Epic Systems Launches Ergo AI Platform at Annual User Conference

Epic Systems introduced Ergo, a comprehensive AI healthcare intelligence platform designed to deliver personalized medical information to patients and clinicians, at its annual Users Group Meeting in Verona, Wisconsin this week.

CEO Judy Faulkner announced the new system to more than 74,000 attendees from 50 states and 19 countries, according to details first reported by The Cap Times. Ergo integrates Epic's existing AI tools—including the patient-facing chatbot Ask Emmie, the MyChart patient portal, and Cosmos, Epic's database of 21 billion patient records—into a unified intelligence layer.

Responding to consumer AI adoption

The announcement comes as national surveys indicate one in three American adults now use artificial intelligence tools for health-related questions. Epic executives positioned their clinical-grade AI as a trusted alternative to consumer chatbots.

"Tens of millions of your patients are turning to consumer AI chatbots for health advice, not because they trust it, but because it's all they have," said Garrett Adams, Epic's vice president of research and development. Industry data shows patients are three times more likely to trust AI agents built into clinical systems than public chatbots.

Epic's Ask Emmie already handles patient inquiries, translates medical terminology, and enables chart lookups. One-third of Emmie conversations occur after business hours. The company reports 1.4 million clinicians currently receive AI assistance monthly, with Chart with Art clinical summaries deployed at more than 300 health systems.

New capabilities and deployment timeline

Epic plans to release Schedule with Emmie on October 24 and an Emmie Pre-Admission Testing Assistant on November 20. Future updates will connect Ask Emmie directly to Cosmos, allowing patients to access plain-language insights drawn from hundreds of millions of electronic health records.

For clinicians, Epic introduced Best Care Choices within Cosmos, enabling providers to review treatment outcomes from similar patient cases. A tool called Look-Alikes, used more than 25,000 times last year, helps physicians find information on rare conditions and connect with colleagues who have treated comparable cases.

RWJBarnabas Health reported using Epic's deterioration index to reduce in-hospital deaths among high-risk patients by 18 percent, which Epic officials said translates to approximately 700 lives saved annually.

Why it matters

Epic's Ergo platform represents a strategic response to the rapid consumer adoption of general-purpose AI chatbots for medical advice. By integrating AI capabilities directly into the electronic health record systems used by major health systems nationwide, Epic aims to keep patient interactions within trusted clinical environments rather than losing them to unregulated consumer tools. The company's access to 21 billion patient records through Cosmos gives it a substantial data advantage in training healthcare-specific AI models, potentially setting a new standard for clinical AI applications as the technology becomes embedded in routine care delivery.

Epic also previewed Cosmos Curiosity, a family of generative AI models trained on deidentified records from more than 300 million patients. The system will simulate future health outcomes to support clinical decisions and hospital resource planning. The Curiosity Research Agent is expected to launch next year.

The company has accelerated its software release cycle from every 18 months to every three months. Epic executives emphasized cybersecurity as a priority, with senior vice president Stirling Martin highlighting the company's advocacy in Washington for expanded cybersecurity workforce development and standardized security protocols.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services selected Epic last month to build a statewide electronic health record system using federal rural health transformation funding.

These details were reported by Mary Bosch for The Cap Times.