AI-native athenaOne®: A new era for ambulatory care

Two healthcare professionals using a tablet to access their AI-native solutions.
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Bob Segert
August 14, 2025
4 min read

AI innovation at scale, powered by better connections and data insights

Built by experts in ambulatory care and AI innovation.

At athenahealth, we’ve always been driven by a simple but powerful idea: healthcare needs to work better for those who are delivering it. Since our founding in 1997, we’ve built solutions for ambulatory care practices that address their most pressing challenges, whether that is reducing administrative burden, improving patient care, or streamlining revenue cycle processes.

For over 10 years, we’ve been a trusted partner in AI innovation with a focus on ambulatory practices. We understand the intricacies of clinical workflows, revenue management, and patient engagement because we’ve been designing solutions that meet these needs head-on for decades. But now, AI is evolving faster than any technology in history. Advances in machine learning, large language models, and real-time data integration in healthcare are opening up possibilities that were once unimaginable. This moment is a pivotal turning point, an opportunity to rethink longstanding workflows and address challenges that until now seemed insurmountable.

As we stand in the midst of an AI revolution, I want to share our vision for how we’re using artificial intelligence across the athenaOne platform to help delight users and cure complexity. We’ve taken everything we’ve learned over the last two decades working with ambulatory practices and integrated AI in ways that truly matter.

Positioned to lead through a deeply connected intelligence layer

athenahealth is uniquely positioned to guide practices through this transformation, thanks to one of the most comprehensive patient data sets in healthcare. Our robust network connects practices to public health registries, payers, data aggregators, data partners, and other EHR systems. By building a powerful, AI-native intelligence layer on top of this data foundation, athenaOne turns data into rich, actionable insights that can be embedded directly into everyday workflows. This evolution moves beyond merely transferring data, to delivering intelligence at the point of care.

Delivered to 160,000 ambulatory providers over our cloud-native, single-instance platform

What sets athenaOne apart is not just the technology, but how it’s delivered — through a cloud-native, single-instance codebase that ensures all 160,000+ providers on our network have instant access to the most up-to-date tools, with no costly upgrades or complex re-implementations required. This modern architecture ensures that as we roll out new AI workflows, every practice benefits from consistent updates, and changes that are safe, effective, and easy to adopt.

Our bold vision for an AI-native athenaOne

In the coming weeks and months, the AI-native athenaOne platform is poised to revolutionize how practices engage patients, coordinate and deliver care, and manage their revenue cycle. This is not simply an evolution of the athenahealth platform; it is a transformational leap forward in capability for ambulatory care practices of any size.

Transforming physician workflows

For physicians, this means a reimagined, AI-native athenaOne physician experience that is an intelligent, agentic partner that enhances decision-making and care coordination while reducing cognitive load and administrative burden. Importantly, this experience will be available to all clinical users, and allows them to choose whether to use the AI-native view, not use it, or go back and forth between them during a patient encounter. This unique level of user flexibility is purposefully designed to ease adoption, build trust in the new tools, and enable practices to meet their users where they are in the AI transformation journey.

Empowering revenue cycle management

For revenue cycle professionals, our one of a kind “Intelligent RCM Factory” wicks away much of the administrative and RCM work that burdens ambulatory practices today. It’s a co-sourcing model unique to athenahealth, helping practices focus on the parts of revenue cycle management they want to control, while we handle the rest. With AI, we are transforming this factory — from one powered by people augmented with AI and automation, to one that’s powered by AI and supported by people. Practices will remain in control of their revenue cycle, but with 50-70% less work.

Enhancing patient experiences

For patients, imagine a world where practices effortlessly communicate with patients, ensuring every patient interaction is timely, personalized, and supportive. With intelligent virtual agents embedded throughout the patient journey, athenaOne helps practices automate tasks like scheduling, check-ins, and patient communications for a smoother, more efficient experience that improves satisfaction and reduces administrative burden.

Continuous innovation, a robust roadmap and data-driven rollout, at the pace of practice comfort

AI in healthcare is advancing rapidly, and as the industry evolves, so will athenaOne. With over 200 engineering teams constantly refining the platform and directly incorporating feedback from our customers, we’re committed to staying at the forefront of healthcare innovation. As an AI-native platform, athenaOne will continue to improve and adapt, making practices smarter, faster, and more efficient over time. New features will be rolled out iteratively along a robust roadmap, and practices can choose to adopt them at their own pace.

With athenaOne’s AI-native platform, we’re redefining ambulatory care —delivering smarter, connected workflows that transform every interaction.

A legacy of leading, not following

We’ve always been the ones pushing healthcare forward, whether it was cloud-based solutions in the 2000s, AI-powered workflows in the 2010s, or embedded telehealth during the pandemic. At athenahealth, I’m proud to say that we don’t follow trends. We set them. Now we’re doing it again with AI-native athenaOne. Welcome to the next chapter in ambulatory care.

thought leadershipAI in healthcareathenahealth productsRCMclinical efficiencyreducing admin burdenmedical coding & billing

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