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Microsoft and Massachusetts-based conversational AI firm Nuance are working together to accelerate the delivery of ambient clinical intelligence (ACI) — a suite of tech solutions that gather information from patient-clinician conversations, which is input directly into electronic health records (EHRs). Business Insider Intelligence

Nuance's tech portfolio includes Dragon, one of the first commercially available voice recognition tools, and over 500,000 physicians worldwide deploy Dragon Medical software for ambient clinical documentation and clinical support.

Here's what Microsoft stands to gain by linking up with Nuance.

Microsoft is all-in on enterprise tech solutions — and adding voice tools for clinical documentation to its suite of health tools will only bolster its value prop to health systems.

Over the last year, Microsoft has shuttered several consumer-facing health products in a distinct pivot toward enterprise tech solutions for healthcare: Microsoft established partnerships with big-names in health like Walgreens and Walmart, and more than 25,000 US health firms run on Microsoft Cloud, per a Morgan Stanley report shared with Business Insider.

Microsoft could utilize this new clinical voice assistant to drum up adoption of its other enterprise services — and vice versa — and create a bundle of services for healthcare clients: Azure AI and cloud-computing, Microsoft Office, and ambient voice tech.

The companies' development efforts will be powered by Azure Cloud and Azure AI — furthering Microsoft's goals for cloud computing growth. As part of the tie-up, Nuance will transfer the majority of its on-site tech infrastructure to Azure Cloud, building on the fact that it's 8,500+ employees are already users of Microsoft Office365.

And with each major cloud computing and AI partnership Microsoft lands, it bridges the gap in cloud market share between itself and rival Amazon: Amazon is projected to control 50% of the global cloud computing market by the end of the year, with Microsoft at second place with 22%. We think Microsoft is right to build out its suite of enterprise solutions, which could help drive provider interest and enable the tech giant to capture a bigger piece of the $11.4 billion healthcare firms are projected to spend on cloud this year.

We expect clinical documentation will be one of the biggest opportunities for voice in healthcare as health systems seek out innovative ways to combat one of the industry's biggest problems: physician burnout. Nearly 80% of primary care physicians are burned out, and almost 60% of physicians say a heavy administrative burden — driven in part by EHR demands — is the primary cause.

A desire to address this massive pain point has given rise to companies like California-based Suki, which recently announced that its voice assistant software for healthcare is processing 1,000 patient encounters each week, and Robin Healthcare, which seeks to separate itself from competitors by adding video recordings to its voice transcription solution.

But they face heavy competition from legacy tech players like Microsoft and Amazon, which boasts a HIPAA-compliant Alexa. This crowding makes Microsoft's decision to partner with Nuance key to quickly expand and secure a leading position in the clinical voice assistant space: Rather than start building a user base from scratch, the two companies can leverage their existing healthcare relationships as a launching pad.

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