The NHS And AI Scribes

The NHS is welcoming the use of artificial intelligence (AI) as a tool to reduce time spent on laborious administration and give clinicians more time for patient care. One such development is the ambient scribe: a generative AI system that transcribes and summarises consultations in real-time, with some products capable of automatically populating the electronic health record (EHR) with clinical notes and summaries. Although this technology is incredibly powerful and potentially transformative, it introduces a plethora of data protection risks that must be carefully assessed and mitigated.

Even before formal NHS guidance was introduced, many clinicians had begun trialling AI scribing tools to help manage growing documentation demands. This early adoption raised concerns around the use of unregulated software, lack of patient transparency, and gaps in data governance.