Clinicians using artificial intelligence tools within Epic health systems are reporting a more positive experience with their electronic health records (EHRs), according to the latest AI Insights from the Arch Collaborative 2026 report released by KLAS. The analysis combines survey responses from 12 Epic organizations collected since January 2026 with interviews conducted with executives from Epic health systems.
The report found that clinicians using at least one AI-enabled tool achieved an average Net EHR Experience Score (NEES) of 72.2, compared with 64.9 among clinicians who do not use AI. Users of AI were also seven percentage points more likely to agree that their EHR enables efficient work. Improvements increased as clinicians adopted up to four AI tools, although additional tools beyond that threshold did not produce further gains.
Documentation emerged as the most common application for AI, followed by summarizing patient histories and generating summaries of clinical shifts or patient stays. Adoption patterns also varied by professional role. Physicians and advanced practice providers most frequently relied on AI for drafting visit notes and summarizing patient histories, while nurses primarily used AI to support shift summaries and patient messaging workflows.
Despite these reported benefits, the research identified clinician education as a significant challenge. Fewer than one-quarter of AI users agreed they had received adequate training on how to use AI-generated content effectively. Among Epic clinicians using ambient speech technologies, those who strongly agreed they understood how to optimize the tools reported a NEES of 90.8, compared with 50.4 among those who strongly disagreed.
The findings suggest that successful AI implementation depends not only on technology availability but also on effective integration into clinical workflows. As one chief medical information officer (CMIO) told KLAS, “Implementing AI tools isn’t as simple as just turning them on.” The CMIO added, “Each tool requires careful attention to workflow and adoption to determine whether users find real value,” noting that achieving those outcomes requires sustained effort from IT and informatics teams.
The Arch Collaborative includes more than 300 healthcare organizations and has surveyed over 700,000 clinicians on their EHR experience, providing one of the industry's largest datasets on clinician technology adoption and satisfaction.
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