AI scribes have spread quickly through Canadian primary care, yet evidence on their effects on clinician workflows and patient outcomes is still limited. The use of scribes is bringing benefits but also challenges.
AI scribes are digital tools powered by natural language processing that assist clinicians by transcribing and summarizing patient interactions in real time, according to Canada Health Infoway, which launched its AI Scribe Program in June 2025. The definition evolved during the program’s subsequent evaluation period.
“While the evaluation was initially designed to assess automated scribing of a medical note, this functionality quickly proved to be only one component of a broader and expanding set of capabilities,” the evaluation report stated. “Over time, AI scribes have increasingly functioned as ‘clinical copilots,’ supporting a wider range of administrative and clinical tasks such as drafting referrals, consult letters, and patient summaries; generating patient education and self-management materials; and supporting clinical decision-making.”
More than 12,000 primary care clinicians enrolled in the AI Scribe Program between its launch and February 2026, and monthly AI-assisted encounters rose from 244,631 to more than 1.22 million, according to the evaluation report.
