Only 19.0% of medical groups said AI had reduced staff workload, according to MGMA's August 4, 2026 poll of 189 practice leaders. Another 30.0% saw no real change, and 27.0% said the work moved to other tasks.
AI is now present in 83.0% of groups' patient visits. The gap between how often groups use AI and how often it lowers workload is the main finding in the 2026 data.
What groups said happened to staff workload
MGMA coded the open-ended answers from its August 4, 2026 Stat poll into categories. The poll had 189 applicable responses. MGMA did not state how many of those leaders answered the workload question.
| Effect of AI on staff workload | Share of coded responses |
|---|---|
| No real change | 30.0% |
| Work shifted to other tasks | 27.0% |
| Workload reduced | 19.0% |
| Too early to tell | 14.0% |
| Both reduction and shifting | 10.0% |
Source: MGMA Stat, "AI use expands, leaders shift attention to measurement," August 2026.
MGMA also counted every mention across all answers. Some form of shifting appeared in 37.0% of answers, and some form of reduction appeared in 29.0%. The 29.0% equals the 19.0% who said "reduced" plus the 10.0% who said both.
Two categories report no measured effect yet. Adding "no real change" (30.0%) and "too early to tell" (14.0%) gives 44.0% of coded responses. That is more than twice the 19.0% who reported a clean reduction. Shifting work, at 27.0%, means the hours moved to a different task.
AI use in visits went deeper in one year
Most groups already had AI in some visits in 2025. MGMA's August 5, 2025 poll of 244 leaders found 71.0% used it. The 2026 poll put the figure at 83.0%, which leaves 17.0% of groups with no AI role in visits.
The bigger change is how many visits AI touches. In 2025, 47.0% of groups used AI in a quarter of visits or fewer. In 2026 that share was 38.0%. Groups using AI in more than a quarter of visits rose from 24.0% to 45.0%.
At the top end, 7.0% of groups used AI in 76.0% or more of visits in 2025. That reached 17.0% in 2026. MGMA noted that among groups using AI at all, about one in five now use it in at least three-quarters of visits, up from about one in ten.
The 2025 poll also asked about workload. Among groups using AI in visits, 44.0% said it had not reduced workload, 39.0% said it had, and 17.0% were unsure. Deeper use in 2026 came with a lower share saying "reduced" in the coded answers (19.0%), though the two polls used different question formats and the numbers do not compare directly.
Few groups have changed roles because of AI
MGMA's June 2, 2026 poll had 260 applicable responses. It found 68.0% of groups had not redesigned a role or adjusted staffing with AI in the past year. About 26.0% had, and 5.0% were unsure.
Budget plans point the same way. In MGMA's October 28, 2025 poll, 37.0% of groups named workforce as their biggest area of new investment for 2026. In its January 27, 2026 poll, 36.0% named automation as the most important cost-cutting lever.
MGMA's September 30, 2025 poll found 68.0% of groups added or expanded AI tools during 2025. That is nearly the same share as the 68.0% that had not changed a role, so most groups added tools without rewriting jobs.
Some groups build their own. In MGMA's September 22, 2026 poll of 228 leaders, 34.0% had used AI to build an app or workflow tool in-house, 8.0% tried and did not launch, and 54.0% had not tried. In MGMA's January 2026 poll, 42.0% of leaders said their organization had an AI governance policy (20.0%) or was developing one (22.0%).
Where front-office leaders want AI first
MGMA's February 10, 2026 poll of 177 practice leaders asked where they focus AI and automation to improve patient access. Scheduling led at 31.0%. Calls followed at 27.0%, registration and eligibility at 23.0%, and prior authorization at 16.0%. Another 5.0% chose other areas.
Prior authorization has the clearest staffing cost. MGMA's Annual Regulatory Burden Report found 92.0% of surveyed practices hired or reassigned staff solely to handle prior authorization volume. The CAQH Index, as cited by MGMA, puts a provider's time at 11 minutes per electronic prior authorization and 16 minutes per portal-based one.
Patients are slow to use the digital tools already on offer. MGMA's July 2025 poll found 71.0% of practices had fewer than 25.0% of patients self-scheduling online, and 3.0% had more than 75.0%. In MGMA's April 2025 poll, 19.0% of practices used a chatbot or virtual assistant for patient communication.
What physicians report about their own AI use
Doximity's 2026 State of AI in Medicine report surveyed 3,151 physicians in two waves, as cited in MGMA's June 3, 2026 article. Physician AI use rose from 47.0% in March and April 2025 to 63.0% in the November 2025 to January 2026 wave.
Voice-based documentation tools, such as ambient listening and AI scribes, were used by 29.0% of physicians in the later wave. Doximity found 94.0% were using AI or interested in it.
Deloitte's February 2026 report surveyed 100 healthcare technology executives in September 2025. It found 85.0% of leaders plan to raise agentic AI investment over the next two to three years.
Sources
- MGMA Stat, AI use expands, leaders shift attention to measurement, August 5, 2026
- MGMA Stat, Most practices use some form of AI, but is it reducing staff workloads, August 6, 2025
- MGMA, AI is slowly redesigning work in medical practices rather than replacing workers, June 3, 2026
- MGMA Stat, Automatic for the people: AI for front office access, February 11, 2026
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