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By Xavier Villarreal | July 28, 2026
Reducing Nursing Burden by 70% with AI Voice Assistants
In healthcare today, administrative documentation often takes up 25% to 41% of nurses’ time – part of a heavy technology burden that includes many other tasks and systems, as well, according to several studies. In fact, nurses sometimes have to interact with up to 13 different fragmented systems to manage and document patient care.
To tackle this administrative burden, Zebra partner Aiva Health created a single voice interface that helps automate tasks across more than 40 health-tech systems, starting with the Electronic Health Record (EHR).
In this recent podcast interview, I talked with Sarah Visker, Director of Clinical Informatics at Aiva Health, to discuss how AI can reduce burden by 70% while allowing nurses to spend far more time with patients and delivering care.
Some Stark Examples of Nursing Burden and How It Can Be Addressed
If a nurse needs to use a live video translator to communicate with a patient in another language, they usually must get an iPad in the hallway. If a nurse needs to look up a policy and procedure, they typically have to go to a desktop computer and hunt for the exact right information across thousands of documents.
If a clinician needs to place a service request – like for broken equipment in a patient room – they might need to use or search yet another computer or device. And then just performing clinical tasks might require the use of a hospital-issued mobile device with access to the EHR and other mobile apps.
This requires a lot of context switching, which makes everything more fragmented and more burdensome, in addition to documentation, which is already taking up too much time. So, not surprisingly, it’s leading to nursing burnout.
That’s what motivated Aiva to create the Aiva Nurse Assistant to help free up nurses to do what matters most: spend time with patients and deliver outstanding care. Nurse Assistant is a voice-activated app, powered by AI, that makes EHR documentation much easier while providing conversational control of other systems, including work orders, policies and procedures, translation services, messaging, Smart Room devices, TVs and patient meal ordering.
Aiva has charted nearly 3 million observations across clients like Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and BayCare Health. Cedars-Sinai reported key ROI metrics to the AMIA, including:
· Up to 90% faster documentation on high-volume observations
· 50% lower incidental overtime expense
· 37% higher Press Ganey scores on nursing-sensitive questions
When a patient requires translation a nurse no longer needs to leave the bedside to find a shared hallway device. Instead, they can use Avia on their Zebra HC50 touch mobile computer, to quickly voice initiate a session with a live, certified translator.
Similarly, if a patient has special safety needs and requires constant observation, a nurse might normally need to sit right in the patient-room doorway with a computer between them and the patient. Safety observations might need to be documented every 15 minutes, meaning the nurse has to take their eyes off the patient to do so.
AI tools such as Aiva’s solution allow clinicians to document safety observations automatically, without losing eye contact. By simply tapping a button on the Zebra HC50 and speaking a command, Aiva communicates with the backend system to transcribe and log the details without manual entry.
Ultimately, the Aiva Nurse Assistant can connect, manage, and communicate with a wide range of apps, services and systems to convert simple voice commands into documentation, task automation, and even active system controls. The nurse can do this all right from one clinical mobile device, such as a Zebra HC50 touch mobile computer.
It helps take the time and hassle out of so many clinical tasks, such as updating patient records, checking schedules, sending messages, managing room conditions and dietary needs, and completing documentation.
Aiva also integrates and works seamlessly with the wearable Zebra WS101-H Bluetooth Communication badge for hands-free voice interactions with mobile devices, apps, your EHR, and more.
Ironically, it’s all a way to use technology to get nursing back to the way it used to be, before nurses had to deal with endless clicks or flow sheets and other technology interfaces that play a crucial role in delivering safer, more effective care yet may create new challenges and burdens.
To hear the full conversation and delve deeper into the potential to automate nursing tasks and documentation with AI voice assistance, watch or listen to the full podcast below.
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