Nurses are fearing AI less

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As more U.S. nurses work with artificial intelligence in their patient care workflows, those that do are less concerned about AI taking their jobs (37%), according to a new report from Incredible Health, a healthcare staffing software company.

"Nurses' AI usage nearly tripled in a year, from 15% to 44%," researchers explain in the survey. "The more a nurse uses AI, the less they fear it."

Their findings reveal that while nurses are actively using AI for clinical tasks and job searches, they remain skeptical of its accuracy and rollout, suggesting that healthcare employers can bridge operational gaps and improve retention by involving staff in AI strategy and addressing non-monetary workplace needs, such as flexible scheduling and adequate staffing.

The 2026 Annual State of Nursing report combined the results of a survey of 2,240 U.S. nurses with relevant data from Incredible Health's platform to assess AI adoption trends and future implications for employee retention.

Overall, 16% of the survey respondents said they feel AI will hurt the workforce, while 67% of regular nurse AI users said they think AI will help the workforce.

Of the nurses who said they are regularly using AI, 86% are "satisfied" or "somewhat satisfied," but remain dubious about tool accuracy and purpose.

Many indicated that they are concerned about the need to verify AI results – 83% of nurses surveyed said "AI output is rarely or only sometimes accurate enough to act on without checking it first," the researchers said in their seventh annual report.

Trust in AI could be improved with nurses' involvement in tool selection and how healthcare organizations handle tool rollouts.

"Trust also eases the fear that AI will erode the workforce, and the easiest way to build trust is to involve frontline workers early, especially in the tool selection phase, and offer training during rollouts," they said.

"Yet, only 8% of nurses say their employer has set a clear AI strategy for how AI is to be applied to their work."

One in five nurses surveyed said their AI tools "just appear" without a stated plan or explanation from leadership.

Of the 34% of nurse respondents who use AI for healthcare-specific purposes, 28% said they use Epic AI, 8% use ambient documentation tools, and 4% use OpenEvidence.

Nurses were also mixed on whether AI saves them time in their workflows.

Nearly half of nurses using AI tools regularly reported that the tools saved them little or no time, while 19% of nurses who use AI said it saved them more than an hour.

Most nurses also actively search for new roles using AI. The primary driver: More than half surveyed said they are not fairly paid.

Case in point: About 4,000 nurses at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston participated in a one-day strike Wednesday over wages and benefits, according to local news.

Based on the study findings, healthcare organizations could retain nurses considering new roles by focusing on the actions that they value beyond pay increases (which 54% said would need to be above 15% for them to feel fairly compensated).

Employers should focus on ensuring adequate staffing on shifts, flexible scheduling and leadership opportunities, according to the nurses surveyed.

Nurses use AI to find new employment, while their employers rely heavily on outdated hiring processes, the researchers said.

Only 4% of survey respondents said they use AI during hiring and screening of new nurses for their teams, while 59% said they use or have considered using AI to find new roles, polish their resumes and prepare for interviews.

"This gap is a key opportunity: healthcare employers that screen more candidates with speed have a faster hiring process, connect with more candidates and win the best talent, especially in highly competitive markets," said researchers.

Nurses have long had a deep distrust of AI, with many accusing their organizations of using it to take dangerous shortcuts.

Fast forward to today and many health systems have embraced AI-powered documentation tools to reduce doctors' administrative burdens and are looking to give more nurses the power of generative AI to reduce excessive charting burdens.

Nursing leaders, however, quickly note that frontline documentation needs are not the same as paragraph-style notetaking that are the hallmark of unstructured physician data.

"Nursing documentation is a completely different world," explained Sarah Visker, RN, director of clinical informatics at Aiva Health.

While nurses work through upward of 800 discrete data points spread across multiple flowsheets and documentation fields, timing is also a factor, Visker told Healthcare IT News last month. Many of their care observations must be entered repeatedly as patient conditions change.

The key to remember as nursing AI tools are developed is "Nothing for nurses without nurses," she said.

"In a single year, nurses using AI nearly tripled, including charting, drug and clinical reference lookups and finding their next job," the researchers said in this year's annual state of nursing report. "However, adoption of AI among healthcare employers has just started. Without a cohesive strategy, thoughtful rollout and robust training, the productivity gains from that adoption remain minimal."

Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.Email: [email protected]Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.