Epic, Microsoft lead the AI vendor charge into healthcare: KLAS

Many if not most hospitals and other provider organizations take a decided interest in what their peer institutions are doing with AI. A major motivator for the keen curiosity is gauging how well one is keeping up with the Joneses. So to speak.

Happily for many, KLAS Research has done much of the snooping for them. The results are published in a report released this week, “Healthcare AI 2025: Are You Keeping Pace with Industry Adoption?”

KLAS arrived at some insightful conclusions after speaking with 256 provider leaders—including 50 executives, 27 directors and 26 managers—in January. Here are excerpts from the report. 

1. Epic’s and Microsoft’s broad offerings lead to high AI adoption. 

A large portion of interviewed organizations tell KLAS they’re satisfied with Epic’s embedding of AI into various applications. These include cognitive computing for predictive modeling, augmented response technology for in-basket physician messaging and a tool for automated denial prioritization. Meanwhile: 

‘Microsoft’s AI tools are used by a high number of respondents, who often attribute the widespread adoption to their organization already using other Microsoft offerings.’ 

2. AI is most widely purchased by large acute care organizations.

These organizations are more able to invest in and adopt AI as they often have more available resources and the infrastructure needed for AI implementation, KLAS points out. “The exception to the trend is ambient speech, where ambulatory care organizations are the group most likely to report adoption,” the authors add. “The few payer respondents are almost evenly split between those who use AI and those who don’t, with most reporting operational use cases with large language models.”

‘Across organization types, respondents who use AI report that adoption is largely departmental, with solutions being implemented for a specific use case rather than across an entire organization.’

3. AI is most often used for operational efficiency at points of care.

Ambient speech documentation tools and clinical AI assistants are among the most widely implemented solutions, KLAS finds, noting that products in the category help streamline provider workflows, reduce administrative burden, and improve operational outcomes. “Documentation burden is also being eased by AI-enabled care coordination platforms, which help clinicians efficiently summarize patient histories.” More: 

‘AI [also] continues to play a large role in imaging and diagnostics … and organizations are adopting AI-enabled risk models to reduce readmission risk and provide financial forecasting.’ 

4. Investment in healthcare AI will continue.

AI will remain an important piece of healthcare organizations’ plans moving forward, the KLAS researchers report. “Many organizations are actively expanding their AI pilots and exploring solutions to enhance efficiencies across clinical, financial and administrative operations,” they add. More:

‘Many of the same vendors and tools are mentioned for future investment as are reported in current use, indicating that the focus for many organizations is refining and building on their current strategies rather than diverging into new territories.’ 

5. AI-enabled documentation will continue to be an area of high interest. 

Respondents report planned pilots or implementations of ambient speech AI tools from vendors such as Abridge and Microsoft, the authors write, adding that AI scribes and virtual assistants are also gaining traction in ambulatory and emergency care settings. More: 

‘Radiology is another continued area of interest for AI as organizations look to the future, with respondents pointing to AI-enhanced radiology solutions, such as Rad AI and Aidoc, for their ability to aid in diagnostic support.’

There’s more, and the full report is available for downloading.