# AI in healthcare is scaling, but ambient scribes face a shake-up.

> The Menlo Ventures report on AI in healthcare confirms that the sector is now one of the fastest adopters of enterprise AI, with ambient scribes leading the charge — but commoditization and pricing pressure are already reshaping the competitive landscape. My bet for the next battlefield is RCM.

URL: https://www.ch-healthtech.com/insights/ai-healthcare-scaling-ambient-scribes-face-shake-up
Markdown: https://www.ch-healthtech.com/insights/ai-healthcare-scaling-ambient-scribes-face-shake-up.md
Published: 2025-10-23
Updated: 2026-05-06
Author: Christian Hein
Tags: technology/artificial-intelligence, technology/digital-health, industry/health-tech, function/commercial-strategy, function/market-access, geography/united-states

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AI in healthcare is scaling, but ambient scribes face a shake-up.

Menlo Ventures report on AI in Healthcare was just released, and as always, it is an insightful read on the US market. What Menlo finds: Healthcare is now one of the fastest adopters of enterprise AI. Provider spend dominates and two categories lead the ROI story: ambient clinical documentation and coding/billing automation. Ambient scribes are the first breakout, but momentum alone will not protect them.

Some takeaways:

- Healthcare AI spend hit about $1.4B in 2025, with providers accounting for ~75%.

- Ambient documentation is a ~$600M category this year.

- Startups capture ~85% of current gen-AI revenue in healthcare

- Market shares in scribes today: Nuance DAX Copilot ~33%, Abridge ~30%, Ambience ~13%.

Not suprisingly, they expect the adoption of scribes, with increasing pricing pressure, and high switching intent, especially among outpatient providers.

What we are seeing here is a typical case study of commoditization of a new offering. It will be interesting to see where the next battlefield will be, and my bet is on RCM.