to a growing body of literature around its positive impact on clinician experience.
A new study shows that AI scribes are associated with modest gains in time savings and physician productivity. Still, study author Lisa Rotenstein, MD, an associate professor of medicine at the UCSF School of Medicine, noted that the benefits associated with AI scribes may not be about going home earlier, but rather about how the tool improves the clinician experience at work.
Despite some claims that AI scribes save physicians an hour or so of time a day, the new study revealed that AI scribe adoption was associated with 13.4 fewer minutes of EHR time and 16 fewer minutes of documentation time. Further, when compared with primary care clinicians who didn't adopt AI scribes, those who did saved about 27 minutes of documentation time.
"So, our findings do emphasize time savings with use of AI scribes overall, perhaps modest, but certainly greater among specific clinician groups," Rotenstein, who is also director of the Center for Physician Experience and Practice Excellence at Brigham and Women's Hospital, said in an interview. "They also highlight that the more you use an AI scribe, the greater benefit you get."
Published in JAMA, the study was co-led by Mass General Brigham (MGB) and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). It is the first study out of the Ambient Clinical Documentation Collaborative (ACDC), a multi-organizational research effort.
Study aims to assess real-world impact of AI scribes
AI scribes have been hailed as the answer to the clinician burnout crisis, driven primarily by administrative burdens such as clinical documentation.
According to Rotenstein, the widespread and rapid implementation of AI scribe technology prompted researchers to pursue this multisite study.
"AI scribe use is really prevalent," she said. "If it's not already in one's healthcare system, clinicians are talking about the technology, health systems are talking about the technology."
"There have been many, many single-site studies, each using different time metrics, slightly different ways of measuring impact, slightly different implementations," she continued. "So, we thought it was important -- given how widespread this topic is -- to do a large evaluation across multiple health systems, real-world implementations, to understand what are the impacts of this technology?"
The study examined AI scribe adoption at five health systems: MGB, UCSF, Emory Healthcare, Yale New Haven Health and the University of California, Davis. These institutions introduced AI scribe technology between June 2023 and August 2025. Clinicians given access to AI scribes were considered AI scribe adopters, while those without access were non-adopters.
The study sample included 8,581 clinicians: 1,809 in the adopter group and 6,772 in the non-adopter group. As noted above, EHR and documentation time declined among clinicians in the adopter group. AI scribe adoption was also linked to the delivery of 0.5 additional weekly visits.
However, the benefits of AI scribe use varied by clinician characteristics, the study showed. The positive impact of AI scribe tools on EHR and documentation time was the greatest for primary care specialists, advanced practice clinicians and female clinicians. Primary care clinician adopters of AI scribes spent 25 fewer minutes in the EHR and 26.9 fewer minutes documenting, which Rotenstein noted is "actually a big deal for every eight scheduled patient hours."
Additionally, clinicians who used an AI scribe for 50% or more of their visits spent 21.3 minutes less in the EHR and 27.3 minutes less on clinical documentation than non-adopters. They also delivered one more visit per week.
AI scribe benefits go beyond the time saved
According to Rotenstein, the key takeaway from the study is that the time-saving benefits of AI scribes, though modest, are real. When combined with previous research about the tools' impact on burnout, the study results indicate that even if clinicians aren't cutting down their time on administrative tasks significantly, they are improving their experience in the workplace.
"AI scribe technology is not just about going home a little bit earlier; it's about how we are spending our days as clinicians," Rotenstein said. "I can speak from personal experience. I love being able to really look at and listen to my patients without worrying that I'm missing some detail."
She further added that the 13-to-15 minutes of EHR and documentation time saved are the top-line results across clinicians with various characteristics. The more pertinent part of the study results for healthcare leaders evaluating AI scribing for their organizations is the subgroup analyses. These show the specific roles and other characteristics that benefit more from AI scribe tools than others, which could help leaders target their AI investments.
The study also revealed gaps in adoption that leaders need to address to fully realize the technology's benefits. For instance, clinicians who used AI scribes for more than 50% of visits gained greater time-saving benefits than non-adopters; still, only about 32% of adopters used their AI scribe that frequently, suggesting that factors curbing adoption need to be identified and addressed.
"I think this is a real nugget from our study that can be a point of reflection for health system leaders," Rotenstein said.
Anuja Vaidya has covered the healthcare industry since 2012. She currently covers the virtual healthcare landscape, including telehealth, remote patient monitoring and digital therapeutics.
