NHS pilot of AI scripting tech reduced admin time for 87% of users

A pilot of ambient voice technology at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (OUH) found that 87% of users saved time on admin tasks.

AVT, which is also known as AI scribing, captures clinician–patient conversations and uses AI to generate transcriptions and clinical summaries.

The pilot, which ran from July to November 2025, was organised by OUH’s digital innovation team TheHill, to address the increasing administrative burden on clinical staff and explore how AI-enabled voice tools could improve productivity and patient care.

It found that almost nine in 10 (87%) AVT users, including clinicians, nurses, allied health professionals, and operational staff, reported a reduction in documentation time, with the most common benefit being a saving of one to 10 minutes per interaction between patient and clinician.

Megan Morys-Carter, director at TheHill and director of digital innovation at OUH, said: “This successful pilot shows how AVT can make a real difference to clinicians’ day‑to‑day work.

“Staff told us it saves them time, reduces stress, and helps them focus more on patients.

“These findings give us confidence that AVT has real potential to support future digital transformation at OUH, and across other acute settings in the NHS.

“It also gave us valuable insights into how to structure procurement and implementation to ensure benefits are realised for hospitals and their staff and patients.”

Over the trial period four AVT solutions were tested: Accurx Scribe, Heidi, Lyrebird Health, and TORTUS.

They were used 160 times by 136 different people across multiple departments, with findings intended to inform any potential procurement process and future implementation strategies.

Users completing the in-pilot data capture agreed or strongly agreed for 81.5% of logged encounters that the AVT “produced an accurate record of the encounters and its agreed outcomes”.

The pilot also found that AVT produced consistently accurate clinical records with only minor edits needed, and almost 70% of participants rated dictation quality as excellent or good.

Patient response to the use of AVT was positive, with 99.7% consenting to its use during the pilot and staff reporting that patients found the process efficient and helpful.

Ben Attwood, chief digital and information officer at OUH, said: “We are excited by the results of the AVT trials at OUH.

“As AVT gains national attention for its potential to support NHS productivity, OUH’s experience will provide valuable insight into how the technology could be deployed effectively to reduce workload and increase efficiency, in acute settings.

“The pilot also supports ambitions in the NHS 10 year health plan to move from analogue to digital systems and improve staff retention and patient care.”

Meanwhile, an NHS England sponsored study, published in September 2025, found that AI-scribing technology can reduce clinician workload while improving patient care.

Speaking at the HETT Leadership Summit earlier this month, England’s national chief clinical information officer Alec Price-Forbes said that AVT is not “just another digital tool” but “an enabler for us truly to reimagine healthcare”.

NHSE published a national self-certified registry for AVT suppliers in January to show evidence of compliance with standards on clinical safety, technology, and data protection.