Primary care has long been associated with the image of a busy doctor, divided between patients and the administrative grind. Electronic Health Records (EHRs) have added to the grind, leaving many physicians tethered to screens rather than their patients. But Ambient AI Assistants may change the picture.
The statistics are sobering. Primary care physicians in the US typically see 20 – 30 patients a day, in consultations that in some practices average as short as 12 minutes. They are often responsible for upwards of 2,000 patients each, meaning that details are challenging to remember. Documentation, while aiding in recall, creates a substantial further problem – for every 8 hours of patient visits, primary care physicians report 2.1 additional hours spent on paperwork.
That may be about to change. Enter ambient AI Assistants—a new generation of tools that appear to finally deliver on the promise. New data from a study conducted by the nonprofit Phyx Primary Care suggests that AI Assistants may be at the cusp of transforming primary care by significantly reducing burnout and improving patient interactions.
The Evolution of AI Documentation
While AI-powered tools for clinical documentation have existed for years, earlier solutions were limited to transcribing dictated notes or filling in EHR templates. Doctors could use voice commands to instruct the AI, but the process still required a significant amount of interaction with the technology itself. This early approach, though helpful, did not eliminate the substantial administrative burden associated with EHRs. As Dr. Edmund Billings of Phyx Primary Care explained in an interview for this article, “At that time, AI solutions were like a scribe that understood clinical documentation, templates, and the EHR structure, allowing the physician to dictate their notes.”
The new generation of AI Assistants, particularly those utilizing ambient listening to a doctor-patient consultation, takes a markedly different approach. Rather than requiring physicians to interact directly with the system, the AI listens passively to the entire patient visit and autonomously generates the required clinical notes. “Ambient AI assistants have gone a step further,” Billings says, “and transformed the primary care visit and experience for physicians. They no longer have to interact with the EHR or even their phones to write notes. Their ambient assistant listens to the visit and creates a note for them.”
Study Results: A Game Changer?
Phyx Primary Care’s most recent Innovation Lab report, which assessed the effectiveness of the Suki AI assistant, sheds light on the tangible impact of these technologies. The study surveyed 116 primary care physicians who had used the Suki assistant for more than 30 days, and was not funded by Suki. The results provide clear evidence that ambient AI Assistants have a profound effect on reducing administrative burden.
Participants reported that the time spent documenting patient notes fell from 13.8 minutes to 8.2 minutes per note—a 41% decrease that allowed them to focus more on patient care during the day. Moreover, this reduction in administrative tasks significantly impacted physicians’ work-life balance. By cutting after-hours EHR work by 37%, doctors were able to reclaim nearly an hour of their personal time each day.
The reduction in burnout was perhaps the most telling metric. Burnout, which has long plagued the medical community, particularly in primary care, decreased by 60% in the cohort. The ambient AI Assistant allowed doctors to focus on their patients rather than on typing and documentation. As one respondent noted, “I no longer have to remember, formulate, and enter the text into a note; the assistant does that for me.”
Better Notes, Better Care?
Another, unexpected benefit highlighted in the study was the improvement in note quality. 54% of respondents reported that their notes had improved “to a great extent.” The AI system captured richer interactions by automatically listening to and summarizing the entire conversation between physician and patient. This “by-product of the visit conversation” approach resulted in more comprehensive documentation than what physicians could achieve on their own, often under time constraints. The enhanced accuracy of the notes also led to better coding for reimbursement purposes, addressing a longstanding challenge in primary care.
Importantly, physicians noted that the richer patient interaction led to higher-quality notes, improving both clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction. In fact, 44% of respondents said their patient interactions improved “to a great extent.” This highlights the potential of AI scribes not only to alleviate clerical burdens but to enrich the core patient-doctor relationship that underpins primary care.
Ambient AI Assistant vs. Traditional AI Scribes
What differentiates this generation of AI assistants from their predecessors is not merely the technology but the interaction model. Earlier AI scribes relied on physician input, operating as a tool that required continuous direction. An ambient AI Assistant, by contrast, operates in the background. “You just talk to the patient,” says Billings, emphasizing that doctors no longer need to issue commands or prompts.
Billings envisages platforms designed for long-term scalability and integration into a physician’s workflow. They could continuously learn and upgrade, offering a roadmap that extends beyond mere transcription to encompass tasks like clinical chart review, coding, and inbox management.
By contrast, simpler AI scribes that have proliferated in recent years, often based on large language models like OpenAI’s GPT, are limited in scope. These “LLM Wrappers” may offer cost-effective transcription solutions, but they lack the deeper clinical integration and future potential that ambient AI platforms promise.
The Road Ahead
As AI technology continues to evolve, the question remains: will these tools ultimately deliver on their full potential? If the results from this study are any indication, the answer may be a resounding yes. For now, ambient AI Assistants are being hailed as a potential game-changer, not just for primary care physicians, but for the nature of patient care as well.