Home Family Physicians Are Embracing AI, But Mostly to Tackle Documentation Performance Improvement Family Physicians Are Embracing AI, But Mostly to Tackle Documentation AI adoption among family physicians has surged in recent years, but physicians are mostly using it for one thing: cutting down on documentation time. Dr. David Price, Senior Advisor to the President at the American Board of Family Medicine, breaks down what that trend means for the future of family medicine and how Diplomates can log AI-driven practice changes for Performance Improvement credit. June 17, 2026 Dr. David Price ABFM Senior Advisor to the President A qualitative analysis of AI and machine learning adoption among board-certified family physicians reveals a dramatic surge in interest and a clear picture of what’s driving it. According to data from the American Board of Family Medicine’s Self-Directed Performance Improvement activities, submissions related to artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) grew from just 60 in 2023 to 482 in 2024 and 925 in 2025, signaling that AI is no longer a curiosity in family medicine. The overwhelming majority of AI adoption is concentrated in a single area: office efficiency. In 2025, 871 of the 925 submissions fell under that umbrella, dwarfing every other category, including patient education, triage, and clinical decision support. Within office efficiency, the two most explored areas were documentation and administrative tasks such as billing, coding, patient correspondence, and pharmacy-related work. In short, family physicians aren’t turning to AI to revolutionize how they diagnose or treat patients. They’re turning to it to keep up with the documentation. That finding aligns with years of research showing that administrative burden is one of the top contributors to physician burnout, particularly in family medicine. Family physicians often manage complex, longitudinal patient relationships across dozens of visits per day, and the documentation demands of modern medicine have only grown. AI tools that can draft notes, summarize patient encounters, or automate routine communications represent a tangible, immediate form of relief. Yet the data also highlights a gap worth watching. When documentation-related submissions are broken down further, the vast majority involve AI-assisted documentation rather than clinical decision support. While decision support tools (which can flag potential diagnoses, suggest treatment options, or identify care gaps) may hold promise for improving outcomes in family medicine, physicians appear to be adopting them at a much slower pace. Whether that’s due to trust, availability, workflow integration, or simply a matter of priorities remains an open question. The software landscape is also evolving. The analysis tracked specific AI tools utilized by physicians across both years, reflecting a market that is rapidly expanding and diversifying. As more products are released, family physicians will face increasingly complex decisions about which tools to adopt and which to trust with patient data. The bottom line: AI is gaining real traction in family medicine, but its current role is more scribe than strategist. The question going forward is whether the profession can build on this momentum to move beyond efficiency gains and toward other tools that may meaningfully enhance clinical care. To dig deeper into what these findings mean for practicing family physicians, we sat down with Dr. David Price, Senior Advisor to the President at the American Board of Family Medicine, to discuss the trends behind the numbers, including why documentation tools are dominating adoption, whether clinical decision support will catch up, and how physicians can get credit when using AI in their daily work. Watch the full interview below.
