Is your AI scribe worth it? 3 questions to ask before and after you buy

In every field, there are "gear junkies" — the people who race to buy the newest tech that might "bring them to the next level." The gear junkie proudly displays an assortment of gimmicks, fads and items they "need" to perform a particular task. Some gear junkies make great use of their beloved tools and perform well with them. Others remain perpetually confused by their poor performance, convinced they are just one purchase away from "getting it right." The truth is that they are just one purchase away from making more purchases.

Health care is particularly susceptible to this reality. A large population of exhausted providers, combined with deep industry coffers, produces an environment primed to seek out innovative solutions. Profession-wide burnout has left practice managers and clinicians eager for anything that could ease that burden. AI scribes promised to fill this need, and in turn they have blossomed into a major health care technology sector.

Investments: What are you paying for?

With gear junkies in mind, what does that mean for AI scribes as a new technology? What separates the first gear junkie from their poor-performing counterpart? The answer to both questions is a cost-benefit analysis that goes beyond a simple monetary assessment. Every product has a cost beyond its price tag. Subscription fees, onboarding, EHR integration and other requirements are all real costs to assess before even getting started with a new AI scribe.

Together, these costs form the true quote to reference when considering an AI scribe. That investment needs to produce an appropriate return to be worthwhile. The core promise of an AI scribe is that it saves time. That time is measurable and can be used to evaluate cost-effectiveness. If the hours spent charting — the easiest benchmark for measuring time savings — increase after implementing an AI scribe, the tool may be adding costs rather than cutting them. Multiplying a provider's hourly pay rate by the hours saved yields a value that can be weighed directly against the full cost of the AI scribe.

Intangibles: What do you really want?

Comparing the cost of a product to its measurable ROI is standard practice. Still, it leaves out an important factor: what the buyer actually wanted at the start. ROI-based cost analysis restricts the conversation to a comparison of product capability and its value-add. There is no room for "I want my clinicians to be happy," "I wish I had more energy to interact with my patients" or "I want a healthy work environment that I'm excited to be part of." Those are real desires that don't fit easily into ROI because they lack quantitative values, but overlooking them could be extremely costly.

These intangibles are the key to effective evaluation. The initial monetary analysis is relatively simple, but it is incomplete without a proper qualitative assessment. Happy, well-rested clinicians are better positioned to provide quality care than their frustrated and exhausted counterparts. Of course, the opposite can be true when products fail: An AI scribe that makes clinicians angry isn't worth any potential return. Practice managers and clinicians who take the time to reflect on how they feel — emotionally, physically and otherwise — before and after implementing an AI scribe are the ones most likely to make effective evaluations.

Integrations: How long is the road to value?

Projects near completion are worthless until they are actually complete. For some AI scribes, this is the most important consideration. The profit potential is great and the clinicians are happy with their draft notes, but there is more to the story. Errors pop up, customer support goes AWOL, and suddenly the whole practice is thrown into disarray. Technical difficulties are inevitable, which makes responsive technical support an absolute imperative for any AI scribe service.

If tech support responds quickly to an error but then takes six months to develop a solution, that responsiveness is ineffective. The same is true for EHR integrations, product improvements and unmet expectations. Many AI scribes struggle to deliver a service that lives up to the hype that propelled them, creating an "expectation gap" the vendor must resolve. Interactions between the AI scribe company and the clinicians and practice managers become a kind of hidden labor cost that factors back into both of the previous evaluations.

The time clinicians spend navigating the support process weighs against their hours saved. If that process takes too long or fails to meet expectations, it can also sour early intangible gains. This is the true cost of integration: How well does the AI scribe meet the needs of your clinical workflow? Can the support team coordinate effectively to meet the needs of the practice? Are the clinicians willing to adjust their workflows to maximize the value they get from the AI scribe? Most importantly, what is the maximum amount of time the practice manager or clinician is willing to spend integrating this service into their workflow? The AI scribe service may need time to adjust to a specific need. This is the road to value, and the time spent on it is its own cost. Practice managers and clinicians should consider this integration cost at the outset and decide how much time they are comfortable dedicating to the integration process itself.

Seeing with the three I's

The gear junkie's mistake is not pursuing new opportunities. It's failing to evaluate how those opportunities meet their needs. That is the difference between wasting money on a fun new gadget and investing in something that could genuinely help. For those considering an AI scribe service, the three I's — investments, intangibles and integrations — provide an easy framework for evaluation.

All three perspectives are necessary to evaluate AI scribes, both before and after choosing to try them. The estimated monetary ROI and intangible goals can be recorded before trying the service and then revisited at a predetermined interval. An appropriate integration period should be set and then evaluated in light of both the monetary and intangible costs. The time spent on integration and its emotional effect on clinicians influence the trajectory of the AI scribe. The relationship established during the integration period lays the groundwork for long-term success. The clinical team must feel confident in the AI scribe's technical support team to resolve issues and meet workflow needs. The practices and AI scribe services that coordinate best to fill integration gaps are far more likely to succeed.

Don't be the gear junkie wasting money. Be the gear junkie who uses their I's and knows a good opportunity when they see it.

Cooper Rock is an executive account manager at ScribeBrain, an ambient scribe company focused on merging revenue cycle management with efficient clinical documentation. He works with physicians, practice managers and health organizations to communicate their needs to the engineering team, facilitating troubleshooting and product improvement. His work with active users and product development places him at the intersection of real-world provider needs and emerging technology.