The news: AI scribe tools that transcribe doctors’ notes save doctors a minimal amount of time, according to a recent UCLA Health study.

Digging into the data: An evaluation of two commercial AI tools—Microsoft DAX and Nabla—found minimal time savings.

• Doctors using Nabla saw their average time spent writing each note decrease by just 23 seconds more than the control group.
• DAX users saved just 5 seconds compared with the control group, which researchers said was not statistically significant.
• Researchers examined the documentation practices of 238 physicians in 14 specialties between November 2024 and January 2025.

Why it matters: AI scribe tools automate the note-taking process for physicians, which in theory should free up doctors’ time to concentrate more on patient care. Responding to this study's findings, healthcare researchers and hospital executives pointed out that clinicians anecdotally report that AI scribes save them far more time than the study showed—more than an hour per day in some cases, per STAT.

Positive experiences with AI scribes may create an impression of greater time savings than what is actual.

• For example, the DAX and Nabla tools both showed potential benefits to reduce clinician burnout and work-related stress, per the UCLA study.
• Previous studies have found that AI scribes drive significant reductions in burnout and improvements in work-life balance, even if time savings are limited.

Implications for healthcare AI companies: Investment funding for AI scribe startups has totaled around $1 billion this year, per STAT, reflecting one of the clearest use cases for AI to help busy physicians work more efficiently. And it’s likely that some AI scribe tools have improved since the study, so developers should highlight updated time savings if performance has advanced over the past year.

Hospital and health system buyers of AI scribe products will still need more concrete ROI to justify their purchases. Healthcare AI scribe developers already face high provider churn due to a crowded market and the ease of switching between competing products. They must now prove their product's value extends beyond time savings (modest or significant) to include areas like improving patient care, enhancing the patient experience to drive retention, or ensuring more accurate clinical notes for billing and coding.