Previous ambient AI solutions didn’t fully meet the needs of behavioral health providers. But more recent ambient AI offerings, specifically Heidi, designed with behavioral health providers in mind, effectively capture the nuances of behavioral health. Heidi is enhancing the patient-provider encounter and decreasing providers’ cognitive burden.
These were insights from Becker’s 2026 Behavioral Health Summit at a session sponsored by Heidi and moderated by Lea Chatham, enterprise marketing director of Heidi, featuring:
● Hannah Allen, MD, chief medical officer and clinician, Heidi
● Jonathan Lyon, a MSW, LICSW, assistant director, behavioral health services, E.A. Hawse Health Center (Baker, W.V.)
● Ken Powers, MSW, LICSW, ACSW, BCD, director, behavioral health services, E.A. Hawse Health Center
Here were four key takeaways from the session:
1. Previous ambient AI has not been adequate for behavioral health
“Behavioral health encounters are generally very complex and very emotionally charged,” Mr. Lyon said. Historically, ambient AI was not well trained on behavioral health, didn’t capture the nuance of long, intensive sessions and was not great at sentiment analysis.
2. Ambient AI tailored for behavioral health allows clinicians to be more patient-centered and present
Getting an ambient AI scribe that is well trained in behavioral health has been transformative for clinicians. Not only does ambient AI technology reduce clinicians’ cognitive burden and allow clinicians to give their full attention to patients — but it also enables clinicians to review their notes and reflect on their approach to consultations. “I got emotional when I first started using ambient AI and it gave me back my notes,” Mr. Powers recalled. “Being able to reflect on what really happened in the session had a significant impact on me.”
“Clinicians said it’s brought joy back to consulting,” Dr. Allen said. As a result of clinicians’ increased focus on patients, the patient experience has improved, as has patient self-care, from patients who feel more listened to.
3. Behavioral health providers have experienced surprising benefits from adopting ambient AI
Beyond ambient AI’s common benefit of capturing and documenting the patient-provider conversation, providers have been surprised at how personalized and customizable this tool is, as providers have found that their notes sound like them and they are able to train the ambient AI scribe to write for them.
They have also experienced other surprising benefits. These include significant time savings, increased productivity and easy and virtually immediate adoption by practices. “It’s been really transformative,” Mr. Lyon said. “I don’t know that we could take it away from clinicians at this point.”
This tool makes it easy to cover for a provider who is out, like on maternity leave, and is a recruiting tool in attracting new providers.
4. Successful adoption of ambient AI goes beyond the technology
These providers, who have adopted Heidi, stressed the importance of considering a vendor’s ethics, compliance with laws and regulations and governance, as well as clinician acceptance and even patient consent. Ms. Chatham pointed out that Heidi supports 10 million patient visits monthly and less than 2% of patients don’t consent to have their clinician use it to document the encounter.
At the Becker's Fall Behavioral Health Summit, taking place November 4–5 in Chicago, behavioral health leaders and executives will explore strategies for expanding access to care, integrating services, addressing workforce challenges and leveraging innovation to improve outcomes across the behavioral health continuum. Apply for complimentary registration now.
