Ambient Speech Outcomes 2025
Combating Provider Burnout & Elevating the EHR Experience
Ambient speech is one of the highest-energy technologies in healthcare today, spurred by generative AI advancements and the technology’s potential to combat burnout and improve the provider experience. Ambient speech has expanded rapidly over the last year—many organizations have at least piloted a solution (though system-wide adoption is still early), and vendors continue to broaden the technology to reach more clinicians and impact workflows beyond the clinical note. As the market surges forward, this report looks through the lens of the holistic EHR experience—as measured by the KLAS Arch Collaborative—to examine how using ambient speech has impacted over 900 physicians and advanced practice providers (referred to collectively throughout the report as “providers”).
Access the feedback of
500,000+ clinicians worldwide
Access the feedback of
500,000+ clinicians worldwide
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Notes About the Report Sample
- Data comes from ambulatory care providers at 24 healthcare organizations: These organizations have all implemented ambient speech for at least some of their providers and have also measured EHR satisfaction via the Arch Collaborative. Providers that haven’t adopted ambient speech at these organizations act as a control group to which the ambient speech users can be compared.
- Data is aggregated across multiple ambient speech vendors: Of the 24 organizations, 18 use Microsoft DAX Copilot (now part of Dragon Copilot), 3 use Abridge, and 1 each uses Ambience Healthcare, DeepScribe, or Nabla.
- Data comes only from providers using Epic: At the time of this report, 96% of providers whose ambient speech experience had been measured through the Arch Collaborative are Epic users. This does not reflect broader market adoption, as KLAS has validated ambient speech in use by organizations using many other EHRs.
- Use of ambient speech is self-reported: Surveyed providers indicated whether they use ambient speech for a significant portion of their documentation but did not specify the percentage of encounters
- Surveyed providers had higher rates of preadoption burnout: Many organizations in this sample likely targeted inefficient or burned-out clinicians for their initial ambient speech program
Additional Ambient Speech Insights from KLAS
Additional ambient speech reports as well as real-time data on the performance of specific ambient speech vendors can be accessed on the KLAS website.
AMBIENT SPEECH OUTCOMES
Ambient Speech Is Leveling Up the EHR Experience & Bringing Focus Back to the Patient
Compared to peers, providers that use ambient speech to document a significant portion of their encounters are much more satisfied with their EHR experience (see first chart below). Examining data specifically from providers whose EHR experience was measured both before and after adopting ambient speech reveals that the most positive impacts are seen in overall EHR usability, perceived efficiency, and ability to deliver patient-centered care (see second chart below). Providers particularly appreciate that ambient speech allows them to move away from the computer and spend more time face-to-face with patients without the cognitive burden of having to take notes during the visit or recall information to document later. Not only can AI-generated notes reduce charting time and allow providers to spend that time on patient care activities (such as patient education and patient messages), but providers say that their notes are more thorough and that they are better able to follow through on things discussed with the patient (such as orders), all leading to higher provider satisfaction with the quality of care delivered.
“The time I spend documenting has improved significantly, and I am continuing to see improvements. . . . I am very happy using this technology, and this is probably the first bit of technology that has lived up to its hype about making professional life better.” —Physician
“Ambient speech has been the single best experience I have had documenting.” —Physician
Ambient Speech Is Alleviating Burnout for Providers Struggling with Documentation, Workload & Work-Life Balance
For many providers, the introduction of ambient speech has come with notable wellness improvements—not only making providers feel better about the quality of their patient care but also leading to better work-life balance by enabling faster chart closure. Even providers still experiencing burnout or stress are less likely to cite the EHR as a contributor to their burnout, and many feel better supported by their organizations. While the causes of burnout are multifactorial and ambient speech is not a silver bullet, when implemented and supported well, the technology can make a significant difference in providers’ lives.
“Due to access issues and having to address too much in each visit, I struggled to document as I was always running late and then having to do follow-up work later. With the ambient speech solution, I went from feeling like a complete failure and being close to quitting medicine to now having a completely improved quality of life at work. I would tell my organization to keep this solution at all costs!” —Physician
“I have gained such work-life balance; once I get home, I feel like I can disconnect and focus on my young, growing family. I am so thankful to [this ambient speech solution] for allowing me this freedom.” —Physician
Are Providers Willing to See More Patients to Justify the Cost of Ambient Speech?
Most said no.
Four organizations specifically asked their providers who have adopted ambient speech whether they would be interested in adding more patients—over 80% responded no, preferring to invest any efficiency gains into improving patient care activities or their work-life balance.
What about the 18% that said yes?
Nearly 1 in 5 providers expressed some interest in adding patients, especially if they weren’t feeling short-staffed and it could help the organization justify investment in the technology. Advanced practice providers were more likely to express willingness than physicians.
Approach the topic with sensitivity.
Discussions about ambient speech’s impact on patient volumes require balance, sensitivity, and transparency—ambient speech can allow for higher volumes, but many providers want to first focus on improving their practice and well-being. KLAS has validated one organization that has successfully walked this line, allowing willing volunteers to add patients; organizations that have required or encouraged it largely report negative reception and adverse outcomes among providers.
How Consistently Do Organizations See Positive Outcomes from Ambient Speech?
The short answer is very consistently.
At least 75% of organizations that surveyed providers before and after the providers adopted ambient speech saw positive outcomes in terms of an improved NEES, higher perceived efficiency, and decreased burnout.
Thoughtful Change Management Can Maximize Ambient Speech Outcomes
Though providers typically find ambient speech solutions easy to use, thoughtful change management during implementation is still critical in maximizing the technology’s impact. Such management should include setting expectations with providers about (1) what the tools can and can’t do, (2) the accuracy of AI-generated notes, and (3) the lift required to review notes. This is particularly critical for providers in specialties with unique, nuanced documentation needs; providers currently report that specialty-specific functionality varies across ambient speech solutions (see next page). Change management should also include training for providers on how to personalize the technology to fit their charting workflows and preferences and how to suggest fixes and optimizations to fine-tune the output.
Change Management in Action—Legacy Health’s Case Study
Legacy Health has seen positive, measurable outcomes from their ambient speech pilot program. Much of their success came from being highly intentional in choosing providers, setting clear expectations up front, providing both in-person and on-demand training, and obtaining leadership buy-in through ROI calculations. For detailed insights into Legacy Health’s success, see their Arch Collaborative case study.
AMBIENT SPEECH USE CASES
Generalist Providers in Ambulatory Settings Have Been the First Adopters; Specialty & Inpatient Adoption Is Limited but Growing
Many organizations start their ambient speech journey by rolling out the technology to family or internal medicine providers in ambulatory settings. These providers are commonly seen as ideal candidates for adoption due to their high patient volumes and generally lower visit complexity. To date, adoption in specialties has been more limited and scattered. This is partially a function of the technology’s capabilities, which have historically been viewed as not optimized for specialty providers. However, many vendors have now developed or are actively developing specialty-specific functionality, and this will likely increase specialty adoption in coming years. In aggregate, early data indicates that even in its current state, ambient speech has a positive impact for specialists.
WHAT'S NEXT?
Ambient Speech Is Just Getting Started—Where Do Providers Want It to Go Next?
After a year of intense growth and promising outcomes, most early adopters are satisfied with ambient speech and optimistic about its future. That said, many providers acknowledge that there are opportunities for improvement and expansion. Below are specific developments providers want to see in coming years.
Continued refinement of output to decrease the need for editing
Over the last 18 months, the most common problem providers have reported with ambient speech is inaccurate or clunky output that requires editing. Among other things, they note that the technology sometimes excludes critical information, includes irrelevant information, incorrectly labels pronouns or gender, or misunderstands accents. As ambient speech solutions improve with advancements in generative AI, providers would like to see continued fine-tuning and clear methods by which they can give feedback if they see repeated errors.
“I just started using [ambient speech] to help with documentation. It is good in terms of not typing in the room with the patient, but the amount of work has not decreased. I still have to enter orders and instructions. Also, it is not accurate and does miss information many times. Hence, the amount of time I spend has increased because I am looking for errors and then documenting.” —Physician
“I wish I could give feedback to have [my ambient speech solution] learn typical things I find myself correcting over and over.” —Physician
Ability to adapt the tools to the provider’s voice & documentation style
Providers may feel that AI-generated notes don’t represent their voice or conform to their personal style of charting. Specifically, providers want the tools to learn from previous notes to better match an individual’s voice. They also want the ability to better adapt the tools to EHR personalizations, such as templates. As ambient speech technology continues to advance in these areas, organizations should make sure to train providers on the personalization tools already available within many ambient speech solutions today.
“I didn’t like how the notes read. They didn’t sound like my dictation at all, and the way they were organized made me feel uncomfortable sending them off to referring providers as my consult. I ended up redoing a lot of the note for each patient. I will probably try it again at some point, but at this time, I just use dictation and typing.” —Physician
“I want better integration with an individual’s preferred way to document.” —Physician
Expanded capabilities, including in areas beyond the note
Providers see significant potential for ambient speech to be expanded, reporting that while most solutions excel at capturing HPI, some could do better at capturing other elements of the encounter, such as assessment and planning and risk assessments. They also see a need for AI to go beyond the note to help with things like orders, coding, and billing, which would positively impact downstream revenue. Some vendors and healthcare organizations are in the early stages of implementing such capabilities.
“[Ambient speech] in primary care is a game changer. It should be deployed to all units. AI-assisted diagnoses/orders and billing will positively impact us, and I strongly recommend adoption when available.” —Physician
“I wish [this ambient speech tool] would populate the problem list and generate billing information as I talk with the patient.” —Physician
More functionality for specialists, nurses & allied health professionals
Though specialty-specific functionality varies across ambient speech solutions, specialists often view the tools as having limited functionality for the complexities of specialty care, saying they oversimplify or skip needed information, lack specialty-specific vocabulary, or don’t meet documentation needs. Additionally, providers believe ambient speech functionality could be thoughtfully adapted to the unique workflows of inpatient providers and additional clinician groups, such as nurses and allied health professionals. KLAS has validated a number of recent pilots for nurses and will share future insights as adoption grows.
“Right now, [this ambient speech solution] seems to be more catered to primary care and less to specialty care. I have used the sections in my notes to help organize things, but it still puts the notes outside of the sections, so I still have to copy and paste. This does not help with efficiency.” —Physician
“I would like the vendor to optimize AI. [Our ambient speech tool] does not work effectively for my specialty in the manner in which we need to document.” —Physician
Measure Your Clinicians’ Experience with Ambient Speech
As your organization adopts and expands its use of ambient speech, it will be critical to measure your clinicians’ experience to understand both the technology’s impact and the areas in which it can be optimized or better supported. The KLAS Arch Collaborative partners with healthcare organizations to administer surveys and provide benchmarking specific to ambient speech. To learn more about measuring your clinicians’ experience, visit our website.
Future ambient speech research from KLAS: Insights and perspectives from organizations that measure their clinicians’ ambient speech experience will be published in an updated version of this report in 2026. Over the next year, KLAS will also publish additional ambient speech case studies and success stories as well as a report on how ambient speech solutions are expanding beyond the note.
Vendors Partnering with the Arch Collaborative
Ambient speech and EHR vendors that have partnered with the Arch Collaborative to understand the impact of ambient speech and assist customers on their ambient speech journey include the following:
Ambient speech vendors
- Abridge
- Ambience Healthcare
- DeepScribe
- IKS Health
- Microsoft
- Nabla
- Onpoint Healthcare Partners
- Solventum
- Suki
EHR vendors
- athenahealth
- Dedalus
- Epic
- Greenway Health
- InterSystems
- MEDITECH
- Oracle Health
Note: Healthcare organizations can leverage the Arch Collaborative to measure their clinician experience with any EHR/ambient speech vendor. They are not limited to the vendors listed above.
What Is the KLAS Arch Collaborative?
The Arch Collaborative is a group of healthcare organizations committed to improving the EHR experience through standardized surveys and benchmarking. To date, almost 300 healthcare organizations have surveyed their end users and over 600,000 clinicians have responded. Impact reports such as this one seek to synthesize the feedback from these clinicians into actionable insights that organizations can use to revolutionize patient care by unlocking the potential of the EHR.
About the Sample
Organizations represented in this report measured their providers’ experiences with ambient speech through either (1) system-wide EHR experience surveys in which providers could also self-report their use of ambient speech or (2) targeted pre- and post-implementation surveys intended specifically to measure the impact of ambient speech. Surveys were administered by healthcare organizations to their clinicians and collected via an online survey tool. Note that because data was collected differently at different organizations and because not all organizations asked the same questions, sample sizes will differ between charts. Data was collected from November 2023 through March 2025. Below are other important things to note about the data sample.
- Data comes from ambulatory care providers at 24 healthcare organizations: These organizations have all implemented ambient speech for at least some of their providers and have also measured EHR satisfaction via the Arch Collaborative. Providers that haven’t adopted ambient speech at these organizations act as a control group to which the ambient speech users can be compared.
- Data is aggregated across multiple ambient speech vendors: At the time of their survey, 18 of the 24 organizations represented in this report were using Microsoft DAX Copilot (now part of Dragon Copilot), 3 were using Abridge, and 1 each was using Ambience Healthcare, DeepScribe, or Nabla. Data is aggregated across these solutions to provide a general overview of the provider experience with ambient speech.
- Data comes only from providers using Epic: At the time of this report, 96% of providers whose ambient speech experience was measured through the Arch Collaborative were using Epic. This does not reflect broader market adoption, as KLAS has validated ambient speech in use by organizations using many other EHRs, including Altera Digital Health, athenahealth, eClinicalWorks, MEDITECH, and Oracle Health.
- Findings are based on feedback from physicians and advanced practice providers: Respondents are referred to collectively throughout the report as “providers.”
- Use of ambient speech is self-reported: Surveyed providers indicated whether they use ambient speech for a significant portion of their documentation but did not specify the percentage of encounters.
- Surveyed providers had higher rates of preadoption burnout: While organizations may differ in which groups they choose to target for their initial ambient speech programs (including volunteers, superusers, or inefficient/burned out clinicians), many organizations in this sample likely targeted the latter. In aggregate, providers represented in this sample were experiencing higher rates of burnout and inefficiency with the EHR compared to peers before adopting ambient speech. To account for the variance in the selection process, much of this report looks at providers who were surveyed before and after their use of ambient speech.
- Organizations were in various stages of adoption when data was collected: Most organizations in this sample were in the early stages of rolling out ambient speech to initial provider groups, some were piloting solutions, and a few had moved toward a system-wide rollout.
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Clinician Efficiency and Personalization, Clinician Wellness and Reducing BurnoutThis material is copyrighted. Any organization gaining unauthorized access to this report will be liable to compensate KLAS for the full retail price. Please see the KLAS DATA USE POLICY for information regarding use of this report. © 2019 KLAS Research, LLC. All Rights Reserved. NOTE: Performance scores may change significantly when including newly interviewed provider organizations, especially when added to a smaller sample size like in emerging markets with a small number of live clients. The findings presented are not meant to be conclusive data for an entire client base.