AI Scribes Absorbed into Platforms
Freed vs Heidi Health
The real shift is that AI scribing stopped being something doctors buy by itself and became a retention tool inside larger physician software stacks. Once note drafting is free inside products clinicians already open for search, calling, or charting, a standalone scribe has to sell deeper workflow coverage, not just transcription. That is why Freed is moving into search, coding, and receptionist workflows, while Heidi adds an enterprise layer and expands outside the most crowded U.S. market.
-
The product itself is easy to copy at the top level. The hard part is getting notes back into the chart, filling diagnosis fields, queuing orders, and fitting each EHR’s workflow. That favors platforms like Epic, which can ship AI Charting natively, and favors partners like Abridge that go very deep on one dominant EHR.
-
Bundling works because the scribe increases usage of a broader product. Doximity gives verified U.S. clinicians a free Scribe inside its Clinical AI Suite alongside Ask and Dialer. OpenEvidence uses Visits and related workflow tools to pull doctors from research into documentation, coding, and communication inside one app.
-
This pressure hits self serve vendors first. Freed grew from $13M ARR in August 2024 to an estimated $33M ARR in August 2026, but growth slowed as free distribution from larger platforms expanded. Heidi reached an estimated $50M ARR by March 2026 and then raised its September 2026 Series C at a $900M valuation by pairing PLG with health system sales.
The next winners in this market will look less like note takers and more like full clinical workflow companies. The strongest position comes from owning the doctor’s daily loop, from conversation to note to code to call to chart, or from being the default layer inside the EHR itself. Standalone scribing will persist mainly in narrow specialties and underserved geographies.