Microsoft Launches Dragon Copilot: AI Assistant to Combat Physician Burnout and Streamline Healthcare Workflows

One AI Healthcare App Already Shows Benefits -- By Slashing Doctors' Office Drudgery

On Monday, Microsoft released its new Dragon Copilot AI product, which is designed to efficiently and painlessly take over the notetaking, summarizing, and other clerical tasks that clinicians now assume during and after patient consultations. The voice-activated app can be used on mobile phones, browsers, or as a desktop feature to capture comments, questions, and observations a doctor or other healthcare professionals air during examinations. It then transforms those into summaries integrating information from patients' health and treatment histories. As such, Dragon Copilot combines the work of human stenographers, record keepers, and administrative assistants by automatically transcribing notes to create accurate chronicles of patient consultations. Better still, the app also connects to medical databases from which it can pull a variety of relevant data, and offer to physicians for potential use in diagnoses or treatments. The latter function may enhance the information and insights in physicians' post-visit summaries, providing added value and potentially better care for patients. But in primarily assuming notetaking, composition of referral letters, and other textual and administrative tasks, the AI app may also become a remedy for rising burnout rates among overworked doctors.

Microsoft Unveils AI-Powered Voice Assistant to Alleviate Physician Burnout | PYMNTS.com

Microsoft introduced a new clinical artificial intelligence assistant Monday (March 3) that combines advanced voice dictation and ambient listening with generative AI to alleviate doctors' workflow burdens. Called Dragon Copilot, the assistant integrates Microsoft's Dragon Medical One (DMO) speech capabilities for doctor dictation of medical notes and its DAX Copilot ambient AI listening technology that converts conversations between doctors and patients into clinical summaries that can be integrated into the electronic health record, according to a press release. The consolidated AI tool aims to minimize clinician burnout by streamlining administrative tasks and bringing forth faster clinical insights, the release said. One of the top causes of physician burnout is not having enough support staff, according to the American Medical Association (AMA). When this happens, doctors are diverted into doing tasks that take them away from patients. Another cause happens when doctors are burdened by too many administrative tasks. The burnout rate stood at 45% in the first half of 2024, down from 56% in 2021, 53% in 2022 and 48% in 2023, the AMA said. "So, things are improving, but we have work to do," AMA Vice President of Professional Satisfaction Dr. Christine Sinsky said. AI can help, Joe Petro, corporate vice president of health and life sciences solutions and platforms at Microsoft, said in the release. "At Microsoft, we have long believed that AI has the incredible potential to free clinicians from much of the administrative burden in healthcare and enable them to refocus on taking care of patients," Petro said, per the release. Although it has rivals, Microsoft said in the release that Dragon Copilot offers more features than AI scribing, making it the "first unified voice AI experience to the market." According to the release, Dragon Copilot also: Among organizations already using DMO and DAX technologies separately, 70% of clinicians reported reduced feelings of burnout, 62% were less likely to consider leaving their organization, and 93% of patients reported a better overall experience, per the release. Microsoft built Dragon Copilot on a secure data foundation, incorporating healthcare-specific safeguards, the release said. The platform aligns with the company's responsible AI principles, focusing on transparency, reliability, safety, fairness, inclusiveness, accountability, privacy and security. Dragon Copilot will be available in the United States and Canada in May, and subsequent launches are planned for Germany, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, according to the release. Microsoft also plans to enter other key markets.

Microsoft Introduces Dragon Copilot, a New AI Assistant for Healthcare

Clinicians report saving 5 minutes per encounter using Dragon Copilot's AI capabilities. Microsoft has launched Dragon Copilot, an AI assistant designed to improve clinical workflows in healthcare. By combining Dragon Medical One's voice dictation and DAX Copilot's ambient listening, Dragon Copilot helps clinicians reduce administrative tasks and improve patient care. As part of the Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, Dragon Copilot offers secure architecture to ensure privacy and compliance. According to the blog, clinician burnout in the US dropped from 53% in 2023 to 48% in 2024, partly due to technology advancements. It helps clinicians streamline documentation with multilingual note creation, automated tasks, natural language dictation, and customisable templates. It also supports AI-driven searches for medical information and automates tasks like referral letters, clinical summaries, and after-visit summaries. Clinicians report saving 5 minutes per encounter using Dragon Copilot's AI capabilities, the blog said. "With the launch of our new Dragon Copilot, we are introducing the first unified voice AI experience to the market, drawing on our trusted, decades-long expertise that has consistently enhanced provider wellness and improved clinical and financial outcomes for provider organisations and the patients they serve," Joe Petro, corporate VP of Microsoft Health and Life Sciences Solutions, said. Early users have reported improved workflow efficiency, with 93% of patients noting better experiences and clinicians saving an average of five minutes per encounter. Dragon Copilot will be available in the US and Canada in May 2025, with plans for expansion to the UK, Germany, France, and the Netherlands later in the year.

Microsoft unveils Dragon Copilot voice-activated AI assistant for doctors

Microsoft says early users report time savings and reduced burnout In response to ongoing staffing shortages across the healthcare sector, Microsoft has unveiled its own doctor-designed AI assistant to help practitioners free up more time to handle patients. As the name suggests, the new AI tool combines Dragon Medical One's natural language voice dictation with DAX Copilot's ambient listening technology. The company cited rising pressure in the UK, which now has a backlog of 7.5 million patients on waiting lists, as well as burnout across the US that's affecting around half (48%) of clinicians. Microsoft reckons technological advancements have already helped reduce US clinician burnout by five percentage points between 2023 and 2024, and its big bet on artificial intelligence is hoping to take care of even more burdensome administrative tasks. "With the launch of our new Dragon Copilot, we are introducing the first unified voice AI experience to the market, drawing on our trusted, decades-long expertise that has consistently enhanced provider wellness and improved clinical and financial outcomes for provider organizations and the patients they serve," said Microsoft Health and Life Sciences Solutions and Platforms CVP Joe Petro. Apart from streamlining documentation and automating some workloads, Microsoft says its technology will also help doctors conduct general-purpose medical information searches from trusted content sources to help guide their consultations. American and Canadian doctors are set to get access to the tools from May 2025, with practitioners in the UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands also being promised access later. Microsoft says more than three million ambient patient conversations across 600 healthcare organizations have already been assisted in just the past month, with clinicians reporting a time saving of five minutes per encounter, reduced burnout and fatigue, and a better overall patient experience.

Microsoft Launches Dragon Copilot, AI Assistant for Clinical Workflow

Clinicians report saving 5 minutes per encounter, reducing burnout by 70 percent. Microsoft has announced Dragon Copilot, an AI-powered clinical workflow assistant designed to enhance documentation, automate tasks, and improve healthcare efficiency. Part of Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, Dragon Copilot integrates natural language dictation from Dragon Medical One (DMO) with the ambient listening capabilities of Dragon Ambient eXperience (DAX), alongside fine-tuned generative AI and healthcare-specific safeguards. The tool aims to reduce clinician burnout and streamline administrative burdens, according to Microsoft's announcement on Monday, March 3, 2025. Also Read: Telefonica, Microsoft Expand Partnership to Advance Open Gateway Adoption with AI-Powered Kernel In a blog post, Microsoft noted that clinician burnout in the US declined from 53 percent in 2023 to 48 percent in 2024, partly due to technological advancements. However, with an aging population and persistent burnout across the profession, a significant workforce shortage is projected in the US. "In response, health systems are adopting AI to streamline administrative tasks, enhance care access, and enable faster clinical insights to improve healthcare globally," Microsoft highlighted. Dragon Copilot combines DMO's speech capabilities -- which Microsoft says have helped clinicians document billions of patient records -- with DAX's ambient AI technology, which has assisted in over 3 million ambient patient conversations across 600 healthcare organisations in the past month alone. Clinicians using these technologies report saving five minutes per encounter, with 70 percent experiencing reduced burnout and 93 percent of patients reporting better overall experiences, Microsoft reported. Streamlined Documentation: Multilanguage ambient note creation, automated tasks, AI-driven dictation, customisable templates, and speech memos. Information Access: AI-powered searches for trusted medical content. Task Automation: New capabilities allow clinicians to Automate key tasks such as referral letters, after-visit summaries, and clinical note generation. Clinicians across ambulatory, inpatient, and emergency settings will benefit from Dragon Copilot's interface for navigating electronic health records (EHRs) and reducing administrative strain, Microsoft said. Also Read: Microsoft Invests in Veeam to Build AI-Powered Data Protection Solutions The tool launches in May 2024 in the US and Canada, followed by the UK, Germany, France, and the Netherlands. Microsoft said its healthcare partner ecosystem, including leading EHR providers, software vendors, and cloud service partners, will further enhance Dragon Copilot's capabilities. "At Microsoft, we have long believed that AI has the incredible potential to free clinicians from much of the administrative burden in healthcare and enable them to refocus on taking care of patients," said Joe Petro, corporate vice president of Microsoft Health and Life Sciences Solutions and Platforms. "With the launch of our new Dragon Copilot, we are introducing the first unified voice AI experience to the market, drawing on our trusted, decades-long expertise that has consistently enhanced provider wellness and improved clinical and financial outcomes for provider organisations and the patients they serve." "With Dragon Copilot, we're not just enhancing how we work in the EHR -- we're tapping into a Microsoft-powered ecosystem where AI assistance extends across our organisation, delivering a consistent and intelligent experience everywhere we work," said R Hal Baker, senior vice president and chief digital and chief information officer, WellSpan Health. "It's this ability to enhance the patient experience while streamlining clinician workflows that makes Dragon Copilot such a game-changer." "We are aware of the administrative burnout affecting our clinicians, and the need for improved care access for our patients, and the newest evolution of Dragon represents a significant step forward in alleviating this strain," said Glen Kearns, EVP and CIO, The Ottawa Hospital. "We are thrilled to be one of the first customers in Canada to use Microsoft's ambient and generative AI technology. The newest evolution of Dragon Copilot could help alleviate documentation burden for our clinical teams."

Microsoft's new AI assistant aims to fix doctor burnout

Microsoft Corp. has launched Dragon Copilot, an advanced AI assistant aimed at transforming clinical workflows by combining the dictation capabilities of Dragon Medical One with the ambient listening features of Dragon Ambient eXperience, enhanced by generative AI and healthcare-specific safeguards. Dragon Copilot is designed to streamline administrative tasks and enhance patient care within various healthcare settings as part of Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare. The introduction of this solution comes as technological advancements have led to a decline in clinician burnout in the U.S., which decreased from 53 percent in 2023 to 48 percent in 2024. Nevertheless, challenges persist due to an aging population and workforce shortages, prompting healthcare systems to adopt AI tools like Dragon Copilot to automate documentation and accelerate clinical insights. The tool integrates the speech capabilities of Dragon Medical One, which has been pivotal in documenting billions of patient records, with the ambient AI technology of Dragon Ambient eXperience (DAX), which processed over three million patient conversations within the past month. Users have reported saving five minutes per patient encounter, with 70 percent of clinicians experiencing less burnout and 93 percent of patients noting enhanced experiences. Key features of Dragon Copilot include automated documentation, medical information retrieval, and task automation. It will be available in the U.S. and Canada starting in May, followed by launches in the U.K., Germany, France, and the Netherlands. Microsoft intends to expand the reach of Dragon Copilot to additional key markets, emphasizing its commitment to improving the efficiency of healthcare professionals and patient outcomes through AI innovation. Microsoft's new voice-activated AI assistant allows healthcare workers to quickly access medical information and automatically draft clinical notes, referral letters, and post-visit summaries. Clinicians currently spend approximately 28 hours a week on administrative tasks such as documentation, according to an October study by Google Cloud. Dr. David Rhew, Microsoft's global chief medical officer, remarked, "Through this technology, clinicians will have the ability to focus on the patient rather than the computer, and this is going to lead to better outcomes and ultimately better health care for all." Need a free Windows 11 key? Microsoft Copilot might have one Following Microsoft's acquisition of Nuance Communications for $16 billion in 2021, the company has established itself as a significant player in the AI scribing market, which has gained traction among healthcare organizations aiming to alleviate clinician burnout. DAX Copilot has been utilized in over three million patient visits across 600 healthcare organizations in the previous month. Dragon Copilot is accessible via a mobile app, browser, or desktop, and it integrates with multiple electronic health records. Clinicians can draft clinical notes using natural language, allowing for specific queries such as, "Was the patient experiencing ear pain?" or "Can you add the ICD-10 codes to the assessment and plan?" They can also pose broader treatment-related questions like, "Should this patient be screened for lung cancer?" along with receiving links to authoritative resources like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. WellSpan Health, which operates across 250 locations and nine hospitals in central Pennsylvania and northern Maryland, has been testing Dragon Copilot among a group of clinicians. Dr. David Gasperack, chief medical officer of primary care services at WellSpan, noted that the assistant is easy to use and has proven more accurate than previous Microsoft products. He stated, "We've been asked more and more over time to do more administrative tasks that pull us away from the patient relationship and medical decision making. This allows us to get back to that so we can focus on the patient, truly think about what's needed." While Microsoft has not disclosed the cost of Dragon Copilot, it mentioned that the pricing structure is competitive and that upgrading will be straightforward for existing customers. Analysts currently have a Strong Buy consensus rating on MSFT stock. After a 3.96% decline in share price over the past year, the average price target of $508.96 per share suggests a potential upside of 28.95%.

Microsoft's Dragon Copilot Can Assist Doctors With Documentation

The company claims the AI tool will reduce workload for doctors Microsoft unveiled a new artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot on Monday that can help medical professionals reduce their documentation workload. Dubbed Dragon Copilot, the new AI assistant can record conversations, write clinical notes, draft referral letters and even create post-visit summaries. The Redmond-based tech giant's latest tool for clinicians is based on AI tools from Nuance, a company acquired by Microsoft. Since it is not a retail-focused tool, and instead caters to medical institutions, the company has not revealed the pricing for Dragon Copilot. In a newsroom post, the tech giant detailed the new AI assistant for medical professionals. Citing 2024 data from the American Medical Association, the company highlighted that clinician burnout in the US in 2024 was noted at 48 percent. Although there was a drop from the previous year's 53 percent, Microsoft claimed that the persistent burnout could lead to a workforce shortage. The Windows maker also added that a significant portion of this burnout came from increased workloads involving paperwork and documentation related to patient care. Details about the product can be found on a new microsite here. Microsoft's Dragon Copilot is pitched by the company as a solution to that problem. Notably, the two tools used to build the AI assistant, Dragon Medical One (DMO) and Dragon Ambient eXperience (DAX), were both developed by Nuance, which Microsoft acquired in 2022. DMO is an AI tool that can take natural language voice assistant, and DAX offers ambient listening capabilities. Dragon Copilot combines both with generative AI capabilities to create an assistant that can help doctors and clinicians across several administrative tasks. Dragon Copilot can record and process verbal data from doctor-patient conversations in multiple languages and then combine that with information from medical sources to generate medical notes, referral letters, and post-visit summaries. Additionally, it can also personalise the generated content, adhering to the professional's style and formatting. Microsoft says the AI assistant can also allow clinicians to ask about general-purpose medical information. The information is said to be pulled from "trusted content sources," but the company did not disclose any details. While the tech giant did not detail any measures being taken to maintain data security and privacy, given the AI assistant will work with highly sensitive medical information of people, it stated that the Dragon Copilot's capabilities are built on a "secure data estate" and provides healthcare-specific clinical, chat, and compliance safeguards. Dragon Copilot will be generally available in the US and Canada in May. In the coming months, the company also plans to expand it to France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK.

Microsoft's new Dragon Copilot is an AI assistant for healthcare

Wes Davis is a weekend editor who covers the latest in tech and entertainment. He has written news, reviews, and more as a tech journalist since 2020. Microsoft has announced Microsoft Dragon Copilot, an AI system for healthcare that can, among other things, listen to and create notes based on clinical visits. The system combines voice-dictating and ambient listening tech created by AI voice company Nuance, which Microsoft bought in 2021. According to Microsoft's announcement, the new system can help its users streamline their documentation through features like "multilanguage ambient note creation" and natural language dictation. Its AI assistant offers "general-purpose medical information searches from trusted content sources," as well as the ability to automate tasks like "conversational orders, note and clinical evidence summaries, referral letters, and after visit summaries." The goal of all of this is to "free clinicians from much of the administrative burden of healthcare" so they can focus on patient care, according to Joe Petro, Microsoft VP of Microsoft Health and Life Sciences Solutions and Platforms. Microsoft says its own surveys found that clinicians who have used the Nuance tech that makes up Dragon Copilot suffered less burnout and that 93 percent of their patients reported a "better overall experience." Microsoft is one of many companies offering such AI tools for healthcare settings. A Google Cloud blog published today highlights how healthcare firms are using Google's medical AI offerings, like by creating medical assistant AI agents for identifying patient health risks; they're also using the new multimodal image-searching features Google debuted for its Vertex AI Search for healthcare product. The FDA published considerations for generative AI devices in healthcare last year, in which it noted many potential benefits of the tech, but also the risks of models making things up. In a study last year, researchers found that was an issue at times with Nambla's OpenAI Whisper-powered medical transcription software. Microsoft says it is "committed to developing responsible AI by design," and that Dragon Copilot's "capabilities are built on a secure data estate and incorporate healthcare-specific clinical, chat and compliance safeguards for accurate and safe AI outputs."

Microsoft unveils new voice-activated AI assistant for doctors

Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft Corp., speaks during the company event on AI technologies in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. Microsoft is giving its health-care artificial intelligence tools a makeover. The company on Monday unveiled a new voice-activated AI assistant that combines capabilities from its dictation solution, Dragon Medical One, and ambient listening solution, DAX Copilot, into one tool. "Dragon Copilot" will be able to help doctors quickly pull information from medical sources and automatically draft clinical notes, referral letters, post-visit summaries and more, according to the company. It's Microsoft's latest effort to help health-care workers cut down their daunting clerical workloads, which are a major source of burnout in the industry. Clinicians spend nearly 28 hours a week on administrative tasks like documentation, for instance, according to an October study from Google Cloud. "Through this technology, clinicians will have the ability to focus on the patient rather than the computer, and this is going to lead to better outcomes and ultimately better health care for all," Dr. David Rhew, global chief medical officer at Microsoft, said Thursday in a briefing with reporters. Microsoft acquired Nuance Communications, the company behind Dragon Medical One and DAX Copilot, for about $16 billion in 2021. As a result, Microsoft has become a major player in the fiercely competitive AI scribing market, which has exploded in popularity as health systems have been looking for tools to help address burnout. AI scribes like DAX Copilot allow doctors to draft clinical notes in real time as they consensually record their visits with patients. DAX Copilot has been used in more than 3 million patient visits across 600 health-care organizations in the last month, Microsoft said. Other companies like Abridge, which has raised more than $460 million according to PitchBook, and Suki, which has raised nearly $170 million, have developed similar scribing tools. Microsoft's updated interface could help it stand out from its competitors. Dragon Copilot is accessible through a mobile app, browser or desktop, and it integrates directly with several different electronic health records, the company said. Clinicians will still be able to draft clinical notes with the assistant like they could with DAX Copilot, but they'll be able to use natural language to edit their documentation and prompt it further, Kenn Harper, general manager of Dragon products at Microsoft, told reporters on the call. For instance, a doctor could ask questions like, "Was the patient experiencing ear pain?" or "Can you add the ICD-10 codes to the assessment and plan?" Physicians can also ask broader treatment-related queries such as, "Should this patient be screened for lung cancer?" and get an answer with links to resources like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. WellSpan Health, which treats patients across 250 locations and nine hospitals throughout central Pennsylvania and northern Maryland, has been testing out Dragon Copilot with a group of clinicians in recent months. One of those clinicians is Dr. David Gasperack, chief medical officer of primary care services at WellSpan. It's still early days, but Gasperack told CNBC the assistant is easy to use and has been more accurate than Microsoft's existing offerings. "We've been asked more and more over time to do more administrative tasks that pull us away from the patient relationship and medical decision making," Gasperack said. "This allows us to get back to that so we can focus on the patient, truly think about what's needed." Microsoft declined to share the cost of Dragon Copilot but said the pricing structure is "competitive." It will be easy for existing customers to upgrade to the new offering, the company added. Dragon Copilot will be generally available in the U.S. and Canada starting in May, Microsoft said. The roll out will expand to the U.K., the Netherlands, France and Germany in the months following. "Our goal remains to restore the joy of practicing medicine for clinicians and provide a better experience for patients globally," Rhew said.

Microsoft Unveils AI-Powered Dragon Copilot To Ease Clinician Workloads - Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Every week, our Whisper Index uncovers five overlooked stocks with big breakout potential. Get the latest picks today before they gain traction. Microsoft Corp MSFT is launching Dragon Copilot, an AI assistant designed to streamline clinical workflows by combining voice dictation, ambient listening, and generative AI. Built as part of Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, the tool aims to reduce administrative burdens and enhance patient care. Joe Petro, corporate vice president of Microsoft Health and Life Sciences Solutions and Platforms, emphasized AI's role in reducing administrative tasks for clinicians. "With Dragon Copilot, we are introducing the first unified voice AI experience, leveraging our decades-long expertise to improve provider wellness and financial outcomes," he said. Also Read: SoundHound AI's CEO On AI Agents Transforming The World: 'This Is An Inevitable Evolution' Dr. R. Hal Baker, senior vice president and chief digital officer at WellSpan Health, highlighted how Dragon Copilot integrates into Microsoft's AI ecosystem to enhance patient experiences while streamlining clinician workflows. "It's a game-changer," he said. The AI assistant builds on the success of Microsoft's Dragon Medical One (DMO) and Dragon Ambient eXperience (DAX). In the past month alone, DAX has facilitated over 3 million ambient patient conversations across 600 healthcare organizations. Clinicians using these technologies report saving five minutes per patient encounter, with 70% experiencing reduced burnout and 62% less likely to leave their jobs. Meanwhile, 93% of patients have reported an improved overall experience. Dragon Copilot offers key features such as: Streamlined Documentation: Automated note-taking, speech recognition and personalized text formatting in multiple languages. Information Retrieval: AI-powered medical searches from trusted sources. Task Automation: AI-generated referral letters, clinical summaries and after-visit notes. Dragon Copilot is designed for use in ambulatory, inpatient and emergency care settings. It will be available in the U.S. and Canada in May, with expansion to the U.K., Germany, France and the Netherlands. Microsoft also plans to introduce Dragon Copilot to additional global markets. Price Action: MSFT stock is down 0.65% at $394.42 at the last check Monday. Read Next: Roche Touts Food Allergy Drug As Superior Than Oral Immunotherapy Image: Microsoft Dragon Copilot logo MSFTMicrosoft Corp $394.92-0.52% Overview Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs