Epic shakes up the AI ambient listening market with integrated option

Look alive, ambient listening companies: Epic just threw a big wrench in the works. The EHR giant just announced the availability of a native AI scribe and ambient listening tool, called AI Charting, that has the potential to displace popular third-party options like Microsoft’s DAX, Abridge, Nabla, and Suki.   

According to a company press release, the tool will enable users to capture patient-provider conversations, draft visit notes in real-time, suggest orders based on the content, and even personalize the structure of documentation based on clinician preferences. 

“Our developers worked closely on site with physicians across many specialties as we created AI Charting,” said Corey Miller, Vice President of R&D at Epic. “Feedback has been very positive, and we’re iterating quickly based on what clinicians tell us works best.” 

The all-in-one solution builds on Epic’s continued investment in transforming the EHR into an AI-heavy experience, with a three-pronged approach to tackling clinical, administrative, and patient-facing tasks. 

Integration, ease of use, and cost considerations may attract users

Ambient listening and AI documentation tools have exploded in popularity, with more than 90% of health systems actively using or exploring the use of the technology as of early 2025.  

Epic users tend to be among the early adopters, with 62% of customers having implemented an ambient listening or AI scribe solution by June of 2025. Thanks to Epic’s app marketplace, they have had plenty of third-party options to choose from, but they’ve had to establish separate contracts, conduct security assessments, and fork over fees to these companies to use their services.  

In an era when organizations are trying to streamline their tech stack for cybersecurity, governance, and budgetary reasons, an integrated option within Epic itself could prompt some pointed conversations about the value of renewing agreements with outside vendors. 

Epic is the largest inpatient EHR vendor in the US, and if enough customers decide to abandon their external relationships for Epic’s AI scribe services, it could result in a big hiccup for the $400 million AI medical scribe market. 

Adding to the AI showcase with clinical and administrative tools

The new AI Charting tool works alongside Epic’s other AI offerings, which span the clinical, operational, and patient engagement environments. Assistants in each area have their own human names, including Art for clinicians, Penny for operational staff, and Emmi for patients. 

Art’s Insights feature, which aggregates patient information into a scannable summary for visit preparation, is now used over 16 million times each month, Epic says, while organizations using Penny to automate billing and coding are seeing a 20% reduction in coding-related denials and an ability to generate appeals letters 23% faster. 

On the patient-facing side, Emmi assists consumers with scheduling and payment using conversational language interfaces, with an option to escalate to a human staff member for complex questions.  

“Because these AI capabilities are built directly into Epic, they draw from information captured throughout the medical record—providing answers and insights grounded in a comprehensive understanding of the patient,” the company says. 

Will native AI strengthen EHR ecosystems or reduce choice for users?

Epic isn’t the only EHR vendor going all-in on AI to revamp the traditional (and traditionally disliked) EHR experience. Oracle is exploring the role of AI agents for surfacing insights to clinicians, while athenahealth is also working on ways to use AI for aggregating and summarizing patient data from disparate sources. 

Epic has always stressed that it’s a one-stop shop for users, and has leaned into its “my way or the highway” identity as a feature, not a bug.  

As other EHR companies work to create more seamless, AI-native ecosystems that don’t require bolt-on capabilities as a way to compete with the leader, will the market see a return to more of a walled garden approach, where choosing an EHR turns back into picking an “Apple vs. Android” type of allegiance? 

It will be interesting to see how the scorching hot AI market responds to this new proliferation of built-in AI capabilities in the EHR – and how buyers will feel if they start signing agreements now for tools they need immediately only to find a more cost-effective, integrated replacement is on the way in a year or two. 

Jennifer Bresnick is a journalist and freelance content creator with a decade of experience in the health IT industry.  Her work has focused on leveraging innovative technology tools to create value, improve health equity, and achieve the promises of the learning health system.  She can be reached at [email protected].