Physician AI Tools
AI tools physicians actually use in daily practice, grouped by what they do, with the regulatory status of each category stated plainly.
Start with the fact that governs everything else on this page: almost none of these tools are FDA-cleared medical devices, and that is by design rather than by oversight.
Software that drafts a note, summarizes a chart, or answers a reference question generally falls outside the device definition because a clinician reviews the output before it affects care. That exemption is what allowed this category to reach real adoption in three years while the cleared device list grew one submission at a time.
The tradeoff is that nobody reviewed these tools before they reached your clinic. There is no premarket evidence requirement, no standardized performance reporting, and no adverse event pathway. Evaluation is the buyer's job, and the buyer is frequently a health system committee rather than the physician who has to live with the output. See how to evaluate a clinical AI tool for the questions worth asking.
| Tool | Vendor | Category | Where It Runs | Regulatory Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abridge | Abridge | Ambient Documentation | Mobile and EHR-embedded | Not a regulated device |
| Ambience Healthcare | Ambience Healthcare | Ambient Documentation | EHR-embedded | Not a regulated device |
| Augmedix | Augmedix | Ambient Documentation | Mobile and service-based | Not a regulated device |
| ClinicalKey AI | Elsevier | Clinical Reference and Answers | Web and EHR-embedded | Not a regulated device |
| CodaMetrix | CodaMetrix | Coding, Documentation Integrity, and Revenue | EHR-integrated back end | Not a regulated device |
| Consensus | Consensus | Literature and Research | Web | Not a regulated device |
| Elicit | Elicit | Literature and Research | Web | Not a regulated device |
| Glass Health | Glass Health | Clinical Reference and Answers | Web | Not a regulated device |
| In Basket Message Drafts | Epic and Microsoft | Inbox and Patient Communication | EHR-embedded | Not a regulated device |
| Microsoft Dragon Copilot | Microsoft | Ambient Documentation | EHR-embedded | Not a regulated device |
| Nabla Copilot | Nabla | Ambient Documentation | Browser and EHR-embedded | Not a regulated device |
| Nym Health | Nym Health | Coding, Documentation Integrity, and Revenue | Back end integration | Not a regulated device |
| OpenEvidence | OpenEvidence | Clinical Reference and Answers | Web and mobile | Not a regulated device |
| Oracle Health Clinical AI Agent | Oracle Health | Inbox and Patient Communication | EHR-embedded | Not a regulated device |
| PowerScribe | Microsoft | Imaging Reporting and Workflow | Dictation platform | Not a regulated device |
| Rad AI | Rad AI | Imaging Reporting and Workflow | Dictation and PACS-integrated | Not a regulated device |
| Regard | Regard | Coding, Documentation Integrity, and Revenue | EHR-embedded | Not a regulated device |
| SciSpace | SciSpace | Literature and Research | Web | Not a regulated device |
| Scite | Scite | Literature and Research | Web and browser extension | Not a regulated device |
| Suki Assistant | Suki | Ambient Documentation | Mobile and EHR-embedded | Not a regulated device |
| UpToDate | Wolters Kluwer | Clinical Reference and Answers | Web, mobile, and EHR-embedded | Not a regulated device |
Why Ambient Documentation Won First
Documentation burden is the one problem in this category where physicians agreed on the diagnosis before anyone offered a treatment. Hours of after-hours charting is measurable, universally hated, and directly implicated in burnout. A tool that removes some of it does not need to prove clinical benefit to get adopted, which is a very different bar from the one an imaging device faces.
It also carries the lowest failure cost on this page. A badly drafted note is caught during review. A badly triaged stroke study is not.
The Category To Watch Most Carefully
Clinical reference tools are the ones where the regulatory exemption is doing the most work. A system that answers "what is the first-line treatment for this" is influencing a clinical decision, and the argument that a clinician's review makes it non-device rests entirely on that review actually happening. Under time pressure, review degrades into acceptance. That is not a hypothetical concern, it is the documented behavior pattern around every decision support system ever studied.
Ask any vendor in that category what the system does when it does not know, and whether it will say so.