AI-Generated Draft Response Tool, Message Turnaround Time, and After-Hours Replies Among Health Care Professionals

Question
Is clinician use of generative artificial intelligence–drafted responses to patient inbox messages associated with reduced message turnaround time and clinician messaging burden?

Findings
In this cohort study of 983 154 patient portal message responses from 1542 clinicians and 272 091 patients, AI-based response tool adoption was associated with an 8.6% increase in turnaround time, while response tool use was associated with a 29.5% reduction. Response tool use was not associated with an overall reduction in after-hours responding behavior, although associations varied by message type and when the message was received.

Meaning
These findings suggest that clinician use of an AI-based response tool was associated with reduced overall message turnaround time but no overall reduction of after-hours burden.