NextGen Ambient Assist vs Sunoh.ai (2026)
Two scribes native to their record systems, aimed at the same ambulatory practice, and they disagree about how far a scribe reaches into the order. Sunoh pre fills labs, imaging, procedures, medication orders and follow up details from the conversation for the clinician to review. NextGen Ambient Assist stops short, placing the note in the NextGen Enterprise chart pending provider review with ICD-10 codes, medications and lab or imaging orders offered as suggestions. A pre filled order is a clinical action waiting for a signature, where a suggestion is a prompt. Sunoh also publishes its price, $149 per user a month with a free trial, while NextGen activates Ambient Assist through an account representative. The record system a practice already runs usually decides this, so the comparison matters for a practice choosing between the two platforms.
- It is conservative where it matters. Codes, medications and orders arrive as suggestions rather than pre filled entries, and the note lands in the chart pending provider review.
- The data handling statement is specific, with audio and transcripts never stored or saved and transcripts used only to generate the note.
- Security is attested by NextGen itself, with annual SOC 2 Type II and SOC 3 audits, a HITRUST CSF letter, TX-RAMP level 2 certification and DirectTrust accreditation.
- The price is on the page, at $149 per user a month as a limited time rate, with a free trial and a business associate agreement and implementation included.
- Orders are drafted for the clinician, with labs, imaging, procedures, medication orders and follow up details pre filled from the conversation.
- The specialty list runs past medicine, to vision clinics and dental practices, where Sunoh produces periodontal charting and treatment plans.
This comparison is published by AI Health Index, an independent research platform that compares healthcare AI vendors objectively. NextGen Ambient Assist and Sunoh.ai are each graded against the same capability taxonomy, from each vendor's own public materials and the regulatory record, under the AI Health Index verification standard. No vendor pays for placement, and no vendor has reviewed this page. How this evidence is graded
Plain facts
| Fact | NextGen Ambient Assist | Sunoh.ai |
|---|---|---|
| Primary category | Ambient Scribes | Ambient Scribes |
| Founded | 1974 | 2023 |
| Headquarters | Not recorded | Westborough, Massachusetts, United States |
| Website | nextgen.com | sunoh.ai |
Side by Side
Select any grade to read the note behind it.
Each vendor in one paragraph
Written to be quoted whole. Each paragraph opens the AI Health Index profile of the vendor: what the product is, who buys it and what it does.
NextGen Ambient Assist is the native ambient documentation capability inside NextGen Healthcare's ambulatory EHR, aimed at the independent and specialty practice market NextGen serves. It listens through the NextGen Mobile app, returns a structured SOAP note within about thirty seconds, and places it directly in the patient's NextGen Enterprise chart pending provider review, along with suggested ICD-10 codes, medications and lab or imaging orders.
Source: AI Health Index, August 2026
Sunoh.ai is the ambient AI scribe from healow, an eClinicalWorks company, and the documentation option built into the eClinicalWorks record system. It listens to the visit and produces a transcript, a dialogue flow and a draft note sorted into Progress Note sections, and it captures labs, imaging, procedures, medication orders and follow up details from the conversation as draft orders.
Source: AI Health Index, August 2026
Questions buyers ask
How do NextGen Ambient Assist and Sunoh.ai work with the EHR?
The interoperability asset usually attributed to NextGen, the Mirth Connect integration engine supporting HL7v2, FHIR R4 and C-CDA, belongs to the parent platform rather than to this module, and third party scribes hold certified NextGen integrations of their own, so native does not automatically mean deepest here.
Beyond its home system, Sunoh.ai names integrations with athenahealth, Cerner, Epic, ModMed, Practice Fusion and Tebra, without published detail on what each reads or writes. Other browser based record systems are reached through EHR Sync, a free Chrome extension configured once per EHR, which reads patient data, drafts notes and sends them into the record after the clinician reviews and approves them. From the AI Health Index, drawn from each vendor's own published materials and the regulatory record, verified August 4, 2026. No vendor pays for placement.
How are NextGen Ambient Assist and Sunoh.ai priced and sold?
Activation runs through a NextGen account representative and pricing is negotiated by practice size and contract, so the ambient line item is bundled inside an EHR relationship reported by third parties at roughly $150 to $500 per provider per month for the platform overall.
Sunoh.ai lists $149 per user per month, marked as a limited time rate, with a sign up that carries no contract commitment and with implementation services, the voice recognition system and a business associate agreement included. EHR Sync carries no extra charge, so the cost can be sized and the product started without a sales conversation, though the page does not say what the rate becomes when the offer ends. From the AI Health Index, drawn from each vendor's own published materials and the regulatory record, verified August 4, 2026. No vendor pays for placement.
Which settings and specialties do NextGen Ambient Assist and Sunoh.ai cover?
With NextGen Ambient Assist, no inpatient or emergency coverage and no published language coverage.
Sunoh.ai publishes pages for family and internal medicine, pediatrics, cardiology, dermatology, orthopedics, urgent care, ambulatory surgery centers, behavioral health with DAP notes, vision clinics, and dental practices, where it produces periodontal charting and treatment plans. Dental and optometry documentation follow different structures from physician notes, which widens the fit for a multispecialty or dental group. From the AI Health Index, drawn from each vendor's own published materials and the regulatory record, verified August 4, 2026. No vendor pays for placement.
What evidence is published for NextGen Ambient Assist and Sunoh.ai?
For NextGen Ambient Assist, the 2023 launch claimed up to two hours of documentation time saved per day; the current product page claims 2.5 hours, alongside five additional patients per day and up to a 90 percent reduction in weekend charting.
Sunoh.ai publishes more than 30 customer stories from practices and health centers such as Family Health Centers, Hendry Regional Medical Center, Indiana University Health Center and MedFlorida Medical Centers. Their quotes report up to two hours saved a day, notes closed the same day rather than within three days, and one practice cutting documentation time by 50 percent or more. From the AI Health Index, drawn from each vendor's own published materials and the regulatory record, verified August 4, 2026. No vendor pays for placement.
Related comparisons
Other published head to head assessments involving these vendors or their closest peers. The full set for this category is on the Ambient Scribes page.
NextGen publishes an accuracy figure of over 90 percent without a definition, denominator or reference standard, and Sunoh publishes no accuracy figure. Neither publishes results by accent or dialect, or an accuracy rate for suggested or drafted orders. NextGen publishes no business associate position for the product, and Sunoh's certifications are stated by its parent eClinicalWorks without a scope statement for Sunoh.
An earlier version of this comparison said NextGen's trust page describes its cloud host's security posture rather than the product's; the page states NextGen's own SOC 2 Type II and SOC 3 audits, HITRUST CSF letter and TX-RAMP certification. That statement was corrected on 10 October 2026.