Sophie Püchel, the project’s PhD researcher in the ethical branch of the project, presented her recent work on a scoping review on “Artificial Intelligence in Clinical Documentation“ at Université de Lausanne at the AI@UNIL Day 2026.

Emerging evidence points to AI having the potential of saving time and increasing efficiency in everyday clinical administrative tasks––but is that a guarantee of heightened quality of care and more time spent with patients?

Not necessarily. Our ongoing scoping review investigates objective outcomes (such as time savings) and subjective outcomes (e.g., physicians’ perceived workload) of using AI in clinical documentation. Their connection may not be as straightforward as it seems: While AI tools can reduce time spent on clinical documentation, at the same time, they may shift, rather than reduce, physicians’ overall administrative workload. Quantitative time savings may thus not automatically translate to increased patient interaction or improved physician well-being, but may instead contribute to temporal compression and/or additional demands.