Last month, NHS England took a big step to make patient documentation easier with Ambient Voice Technology (AVT), better known as AI scribes.
NHS formally approved 19 AI scribes (AI notetaking tools) for use across the UK’s health systems.
Clinicians across the globe are struggling with growing administrative workloads. Electronic health records, while essential, have often left doctors spending appointments facing screens instead of patients.
Now, with a nationally approved list of AI notetaking tools, the NHS is attempting to reset that balance.
Why the NHS is betting on AI notetaking
Clinical documentation is one of the most time-consuming parts of a doctor’s day. Even saving two to three minutes per consultation can translate into nearly an hour reclaimed during a full shift.
Early trials across nine NHS sites have shown promising results, including:
- A 23.5% increase in direct patient interaction time
- Reduced after-hours documentation
- More structured and standardised clinical notes
AI scribes are improving efficiency alongside redefining the consultation experience.
How this will assist hospitals and NHS trusts
By publishing a nationally approved supplier list, NHS England has significantly reduced procurement friction. Instead of each Trust running lengthy independent vetting processes, organisations can now select from pre-approved vendors that have already met baseline requirements.
This can help hospital IT teams:
- Cut procurement timelines
- Reduce legal and compliance overhead
- Lower evaluation costs
- Accelerate deployment
For doctors this means
- Reduced cognitive load during consultations
- Less evening “catch-up” admin
- Lower burnout risk
- Better documentation consistency
These AI scribes will function like digital medical secretaries, producing structured summaries, discharge notes, and clinical documentation drafts. Doctors will remain fully responsible for reviewing and approving the content.
Note: AI scribes are not flawless. There is the risk of hallucination if medical jargon is misinterpreted, challenges in accurately transcribing diverse accents or speech impairments, and ongoing data privacy concerns that require strict oversight.
For patients this means
Instead of watching their clinician type, they may notice a small device on the desk recording the consultation (with consent). The AI generates a structured draft note, which the clinician reviews and finalises before saving to the official record.
As a result:
- More attentive consultations
- Fewer interruptions for typing
- Potentially fewer documentation errors
Recording will begin only after verbal consent from the patient. The NHS has stated that audio will be processed and typically deleted after transcription, with clinicians retaining full oversight of the final note.
How NHS selected these 19 AI notetaking tools
The approved vendors underwent a self-certification and registration process, meeting defined NHS standards for:
- Clinical safety compliance
- Data protection and security requirements
- Transparency in AI deployment
- Local assurance compatibility
The list doesn’t endorse any single tool. However, it confirms that each supplier meets core NHS digital and safety standards.
The NHS approved 19 AI scribes
The list reflects a mix of startups, established digital health providers, and global technology players.
For startups, inclusion on the list offers credibility and faster entry into NHS conversations. For established players, it provides a clearer path to scaled deployment.
1. Tortus
Founders: Dr. Dom Pimenta and Christopher Tan
Year: 2022 | Location: London, UK
Torus is an ambient assistant that automates the entire documentation process from clinical notes to discharge summaries. It is a UK CA Class I medical device.
2. Accurx
Founders: Jacob Haddad and Laurence Bargery
Year: 2016 | Location: London, UK
Accurx was already the NHS’s patient messaging system and now has expanded into AI scribing to allow seamless integration between patient communication and medical records.
3. Heidi Health
Founders: Dr Tom Kelly, Waleed Mussa and Yu Liu
Year: 2021 | Location: Melbourne, Australia
Heidi is an AI scribe customized for different medical specialties, helping clinicians format notes exactly based on their needs. It is a class I medical device.
4. Corti
Founders: Andreas Cleve and Lars Maaloe
Year: 2016 | Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Corti uses advanced speech recognition to assist in real-time. It gained fame for helping emergency dispatchers identify out-of-hospital cardiac arrests.
5. Microsoft Dragon Copilot
Founders: Nuance Communications
Year: 1992 (Nuance), 2022 (Acquisition) | Location: Redmond, Washington
Microsoft’s Dragon Ambient eXperience (DAX) is one of the most widely used enterprise-level scribing tools globally.
6. eConsult
Founders: Dr Murray Ellender, Dr Arvind Madan, and Professor Dame Clare Gerada.
Year: 2013 | Location: London, UK
eConsult was originally a digital triage platform. It has expanded into AI note-taking to bridge the gap between patient online requests and the final clinical note.
7. T-Pro
Founders: Mark Gilmartin and Jonathan Larbey
Year: 2012 | Location: Dublin, Ireland
T-Pro offers a cloud-based platform for digital dictation and AI speech recognition, designed specifically for high-volume hospital environments.
8. Dictate IT
Founders: Mark Miller (acquired by Lanas)
Year: 2004 | Location: London, UK
Dictate IT provided clinical transcription for long-term and now uses AI to automate the conversion of speech into structured medical data.
9. Lexacom (Aprobrium)
Founders: Dr Andrew Whiteley
Year: 1997 | Location: Banbury, UK
Lexacom is a staple in UK primary care, recently including advanced AI-driven ambient scribing for GP surgeries.
10. Lyrebird Health
Founders: Kai Van Lieshout and Linus Talacko
Year: 2023 | Location: Melbourne, Australia
Lyrebird Health is a startup that aims to produce clinical summaries in less than 30 seconds after a consultation ends.
11. Scribetech
Founders: Shiraz Austin and Rustom Lawyer
Year: 2001 | Location: London, UK
Scribetech’s “Augnito” tool is a cloud-based AI speech-to-text solution that works across mobile and desktop apps for clinicians on the move.
12. Tandem Heath
Founders: Lukas Saari, Oliver Astrand and Oscar Boldt-Christmas
Year: 2023 | Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Tandem is a newcomer focused on “invisible” technology that listens in the background to create high-fidelity medical records without clinician input.
13. X-On Health
Founded by Southern Communications Group
Year: 2000 | Location: Woodbridge, UK
X-on Health provides the “Surgery Connect” phone system and has integrated AI recording into telephone consultations. Used for both face-to-face and telephone consultations, it securely captures patient interactions.
14. HealthOrbit AI
Founders: Rakesh Kaipenchery, Jobin Jose and Ankur Sharma
Year: 2023 | Location: London, UK
HealthOrbit AI creates structured clinical notes optimized for coding and billing to ensure administrative accuracy for NHS Trusts.
15. Optum (EMIS)
EMIS Group was acquired by Optum
Year: 1987 (EMIS), 2023 (Acquisition) | Location: Leeds, UK
EMIS is the largest provider of GP software in the UK and is integrating AI scribing directly into its core clinical systems.
16. 33n (CLEARnotes)
Founded by NHS Clinicians: Dr John Jeans and Matthew Camilleri
Year: 2018 | Location: London, UK
33n is a clinician-led healthcare consultancy that develops bespoke AI tools to manage demand and improve clinical documentation efficiency.
17. Anathem
Founders: Richard Apletree, Ina Hanninger and Dr. Guy Northover
Year: 2022 | Location: London, UK
Anathem is a highly secure AI scribe. Its localised AI models ensure that sensitive patient conversations are processed with maximum privacy.
18. Beam Up
Founders: Seb Barker
Year: 2023 | Location: London, UK
Beam Health uses AI to feed clinical information directly into the electronic health record, focusing on acute and emergency settings.
19. Joy (Pungo)
Founders: Patrick Harding
Year: 2019 | Location: London, UK
Joy is a social prescribing platform that has expanded into AI support to help clinicians document patient data and community referrals.
A signal beyond the UK
While this approval applies to England’s NHS, the implications ripple outward.
Health systems across Europe face similar clinician burnout, documentation burden, and procurement bottlenecks. A structured, standards-based approval pathway could serve as a template for other publicly funded systems navigating clinical AI adoption.
This is not simply about AI scribes. It is about how public health systems operationalise AI safely, at scale.
