Health systems navigate Epic’s growing AI portfolio

Health system leaders are evaluating what new AI tools their organizations should integrate into their Epic EHRs, following several announcements at Epic’s annual User Group Meeting in Verona, Wis.

Epic unveiled a range of new features designed to enhance clinical, administrative, and patient experiences. Available now are tools such as AI for self-scheduling, actionable follow-ups for radiology, AI wound measurement, outpatient denials appeals through the AI assistant Penny, and MyChart Central for early adopters.

Looking ahead, Epic plans to roll out AI-generated notes in early 2026, AI charting for patient education, a digital concierge in MyChart, automated claims follow-up, and a digital AI colleague for clinicians by late 2026. Future updates will include voice agents, real-time authorizations, and automated credentialing.

For health system CIOs, the announcements highlight both opportunity and complexity. At Palo Alto, Calif.-based Stanford Health Care, Michael Pfeffer, MD, CIO and associate dean, said the “depth and breadth of Epic’s infusion of AI into many aspects of their EHR platform stood out” as particularly notable.

Stanford is evaluating the tools through a “responsible AI lifecycle” that reviews fairness, usefulness, and reliability while ensuring alignment with strategic and operational plans. Multiple groups and committees at the health system also assess Epic’s AI tools and roadmap to determine their value, timing and prioritization, and alignment with Stanford’s strategic priorities.

“It’s exciting to see Epic embrace AI capabilities to enhance the patient, clinician, and admin experiences,” Dr. Pfeffer told Becker’s. “You’ll see more automation tools in the short term and more augmentation tools in the mid-term that will continue to transform the EHR experience at Stanford Health Care.”

At Tallahassee (Fla.) Memorial HealthCare, Interim CIO Chris Belmont said Epic’s focus on building its own agentic AI tools could help automate repetitive tasks, such as generating letters for insurance denials.

“Its [the tools] more than a shiny object—it’s valuable and relevant to the operations of healthcare organizations.,” Mr. Belmont told Becker’s. “My biggest concern is how we can keep up with it, but that’s a nice problem to have rather than chasing spot solutions.”

TMH is still transitioning from its March Epic go-live, prioritizing adoption, competency, and trust in the data before rolling out AI capabilities. But it is working with Epic’s team to pick AI solutions that are valuable for its different users.

“We have identified a handful that we want to start with and will spread the work out over time to not overwhelm our IT team or end users,” Mr. Belmont said. “As we move further away from Epic being ‘new’ at TMH, we’ll continue to evaluate and add AI capabilities that make sense for our organization.”

Mr. Belmont said in the future, he believes that Epic will continue to grow their portfolio of AI solutions.

“AI is the most exciting thing I’ve seen in my 40+ years in healthcare,” he said. “As AI becomes more familiar to us all, I hope it gets folded into the solution versus being called out individually as AI. The focus should be on the benefits and the outcomes (the why) instead of the underlying tools.”

He said he’s also interested in the cost model moving forward.

“The investments necessary for AI are tremendous, and how Epic will recoup those investments could be significant to some organizations, including TMH,” Mr. Belmont said.

Overall, Mr. Belmont feels TMH is in a great position to adopt the AI solutions.

“Epic undoubtedly plays a role in our future success,” he said. “We aren’t large enough to put AI solutions together on our own, but with Epic’s help, we can get the benefit without all the burden of building it ourselves. I see it as a speed-to-value opportunity.”

With Epic’s AI portfolio expanding rapidly, health system IT leaders are taking a deliberate approach, carefully evaluating which tools align with organizational priorities, establishing governance frameworks, and planning phased adoption.

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