The use of Ambient Voice Technology in hospitals

We have launched an investigation exploring the use of Ambient Voice Technology in hospitals.

Ambient Voice Technology (AVT) refers to a class of AI-enabled ‘ambient scribing’ tools used in healthcare to listen to clinical conversations and automatically generate documentation. AVT:

• captures spoken interactions (e.g. clinician–patient consultations)
• transcribes the conversation into text
• generates structured outputs, such as clinical notes, letters or summaries.

In practice, AVT acts as a digital assistant in the background (ambient), allowing clinicians to focus on patient interaction while documentation is handled automatically (scribing).

We identified the need for this investigation through our insights process and engagement with stakeholders, including representatives from national bodies. Stakeholders shared potential patient safety issues associated with the use of AVT in hospitals.

Intelligence gathered found that adoption of AVT is accelerating while the safety implications are not fully understood. National literature and implementation activity has focused more strongly on efficiency benefits than on patient safety risk. There are also indications that routes for recognising and reporting AI-related incidents are not yet mature enough to provide confidence that emerging risks are being identified.

Through a focus in acute adult secondary care settings, the investigation will seek to understand:

• how AVT has contributed, or may contribute, to patient harm
• the patient safety risks associated with AVT
• how accountability for AVT safety is understood locally and nationally.

The investigation will apply a specific analysis framework which has been developed for generic AI systems. We expect to publish an investigation report in summer 2027.

We are keen to hear from anybody with an interest in this subject matter. This includes patients, families, carers and health and care professionals who may wish to share their experience. If you would like to speak to us about this investigation before we publish the final report, please email investigations@hssib.org.uk.