INSIGHTS
August 18, 2025

Disrupting the disruptor

In a move many saw coming, incumbents are muscling into the ambient scribe arena. Doximity entered the fray a few weeks ago with a free AI scribe for physicians. Oracle followed suit with voice-enabled documentation and coding built into its latest AI-first EHR, and Epic is expected to imminently announce the launch of an in-house AI scribe tool.

For early ambient scribe innovators, this is a critical moment to differentiate and claim market share. As one example, Abridge is moving quickly to widen its footprint in adjacent workflows. They've inked a partnership with Highmark for real-time prior authorization and announced they're in acquisition-seeking mode to bolster capabilities around claims, clinical decision support, and care management.

Will incumbent ambient scribe plays become an overall win for health systems—ushering in greater AI-enabled time savings and revenue capture—or will incumbent entry stifle competition, leaving providers with tools that are "just good enough"? As ambient scribe capabilities become increasingly standard within EHRs, innovators will be pushed to differentiate through adjacent, high-value use cases (which incumbents have been slower to own) and by demonstrating flexibility across specialty workflow contexts where documentation demands are most complex. We expect shifts in competitive positioning and fresh partnerships as players test how far they can extend beyond the note before the winners emerge.

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