Epic Systems launched Agent Factory at HIMSS26, a no-code platform for health systems to build and deploy custom AI agents that autonomously handle clinical, operational, and patient tasks within EHR workflows. Over 85% of Epic customers now use AI tools like Art, Penny, and Emmie, delivering proven gains in efficiency and outcomes.
Glimpse:
In a bustling Las Vegas hospital ward, Nurse Raj glanced at her Epic dashboard as Agent Factory’s custom bot auto-scheduled meds, flagged risks via Art, and messaged patients through Emmie all without her input. Documentation time slashed 30%, letting her focus on care. “AI isn’t replacing us; it’s freeing us,” she smiled, amid HIMSS26 buzz.
Epic previewed its expanded AI strategy at HIMSS 2026 in Las Vegas, spotlighting Agent Factorya visual, no-code builder for creating, customizing, and monitoring AI agents that reason and act across workflows. Health systems can configure agents with local policies and deploy prebuilt or custom ones from Epic’s library, shifting from bolt-on AI to native EHR integration.
Over 85% of Epic customers actively use AI tools, with standout results: clinicians draft discharge summaries 20-30% faster using Art’s notes, and Riverside Health cut documentation by 32%. Penny slashed prior auth times by 42% at Summit Health and reduced denials over 20%, while Emmie dropped billing queries 58% at Rush and enabled 14,900 reschedules at Ochsner.
Agent Factory empowers “citizen developers” in health systems to orchestrate agents for tasks like ambient charting (Art expansion to nursing), revenue cycles (Penny), patient chats (Emmie), and trials (Forward). Epic’s Curiosity models, trained on anonymized data, boost predictions like 69% early lung cancer detection from incidental findings.
This platform play backed by 2,400+ live APIs and 1,000+ Showroom apps positions Epic as a full AI operating stack, outpacing rivals in agentic autonomy. Executives like Phil Lindemann envision sandboxes for innovation, amid industry shifts to multi-agent AI at HIMSS26.
“Epic is going to build an entire library of on-platform agents that are ready to go... That’s what Factory is intended to be.”
By
HB Team
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