What You Should Know
- The News: Suki has been selected as a “Preferred Solution Partner” by athenahealth, effectively giving the ambient AI platform a formal stamp of approval for the network’s 150,000+ providers.
- The Scale: Suki is already generating 500,000 clinical notes monthly for athenahealth users, with adoption growing 50% in the last six months alone.
- The Access: Uniquely, the technology is available in two ways: as a standalone app (Suki for Clinicians) or deeply embedded directly into athenahealth’s native Ambient Notes offering (Suki for Partners).
athenahealth Names Suki a “Preferred Partner” as Adoption Surges 50%
In the race to automate clinical documentation, electronic health record (EHR) vendors face a choice: build it themselves, or pick a winner from the open market. Today, athenahealth—one of the largest ambulatory networks in the U.S. announced that Suki has been selected as a “Preferred Solution Partner” for ambient intelligence. This designation is not merely a badge; it is a signal to athenahealth’s massive user base that Suki’s technology is validated, trusted, and deeply integrated into the athenaOne workflow.
“Artificial intelligence has the potential to transform clinical practice, but it needs to be deeply embedded, easy to use, and designed for scale,” said Punit Soni, CEO and Founder of Suki.
Validation by Volume
The partnership comes on the heels of explosive growth. While many AI startups are still running small pilots, Suki has moved into mass production. The platform now supports over 450 practices and 3,400 monthly active users within the athenahealth ecosystem alone.
More impressively, usage has grown by 50% in the past six months, with the AI now generating approximately 500,000 clinical notes per month. This scale suggests that the technology has passed the “early adopter” phase and is entering the mainstream.
Two Paths to One Goal
What distinguishes this partnership is the technical flexibility. Unlike rigid integrations, Suki’s technology is penetrating the athenahealth network through two distinct channels:
- Direct: Via the Suki for Clinicians app in the Marketplace, boasting an industry-leading 82% adoption rate.
- Embedded: Via athenahealth’s own Ambient Notes offering, which uses Suki for Partners to power the experience under the hood.
This “Intel Inside” strategy allows Suki to capture the market from both ends—serving power users who want the full Suki app, and seamless users who want the feature native to their EHR.
Reducing the Friction
For Michael Palantoni, Chief Strategy Officer at athenahealth, the move is about infrastructure. “Suki is a trusted partner, and its proven technology aligns strongly with the future of our network’s AI infrastructure,” he noted.
By fast-tracking Suki’s access to new features, athenahealth is betting that deep integration is the cure for physician burnout. The goal is to remove “workflow friction”—ensuring that the AI doesn’t just listen, but actively places the right data in the right field, allowing doctors to close their charts when they leave the exam room.
