8 ways to get your practice's AI house in order before 2027

Four out of 5 physicians now use artificial intelligence (AI) in their work. That is the headline finding of the American Medical Association's 2026 Physician Survey on Augmented Intelligence, which put adoption at 81% in 2026, more than double the 38% reported in 2023. The average physician is running 2.3 separate use cases. Very few practices can produce a written policy covering any of them.

That gap is about to get expensive. State legislatures spent the past 18 months writing rules on AI disclosure, patient consent and autonomous clinical decision-making, and the requirements now vary meaningfully from one state line to the next. Federal deadlines are stacking up behind them: the Application Programming Interface (API) provisions of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Interoperability and Prior Authorization final rule land Jan. 1, 2027. Meanwhile, 88% of physicians told the AMA they worry about skill erosion, and 85% said they want a say in what their practice adopts.

None of this requires a technology budget. Most of the work is installing policy, completing paperwork and asking vendors harder questions than they are used to answering. Here are eight places to start.