Because of AI, physicians using ambient scribes reported modestly less burnout, exhaustion, and task load in a 238-physician randomized trial.

NEJM AI (Dec 2025) randomized 238 outpatient physicians across 14 specialties to Microsoft DAX, Nabla, or usual care for two months; either scribe improved burnout, exhaustion, and task load, and Nabla reduced time-in-note.

Sources

• primaryNEJM AI: Ambient AI Scribes in Clinical Practice — A Randomized Trial (PMC)pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
• primaryJAMIA (May 2026): randomized crossover of two ambient scribes, 160 clinicians (Duke)scholars.duke.edu

Editor's notes

Window is pre for the NEJM AI trial; verify dates of the Duke crossover trial — it may be in-window. The Duke trial (JAMIA 33(5):990–999, doi 10.1093/jamia/ocag018) randomized clinicians to the order of two scribes, so it compares scribe with scribe (ai-vs-ai) and does not support the isolated grade; it adds that both scribes reduced burnout and one cut note time by about 3 minutes a day more than the other. Its study dates are not on the abstract page.

Related

• Because of AI, 284 UCLA clinicians reported modestly lower task load and burnout from a chart summarizer — while saving no time and mostly not recommending it.

History

• Oct 22, 2026Weekly run: noted that the Duke crossover is scribe-vs-scribe; grades rest on the NEJM AI trial alone. No grade change.
• Oct 22, 2026Added.

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