Now that Epic has launched its own tool, does the Ambient Scribe startup have a future?
EHR giant Epic launched an artificial intelligence charting tool on Thursday, giving its customers a built-in tool to listen during appointments, draft clinical documents and prepare orders based on what they hear. The announcement shook up the ambient AI scribe market, which has seen significant growth over the past five years.
Epic's market dominance is undisputed. Last year's data showed the company had 42% of the acute care EHR market share, while No. 2 competitor Oracle Health held just 23%. Epic is also involved in a year-long antitrust lawsuit filed by Particle Health, which accuses the EHR vendor of stifling competition in the emerging payment platform market.
Essentially, if you go into any large healthcare system in the United States, there's a good chance the staff will be using Epic's EHR. This means that every time a company launches its own tool, other vendors selling that technology suddenly have to justify its existence, because it's much harder to sell a solution to customers when they already have in-house options.
Startups selling solutions similar to Epic's new capabilities include Abridge, Ambience Healthcare, Suki, Notable, Heidi and DeepScribe.
On Wednesday, KLAS released its annual Software and Services Report, which identifies winners in various software categories across the healthcare industry. Abridge topped the environment column, but it's unclear how much of an impact that ranking will have now that Epic's tool is out. Aburi did not respond Medical City News'Requested comment.
As for Heidi CEO Tom Kelly, he insists his company is solving a different problem than Epic.
“Heidi was built first as an AI partner for clinicians, not as a feature embedded in the EHR. Documentation and access records are important, but they are only one part of the broader layer of support we provide within clinical workflows,” he said.
With a focus on usability and adoption, Heidi attempts to provide clinicians with a platform interface that reflects how they actually practice. The platform's tasks range from generating notes to summarizing a clinician's week or preparing information before sending it back to the EHR.
Kelly noted that historically, tools embedded directly into electronic medical records have focused primarily on structured data entry and form filling.
“We believe there is a growing need for AI platforms that not only break records but also reduce the overall cognitive and administrative burden on clinicians,” he said.
Matthew Ko of DeepScribe, another CEO of ambient transcription startup, also said his company is solving a broader problem than the Epic tool.
“The difference is not just whether annotations can be generated, but whether clinicians actually adopt the system, trust its output, and use the data beyond documentation to create value for the entire enterprise. In fact, many Epic customers run us with Epic because we integrate deeply while meeting needs not prioritized by Epic's native tools,” Ko said.
He said he expects adoption to vary by major.
Complex specialties such as oncology, cardiology, and surgical subspecialties operate within highly detailed, variable workflows. Ko explained that environmental documentation is inherently difficult in these settings because systems must accommodate specialty-specific workflows, clinical reasoning, longitudinal medical contexts, and significant differences between providers.
“Driving meaningful adoption in these environments requires deep workflow adjustments and continuous iteration that are difficult to achieve with a one-size-fits-all solution,” he declared.
Ko noted that the best providers often gain an advantage by developing products that clinicians trust and continue to use. As ambient AI evolves from documentation to a platform that triggers action and drives revenue capture, adoption becomes the gating factor for value.
If clinicians don't fully adopt the product, no value will be realized, Ko said.
“For health systems focused on capturing the full operational and financial potential of ambient intelligence, particularly in complex specialty areas, there will continue to be an important role for specialty platforms that function more like operating systems rather than singular functions,” he said.
Epic's move will inevitably reshape some purchasing decisions, but whether health systems standardize on native tools overall or continue to invest in specialty platforms will likely depend on clinician adoption and workflow fit.
Photo: Richard Drury, Getty Images
