Navigating Epic’s Bold AI Announcements: What It Means for Health Information Professionals

People across healthcare are talking about the news out of Verona, WI. At Epic’s annual User Group Meeting (UGM) last week the company made clear that artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer a supporting feature of their electronic health record (EHR) platform—it is central to their vision of the future. During her keynote, CEO Judy Faulkner shared that Epic Systems Corporation has between 160 and 200 AI projects underway, with many already in use across clinical, patient, and revenue cycle workflows.

AHIMA leadership was on site to learn more about what these changes mean for our profession.

Epic’s major announcements highlighted three new generative AI tools:

• Art aims to support clinicians by generating patient summaries, surfacing diagnostic insights, and helping identify similar cases through Epic’s Cosmos database.
• Emmie is a patient-facing chatbot assistant to guide scheduling, visit preparation, and follow-up.
• Penny focuses on the revenue cycle, with capabilities in coding, denial appeals, and billing efficiency.

Each of these tools reflects a recognition that AI will soon touch every corner of the healthcare ecosystem—clinical decision support, patient engagement, and the back-office functions that underpin financial health.

What This Means for Health Information Professionals

While Art may change the way providers capture and interpret clinical information, and Emmie may reshape the patient experience, Penny is most directly aligned with the health information (HI) profession. Revenue cycle accuracy, coding integrity, and timely appeals are foundational to the work many AHIMA members perform every day. While Penny may bring additional speed in the revenue cycle, it also raises questions about transparency, accountability, and how to ensure that AI outputs are accurate, compliant, and absent of bias that would lead to denial or delays of care. These are the same things we as HI professionals focus on today, and our responsibility does not change as technology advances.

While changes like these are understandably daunting, HI professionals have long been the guardians of data integrity, patient privacy, and workflow accuracy. Now, our work will include AI-enhanced processes, we will need to observe and evaluate algorithmic decisions, and we will continue to advocate for fairness and patient safety.

The HI Professional’s Role in This Rapidly Changing Environment

At AHIMA, we are committed to ensuring our members are equipped to meet these changes with confidence. I recently joined AHIMA as Education Director for Applied AI in Health Information specifically to focus on ensuring our members, credential-holders, and those joining our profession have the skills and education to understand these tools and how to integrate them into our day-to-day work. For me, this means:

• Education and Training – Developing applied AI learning modules, micro-credentials, and continuing education programs that give members practical skills.
• Collaboration – Engaging directly with vendors, including those introducing tools like Penny, to understand how their solutions impact HI workflows and to ensure our members’ voices are heard.
• Thought Leadership – Highlighting best practices, ethical considerations, and appropriate guardrails so that HI professionals remain trusted leaders in this space.

We are also expanding opportunities for members to explore and engage through events such as the AHIMA Virtual AI Summit, where we delve into the impacts of AI on health information and showcase strategies for navigating this transformation.

A Shared Vision and Member Voice

As I step into my role, I see our mission as not just providing resources but ensuring the profession’s voice shapes how AI is implemented. The advances are coming quickly, but AI’s adoption must align with our values as professionals: accuracy, privacy, equity, and trust.

Most importantly, we are listening. At every step, your experiences and insights guide our approach. As we continue to engage with all of you, we recognize and validate the common themes we all are experiencing: curiosity, concern, and a deep commitment to doing this right.

Please be on the lookout in AHIMA emails for upcoming opportunities to provide us with feedback on the things you most want to learn about. Your thoughts will help shape when, how, and what we deliver to you in terms of educational content.

Call to Action

Epic’s announcements are just the beginning of a wave of AI-driven change across health care. As HI professionals, we have an opportunity—and a responsibility—to lead.

I encourage you to:

• Engage with our AI education offerings as they are released.
• Learn from the AHIMA Virtual AI Summit and join the dialogue shaping the future of our field at future events such as AHIMA25 in Minneapolis, MN, this October.  AHIMA25 will include sessions on topics such as navigating the future of healthcare coding with AI, how AI is powering the next era of health information management, and leading high-functioning revenue cycle teams through AI and automation transformation.
• Share your needs and questions directly with us—so we can continue to create the resources, advocacy, and training you need to succeed in this new era.

AHIMA is committed to working with you to ensure health information remains the trusted backbone of healthcare, even as AI reshapes the landscape.

Anthony E. "Tony" Roscoe, MSL, RHIA, is Education Director for Applied AI in Health Information at AHIMA.