Public Workshops to develop Research into Ambient Scribes in General Practice

Ambient Scribes (also known as Ambient Voice Technology or Digital Scribes) use generative AI to live transcribe and summarise healthcare consultations, that can be used as patients’ notes. They have been heralded as being “at the forefront of the health AI revolution” with high levels of interest among clinicians, researchers and commercial providers. They promise to reduce administrative loads and some can provide coding, order tests or draft letters, in future they may provide decision-support. It is easy to see why Ambient Scribes are appealing: UK general practice is in crisis, managing increasingly complex patients’ needs and battling rising administrative workloads.

Public workshops

In March 2025, 8 public contributors attended interactive workshops to help the Applied Digital Health team to prepare research on Ambient Scribes in primary care. To maximise inclusivity, workshops were both online and in-person and with individuals from diverse backgrounds (ages, ethnicities, neurodivergent, carers and experience with Ambient Scribe use). All contributors shared their views, with in-depth discussions, about Ambient Scribes use in general practice. We talked about the proposed research, its importance and attendees suggested ways in which the protocol could be developed further.

What the workshop attendees said about Ambient Scribes

There was a strong feeling amongst all workshop attendees that AI is interacting with almost all aspects of life now and the use of Ambient Scribes during consultations is no different. Everyone felt it will become the norm, regardless of how anyone feels about it, but they stressed the importance of ensuring that it is introduced in the best way possible.

“Our kids probably won’t think about it”

Attendees had mixed views about Ambient Scribes, and held lively discussions about the benefit and opportunities, as well as some concerns that they felt needed attention.

Patient Review of AI generated notes

Interestingly, many talked about a desire to review or sign off AI generated notes, as they trusted these less than GP’s own notes. Whereas others thought it would make GPs more accountable, but would want ‘version control’ to see how GPs amended the initial Ambient Scribes outputs.

“if I am there and seeing the GP write it, I trust it. But if it is an AI summary, looked at afterwards less sure of it.”

Preferences to review notes raised questions around efficiency, as the process may cause more work for general practices.

Information and consent

A key concern was patients’ understanding of what Ambient Scribes are and the consent process. One attendee recounted being uncomfortable with it during a recent consultation and said they felt pressured by their GP to agree to its use. Others talked about the fact that some patients may not understand what AI is and it may take a lot of time to explain the concept to them.

“in the long run for medical efficiency; it’s good, but for people to get their heads round that invasion is difficult”

They all agreed that attention ought to be given to ensure patients feel comfortable and well informed and consent to its use. Attendees also raise concerns about those who cannot consent and whether patients will be kept updated as the technology advances.

Data security

Attendees were concerned about where their personal information was going and if it would get ‘into the wrong hands’ and talked about potential data leaks. They wanted to have control over their personal information, but thought opting out might have implications for the care they receive.

Missing content

Attendees talked about their confidence in GPs’ abilities to pick up on body language and were concerned that Ambient Scribes may miss this.

“It takes all the personality out of what you have said if you are worried or scared, that’s not going to come across”

They suggested that GPs could have ‘pop-ups’ after consultations prompting them to record non-verbalised information. Attendees were also concerned about communication barriers, such as language, dialects, neurodiversity, non-verbal communication.

Influence on consultation

They talked about if Ambient Scribes would influence patient behaviours during a consultation. Some thought people may be less willing to share information, and other suggested they may be more open, in the same way they would prefer to Google than go to a GP.

They also talked about how GPs may start verbalising deliberations to make sure it is captured and how this could be either concerning or reassuring for patients. Some were worried that GPs might become complacent and spend less time checking the notes.

Future functionality

Workshop attendees talked about the direction of travel and some felt in the future Ambient Scribes will provide opportunities to access specialist advice, but felt concerned that GPs would accept advice unquestioningly. They went on to question if they will need a GP.

“Feels like we will all be self-diagnosing”

They discussed a potential future where Ambient Scribes will read body language, facial expressions, temperature, with concerns that this would be “a bit of an invasion” and some worrying about others getting access to such footage.

They talked about a future where GPs sign off Ambient Scribes outputs and one suggested the GPs role may become more administrative: “where it is going away from admin, essentially it brings them back full circle back into more admin … they become admin to the AI”

Comments on the research

We presented an overview of our research proposal to attendees, which entailed"

1. a scoping review,
2. shadowing of, and interviews with, general practice staff using Ambient Scribes, as well as interviews with patients
3. quantitative and qualitative comparisons of Ambient Scribe generated notes with GP manual notes, and
4. stakeholder workshops.

All attendees felt enthused about the prospect of research in this area and given the pace of AI adoption, thought it was urgently needed. They thought it would be fascinating to have patients look at their own notes and discuss if it is a reasonable representation. They also suggested that we should not recruit patients from the same general practice where we are shadowing GPs to avoid tension or upset.

Practically, attendees wondered if people with personal conditions would be more reluctant to agree to being observed during consultations and that we ought to give this some consideration during design.

Attendees also advised that we ought to speak with GPs who are not using Ambient Scribes too, to understand their concerns, including those who started and stopped. As a research team we are considering if we need to expand inclusion criteria or if that might be covered in the stakeholder workshops.

Lastly, attendees discussed how important it is to disseminate to public as “much of patients’ understanding of what goes on in AI is sort of… it's not based in reality. In the sense that either could be too extreme, … too positive, or they think it's too negative.”

Summary

The workshops were invaluable in the development of our research proposal, ensuring the design of our study will enable investigation of areas patients are concerned about and enabled us to incorporate their practical advice in regards to further developing the proposal.

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge our workshop attendees, Mala Thapar, Richard Ballerand, Di Brookes, Gary Cambers, Andy Almey, Jonny Evans and two anonymous individuals, who attended interactive workshops to discuss their views on Ambient Scribes and highlighted areas of importance to them.