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Docs Want AI Comp, Oura in the Hot Seat, and the Evidence on OpenEvidence
By Jason Barry and Virginia Hunt
August 31, 2026
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Together with
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“Despite all the energy poured into fixing American health care, it still fails and impoverishes too many people.”
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Doximity CEO Jeff Tagney
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Doximity’s latest Physician Compensation Report asked who should benefit financially when AI lets physicians complete more work in less time. Turns out doctors think it should be doctors.
Checks out:)
Jason
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Doximity’s 2026 Physician Compensation Report told a familiar story with an unexpected plot twist. Modest raises are still getting outpaced by not-so-modest inflation, but physicians now want a slice of all the AI-driven productivity gains.
Average physician pay rose 2% in 2025. The headline stat from nearly 23k surveys marked a significant slowdown from +3.7% the year before. It also trailed full-year inflation of 2.7%.
- Neurosurgery once again led all specialties at $829k, interventional radiology grew fastest at 10.8%, and radiology was the only specialty to crack the top 10 for growth two years running.
- The surgical specialist premium over primary care widened to 90.1% (from 87.3%), reversing three years of narrowing, while the gender pay gap sat unchanged at 26%.
The bigger story was AI’s growing impact. When Doximity asked who should primarily benefit financially if AI lets physicians complete more clinical work in the same amount of time, physicians primarily nominated themselves.
- 44% said physicians (rising to 50% among PCPs), 20% said the gains should be shared, 17% picked patients, 11% picked their employers, and a whopping 2% picked payors.
- There’s less agreement on the mechanics. 36% said physician compensation for a service should change if AI substantially reduces their time or effort for that service, while 43% said it should stay put.
Burnout is the bargaining power. The report lays out some compelling reasons why physicians feel they deserve some AI upside, and why they might actually be able to get it.
- 82% of docs report being overworked, 66% are considering a career change, and the share considering early retirement jumped from 34% to 46% in a single year.
- Those are some scary numbers all around, and despite all of the new tech promising to make life easier, 76% of physicians would trade lower pay for more autonomy or work-life balance.
- Health systems and physician employers could try to bank all the AI efficiency gains for themselves, but they’re negotiating with a workforce that’s already eyeing the exits.
The Takeaway
Most payment models in healthcare ultimately put a price on physician time, so there’s inevitably going to be some serious discussions when AI starts impacting that time. Doximity’s report just showed that physicians are already pulling up chairs to the negotiating table.
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Be Part of Elevate
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Unlock Better Care With LOLA
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