The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has exploded over the past few years, and we are seeing it in use more and more. The landscape is changing rapidly, and navigating it can be tricky.

In particular for the NHS, Ambient Voice Technology (AVT), known as Ambient AI, is gaining interest within healthcare, with the Department of Health and Social Care recently describing it as a ‘gamechanger. Ambient AI is currently a hot topic for the NHS and how we can get the most from it.

A report from the Health Foundation in July 2024 also found that more than three quarters of NHS staff (76%) support the use of AI to help with patient care, with 81% in favour of use for administrative tasks, which shows the interest within our healthcare systems.

 In this blog, I will explore how AI in the form of AVT can support healthcare settings, the benefits, ethics, key principles and links to resources on this topic.

What is Ambient AI?

Ambient AI is a type of ‘hands free’ artificial intelligence which operates in the background of a conversation, recording insights and automating tasks without being obtrusive or demanding. The technology records an accurate log of the conversation and uses this to remove a large proportion of the note taking task away from its user. Ambient software can produce outputs in a range of formats to suit user needs – this could be in the form of letters, forms and other documents.

How can this support healthcare settings?

Ambient AI is used widely in many sectors but is gaining significant interest in healthcare.

With growing pressures on NHS staff, GP numbers in decline, and mounting administrative workloads, burnout is becoming a concern. Two thirds of clinical staff surveyed reported working additional hours to stay on top of the administrative tasks from their clinics. Just last week, NHS England released guidance on the use of AI-enabled ambient scribing products in health and care settings, marking a significant step toward wider adoption.  I summarise this later in my blog, but the guidance can be accessed here.

So, what are the benefits?

It is easy to see where the benefits lie, with Ambient AI promising improvements to the patient and staff experience, and to the system through a reduced administrative burden and improved productivity.

Patients experiencing a consultation using Ambient technologies are more likely to feel that they have a human connection with their clinician, who can focus on them rather than on recording notes of the conversation and next steps.

Clinical staff see Ambient AI as an assistant medical scribe, recording the nuances of the clinical conversation and using this to create ongoing referral letters and notes for the patient record. Many clinicians see this technology as the solution to catching up on ongoing tasks between appointments and at the end of the clinic.

Some Ambient AI also offers the benefit of clinical decision support algorithms, recognising patterns in reported symptoms along with test results and other nuances to offer suggestions to the clinician for further tests or treatment options.

What to consider and key principles when choosing an Ambient AI technology?

With one source suggesting more than 120 companies are offering or planning to offer this technology to the health service, what do you need to consider if you are looking to implement ambient AI locally?

Whilst many organisations are yet to compile their own internal guidance on the implementation of AI, recent guidance from One London, a collaboration of London ICBs and South London HIN, offers a range of considerations to make when choosing and implementing AI in health and care settings.

It has recently been suggested in the MHRA’s guidance on digital mental health technologies that generative AI, which includes ambient scribes, should be considered as a Class I medical device (and some do hold the classification). This is backed up by the NHS England guidance,suggestion that as long as the AVT is processing the data in some way (i.e to summarise the conversation) it can be defined as ‘high functionality’ and therefore is likely to qualify as a medical device.

The NHS England guidance offers key points of consideration when implementing AVT in healthcare, including:

• Assigning a clinical safety officer to identify key risks.
• Completion of DCB0160 and a Data Impact Assessment (DPIA) (NHSE templates are coming soon to help with this)
• Ensuring integration with key systems for data exchange and documentation.
• Ensuring the product meets information law, and complies with the DSPT (Data Security and Protection Toolkit), has UKCA or CE marking and complies with Cyber Essentials Plus.
• Engaging with Information Governance early to ensure that all relevant legal and regulatory requirements are considered.
• Ensuring that data captured by the system is designed for long-term integration and compatibility with other technologies and platforms.
• Agree with the supplier on Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for system uptime, response times, ongoing training, and technical support, along with post-deployment maintenance and software updates.
• Utilising NHS England’s system guidance to help you understand procurement via nationally accredited frameworks.
• Ensuring that the ambient scribing product’s performance is maintained over time once in use. AVTs particularly, may have varying success with some accents or regional dialects, and where the participants speak English as a second language, or are affected by speech disorders or impairments.

My top three tips for deploying Ambient AI in healthcare settings

Based on the guidance and the current landscape, my top three tips would be that:

1. it's important to ensure there is local guidance and training in place on the use of Ambient scribes
2. it's good practice to ensure there are Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in place, which highlight that it is the clinician's responsibility to check that the content created by the technology is accurate
3. it is essential that systems need to ensure they have buy-in from governance and data protection teams before using / trying out this technology.

Where can I find out more?

Further documentation is expected from NHS England over the next six months to build on the AVT guidance, which will include guidance on evaluation, support templates, and access to tools such as DPIA’s, safety cases and risk assessments.

Health Innovation East Midlands recently hosted an Ambient AI webinar, which showcased an ambient provider, examples of its use in both primary and secondary care and included discussions with clinicians who have implemented Ambient solutions.  Listen back to the recording and access the slides from this event here.  

How can Health Innovation East Midlands help?

East Midlands organisations can contact us to discuss their requirements and support in identifying innovations that meet their needs. We offer a service called innovation scanning, where we can access thousands of innovations and technologies from across England’s 15 Health Innovation Networks. We also have a range of support offers for local NHS organisations looking to trial or deploy new technologies. Get in touch with us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for ways we can support.