All too often, going to the doctor is a demoralizing, corporatized and impersonal experience. Patients wait weeks to even snag an appointment — and when they finally arrive at the doctor’s office, they spend most of their time filling out intake forms and watching physicians or nurses type notes into a computer. As artificial intelligence becomes more prominent in the health care sector, many patients fear that it will wear away at human interaction even further.

But it doesn’t have to.

In fact, used thoughtfully, AI can do the exact opposite. By automating time-consuming administrative tasks, AI tools can free up doctors, nurses and staff to focus on what matters most: delivering personalized, empathetic care.

By using AI to automate more administrative work, doctors can reclaim significant time to actually engage with patients. In some hospitals and clinics, this revolution is already underway.

UC San Diego Health, Ohio State Wexner Medical Center and Hospital for Special Surgery, where I work as the co-chief of spine surgery, are all piloting the use of an ambient AI scribe to automatically transcribe physicians’ conversations with patients. Ohio State found that this transcription tool saved doctors up to four minutes of note-taking per visit. That’s significant, given that many doctors can only spend 10 or 15 minutes with a patient. I have found the program to be extremely helpful at HSS, where we tackle over 40,000 surgeries each year. With an ambient AI scribe taking care of administrative tasks, I’m able to see more patients per day — and spend more quality time communicating with them.

Patient-doctor communication isn’t the only part of the health care experience that AI stands to improve. AI can make check-ins and scheduling smoother and more productive, too.

Beginning in 2021, Saint Luke’s, a major health system in Kansas City, used AI software to optimize operating room scheduling in its flagship hospital. The change not only relieved the burden on a depleted front-office staff, but it also reduced patient wait times and increased the total number of surgeries completed by 7%. In 2023 alone, the AI solution impacted over 200 patients. In cases where time is of the essence, those additional surgeries could even mean the difference between life and death for a patient.

Automation has massive potential to help hospital clinicians and staff avoid burnout and focus on more meaningful, patient-centered work. According to a recent survey on reasons for burnout, 62% of physicians cite bureaucratic tasks — the most frequently chosen reason. And on the patient end, added face time can produce significant health benefits.

A Harvard Business School study found that when surgeons invested more time talking to patients before procedures, those patients experienced fewer complications and fewer hospital readmissions.

Put another way, if AI can help physicians spend a few more minutes with each of their patients, it could make each visit much more effective — and create time to treat many more patients in the long run.

Doctors enter medicine to heal people, not just to analyze them behind a computer screen. Likewise, patients want to be treated by caring professionals who have the time to make them feel heard and important. But the growing administrative complexity of health care is leaving both doctors and patients increasingly dissatisfied. AI offers a chance to change that.