Table 3.

Desired Functions and Benefits of Priority Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Primary Care

Application Area	Desired Functions	Desired Benefits
Higher priority
Documentation	Automate charting Manage prescriptions (generation, refilling, forwarding) Manage referrals	Mitigate provider burnout Liberate time and cognitive freedom for: _∘ Direct, face-to-face patient interaction _∘ Discussions during a visit for patient goals, preferences, and circumstances _∘ Managing medical and social complexity _∘ Coordinating access to care for patients who face high barriers
Practice operations	Collect and verify patient information Optimize staff and learner scheduling^† Predict surges in visits to direct resource planning^†^,^§
Triage	Set an agenda before a visit by distilling patient concerns and taking partial histories Assign concerns to management by virtual or in-person care modalities Consider quality of life and functional impacts in determination of acuity^* Help patients decide if they can safely self-manage a concern, and if not, what health services they require	Prioritized access to synchronous modality of care delivery for those at risk of decompensation, medical need Greater convenience for patients who receive virtual care, especially those with mobility challenges or living rurally^* Optimized provision of and access to care across delivery modalities Decreased wait times^*
Lower priority
Clinical decision support	Synthesize administrative, clinical (eg, patient history, past treatments), biometric data, and other “sources of truth” (eg, evidence, guidelines) to guide diagnosis, treatment, and care planning of rare diseases and common conditions^† Present guidance in real-time during a consult^†,^§ Assist with management of medical complexity	Provide a “second opinion”; help providers “think outside the box”; transfer specialist knowledge into primary care Improve speed and accuracy of diagnosis Reduce trial-and-error treatments, uninformative or burdensome diagnostic tests, and multiple specialist referrals Reduce rates of medical error
Proactive and preventative care	Identify patients who are at high risk of decompensation or loss to follow-up, particularly those who experience structural vulnerability^†,^§ Recall patients with abnormal test results or those due for routine screening^†,^§ Automate early referral to interprofessional care^†	Optimize contact with the provider to improve _∘ Care access _∘ Health equity _∘ Patient safety _∘ Team-based care^†

Notes: Views held exclusively by one participant group are indicated by the symbols below. The absence of a symbol reflects a view shared by patients and provides.
↵* Patient only view.
↵^†Provider only view.
↵§ System leader support.