Can therapists use AI scribes for progress notes?

Yes, therapists can use AI scribes to draft progress notes, and the first evidence comes from allied health. The bar is higher than for a medical visit, because a therapy session is more sensitive and some therapy records carry stricter legal definitions. Get written consent that says what is recorded and where it is stored, confirm your vendor will sign a business associate agreement, and review every draft before you sign it.

The allied health evidence is encouraging but limited

The main study is a 2025 Australian mixed-methods study of private practice. It surveyed 119 allied health clinicians before and after using an AI scribe ¹. The authors report that clinicians spent significantly less time on notes, letters and out-of-hours notes at 6 weeks and 3 months than at baseline ².

That result needs care. The design was mixed-methods rather than a randomized trial, so it cannot separate the scribe's effect from everything else that changed in the clinic. It is the best available allied health data, and it is not a measured trial.

The best randomized evidence comes from medicine. In a UCLA trial of 238 outpatient physicians ³, clinically significant inaccuracies in the scribe notes were noted as occurring "occasionally" on a five-point scale ⁴. That is why every draft needs review before it goes into a record.

Therapy notes carry rules a medical scribe does not face

Medicare outpatient therapy adds fields that a drafted note must still carry. Progress reports must be written at least once every 10 treatment days, and they must carry the provider's signature, professional identification and date ⁵. A scribe can draft the narrative, but the signature, date and professional identification still have to be added by you. Check the minutes and the signature block yourself before you sign.

The law also treats some therapy notes more strictly. Under the HIPAA Privacy Rule, psychotherapy notes are notes a mental health professional makes about a counseling conversation, and they must be separated from the rest of the medical record ⁶. Whether a session transcript counts as psychotherapy notes is a question for your privacy officer, your state board and your employer's policy, not for a summary page.

Consent is the first step, and clients notice when it is missing

A 2026 NPR report described a client who later realized that her therapist had recorded a conversation with an AI note-taking tool without her consent ⁷. That is one reported case, and it shows why consent matters, not how often recording happens without it.

Patients in the Australian study were comfortable consenting to a scribe in their own appointments, though some said other patients might need more information about data storage and security before deciding ⁸. Tell clients what is recorded, where the transcript is kept, how long it is kept and how to refuse, before the first recording, and write down their answer.

Check the vendor contract before you upload anything

Under HHS guidance, a covered entity and a cloud service provider that holds its health information must enter into a HIPAA-compliant business associate agreement ⁹. Ask the vendor for that agreement before the first session. Whether a product's terms include one is a question for that vendor's contract, and it is not settled by a general statement that the product is "HIPAA compliant."

What to do before the first recorded session

1. Check your licensing board and employer policy. They can add rules beyond HIPAA.
2. Get a signed business associate agreement from the vendor, or do not upload client sessions.
3. Get written client consent that names what is recorded, where it is stored, and how to opt out.
4. Review every draft against your memory of the session before you sign it, and correct any invented or missing detail.
5. Check the Medicare or payer fields, including the 10-day progress report and the minutes, since a draft may not include them.

For the wider picture, see dictation for nurses, therapists and allied health and the guide to AI medical scribes. For the difference between an AI scribe and dictation, see the glossary entry for medical scribe. For the note formats, read how to dictate SOAP notes, and for nursing, how much time nurses spend on documentation.

What the evidence does not show

We found no peer-reviewed outcome study of AI scribes in psychotherapy from 2025 or 2026 in the sources we searched. Vendor pages and blog posts describe workflows, but they are not evidence of time saved or of accuracy, and we did not use them. Until a controlled study covers therapy sessions, treat any time saving as a hypothesis to measure in your own practice.