Epic’s New AI Assistant Is Changing End-of-Shift Charting for Nurses

 

Update 3/5/2026

Since Epic announced its new AI assistants—Art, Emmie, and Penny—in December, early pilot programs are starting to reveal how the technology may impact nursing workflows.

Initial results from hospitals using Art, the clinician-focused AI assistant, suggest it could significantly reduce end-of-shift documentation time while improving the quality of handoff notes.

At Mercy, one of the 15 largest health systems in the U.S., average end-of-shift notes documentation time dropped from 3.5 minutes per note to about 32 seconds when nurses used Art to draft care plan summaries. That represents an 85% reduction in documentation time. At the same time, the number of notes completed fully and on time increased by 225%.

Instead of simply summarizing the shift, Art organizes notes around patient goals identified at the start of the shift. The system pulls information from the patient chart, including vitals, medication administration records, flowsheets, orders, and prior notes, and generates a draft summary for the nurse to review and edit before signing.

Other organizations are reporting improvements in documentation quality as well. Auditors at Bryan Health say AI-assisted end-of-shift notes are clearer and more complete, helping clinicians better understand what happened during the previous shift and what needs follow-up.

Across hospitals using the tool, nurses save about one minute per note on average. For some clinicians, that can add up to 8 to 10 minutes during a typical 12-hour shift, time that may be redirected back to patient care or team coordination.

Meet Art: The Clinical AI Assistant Nurses Have Their Eyes On

Let’s start with Art, the AI assistant built specifically for clinicians. According to Beckers, Art will use a "conversational" tone to help clinicians answer questions, gathering information from a patient's chart, medical records, imaging, lab results, and even billing data. 

At an Ohio hospital, Art even helped identify lung cancer in 100 patients by reviewing images for routine chest X-rays. 

Art can also be used to help automate charting. For nurses, this one might be a game-changer. Art promises to cut documentation time by up to 20% by automating those tedious tasks like charting and preparing visit summaries. 

If you’ve ever felt like your patient care has taken a backseat to your computer screen, you’re not alone. Documentation demands in nursing have skyrocketed over the years, and not in a fun "yay, more charting!" kind of way. Epic says the goal of Art is to reduce clinician burnout and help you spend more time where it matters—at the bedside.

But that’s not all Art can do. It’s also designed to handle prior authorizations and place medical orders. For nurses who constantly juggle coordination between providers, pharmacy, and lab, this could be a huge time-saver. Imagine skipping the endless phone tag with other departments—sounds like a dream, right?

Emmie and Penny: The Sidekicks You Didn’t Know You Needed

While Art is the headliner for nurses, don’t sleep on Emmie and Penny. These two AI tools might also lighten your load, even if indirectly.

Emmie is the patient-facing assistant that connects with Epic’s MyChart portal. It helps patients interpret lab results, provides personalized health advice, guides patients to complete pre-appointment documents and signatures, and even manages appointment scheduling. 

Now, let’s get real. How many of your inbox messages are from patients asking, “What does this lab result mean?” or “Can I reschedule my appointment?” If Emmie can handle even a fraction of those, that’s less time you’ll spend glued to your inbox.

Then there’s Penny, the billing and revenue cycle assistant. Penny’s job is to clean up the financial side of healthcare by generating appeal letters for denied claims and improving billing accuracy. The AI tool can even perform autonomous coding. While this might sound far removed from nursing, better financial workflows can lead to improved staffing and resource allocation—which, let’s be honest, every nurse could use more of.

Beckers also reports that the integration of AI within Epic will also be used to further data sharing with federal "partners," including the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Social Security Administration, and "expand support for FHIR-based data services used by provider and patient-facing applications."

The AI tools will also be used for clinical staffing needs, so who knows? Maybe the next time you need to call out sick or get a request to fill in for a shift, it will be via an AI chatbot. 

What Does This Mean for Nursing Practice?

These AI assistants represent a big shift in how EHRs function. Instead of just storing information, they’ll actively process data to help with decision-making and reduce your administrative load. Epic’s goal is to shift some of the administrative burden away from staff and onto their cloud-based system.

Let’s hold off on celebrating for now. Like any new technology, there are important questions and potential challenges to keep in mind: 

• How will this integrate with nursing workflows? We all know nurses have unique documentation needs, and not every tech solution gets it right on the first try.
• Will it actually save time? Or will we spend those “extra” minutes double-checking the AI’s work?
• How will it affect the nurse-patient relationship? Will these tools free us up to connect more with patients, or will they add another layer of complexity to our day?

Epic hasn’t announced which hospitals will be the first to implement these tools, so the timeline for when you’ll see them in action depends on your facility. For now, it’s worth staying in the loop and asking your leadership team how they’re planning for this next wave of AI tech.

Will AI Really Help, or Is It Just Another Buzzword?

As nurses, we’re no strangers to technology. From EHRs to smart pumps, we’ve learned to adapt, troubleshoot, and make the best of what we’ve got. Epic’s AI assistants could be the relief we’ve been waiting for, or they might turn into just another thing we have to “work around.”

The promise of spending less time charting and more time with patients is definitely appealing. But as we all know, the true test will be in the rollout. Will these tools be user-friendly? Will they actually reduce burnout? And most importantly, will they help us do what we do best: deliver compassionate, evidence-based care?

Only time will tell. But if Art can save you from spending an extra hour documenting at the end of your shift, that’s at least a step in the right direction. Until then, keep one eye on the bedside and the other on the tech updates coming your way. You’ve got this!

🤔Nurses, share your thoughts in the discussion forum below!