The Doximity 2026 State of AI in Medicine report is the most comprehensive look at physician AI adoption ever published. 3,151 doctors, surveyed twice: once in spring 2025 and once in early 2026. The headline number is 94 percent, the share of physicians already using or actively planning to use AI. But the more interesting data is in what is driving adoption and what is holding the holdouts back.
What Doctors Are Actually Using AI For
The fastest-growing use case was literature search, jumping from 22 percent in April 2025 to 35 percent by January 2026. AI scribes came in second at 29 percent, up from 20 percent. But the framing that matters is this: it is about time, not technology. 69 percent of physicians said what excites them most is reduced administrative workload. 67 percent said improved work-life balance. These are not tech enthusiasts. These are overworked clinicians trying to get their evenings back.
The NBCE's 2025 Practice Analysis found that chiropractors specifically lose nearly one in five working hours to documentation. That is a full workday per week gone to charting instead of treating. The doctors who are moving to AI are not doing it because they love technology. They are doing it because the alternative has a concrete cost that shows up every Tuesday night at 11pm.
What the Holdouts Are Waiting For
Most of the 6 percent not using AI are not opposed to it. They are waiting for it to be "proven" in their specialty context, or uncertain about HIPAA compliance, or they have not had a trusted colleague show them a tool that works in their actual workflow. These are reasonable concerns. They are also concerns that have largely been addressed. HIPAA-compliant AI scribes with signed BAAs now exist for chiropractic, podiatry, and general medical practice. The clinical validation data is in peer-reviewed journals.
The Work-Life Balance Case
The most underappreciated finding in the Doximity report is the work-life balance data. 67 percent of physicians cited this as what excites them about AI. Not better patient care. Not higher revenue. Going home. Being present at dinner. Not finishing charts on Saturday morning. The AMA study found ambient AI scribes saved providers over 15,000 hours of documentation time in a single year. That time did not go back to billing. It went back to life.
The Honest Summary
- 94 percent of physicians are using or planning to use AI. The early majority has moved. The late adopters are now the outliers.
- The number one driver of adoption is reduced admin workload. Number two is work-life balance. Better patient care is third.
- HIPAA-compliant, chiropractic-specific AI tools exist right now. The compliance questions have been answered.
- The cost of waiting is not theoretical. It is the Tuesday nights you are still charting instead of being somewhere else.
- Download the Doximity 2026 report. It is free and it is the best data available on where this is all heading.