BOSTON – athenahealth has announced expanded capabilities for Sage, its artificial intelligence assistant integrated into the athenaOne platform, as the healthcare technology company seeks to reduce administrative burdens and streamline clinical workflows.
Unveiled at the company’s Thrive 2026 customer conference, the enhancements bring AI-powered assistance to additional areas of athenaOne, including patient charts, payment posting, value-based care analytics, and customer support. The company also outlined plans to integrate Sage into a redesigned clinical inbox.
The expansion is intended to help clinicians and practice staff access relevant information, interpret patient data, and complete tasks without switching between systems.
“The amount of information in a patient’s chart continues to increase, which is great in theory, but if the information isn’t easily accessible, it isn’t helpful for clinicians,” said Paul Brient, chief product and operations officer at athenahealth.
“Our goal is to make the EHR into the best and most informed medical assistant a clinician has ever had so that clinicians and staff can focus on what matters most: caring for patients,” Brient added.
Sage is already available in patient charts, where it helps clinicians review medical histories, answer questions, and prepare for appointments. According to athenahealth, the assistant has processed more than 110,000 patient chart queries.
Additional capabilities are at various stages of development. Sage’s payment posting functionality, currently in beta, provides billing teams with real-time guidance on claim payment activity. Its value-based care analytics feature, in alpha testing, enables practices to analyze patient populations, assess performance and identify patients eligible for care management programs.
The company is also developing an AI-native clinical inbox to help clinicians prioritize incoming tasks, review patient context, and receive recommended next steps, all while retaining control over clinical decisions.
Beyond the product announcements, athenahealth introduced an on-site engineering initiative at Thrive, enabling clinicians and practice staff to collaborate directly with developers on product improvements.
The company said it conducted nearly 500 alpha and beta programs in 2026, involving more than 10,000 customers, and implemented nearly 250 customer-generated ideas.
These developments reflect AI’s growing role in healthcare technology as providers seek tools that reduce documentation demands, improve operational efficiency and support patient care.
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