Epic plans to sunset its Workshop program as the EHR giant moves away from codeveloping with startups.
The vendor launched the initiative, then called Partners and Pals, in 2023 to build software in partnership with outside companies, including AI scribe developers Abridge and Microsoft’s Nuance. Epic intends to transition the firms still in the program to Toolbox, which offers integration with the EHR.
“When we established the Workshop program, the intention was always for apps to move from Workshop to Toolbox as the underlying integration progresses from initial development to maturity,” an Epic spokesperson told Becker’s. “Ambient voice recognition (AVR) is now mature and widely used in everyday clinical practice, so the AVR Workshop will soon close and the apps using this integration will be listed under Toolbox.”
Epic has also since become a competitor to startups like Abridge as the EHR company creates its own ambient AI tool (which will incorporate technology from Microsoft), set to be released in early 2026. Microsoft and Abridge are the current leaders in the $600 million AI scribe market, controlling nearly two-thirds of the business. Becker’s reached out to Abridge for comment.
Epic, itself the frontrunner in the U.S. hospital EHR market, intends to later dissolve the other two Workshop categories — Contact Center Productivity Tools and Patient Feedback & Insights — before retiring the program entirely. Genesys and Talkdesk have codeveloped with Epic in the Contact Center segment, while Press Ganey and Qualtrics (which recently agreed to acquire Press Ganey for $6.75 billion) have participated in Patient Feedback & Insights.
The Epic spokesperson explained how Workshop works: “We undertake a significant amount of R&D to codevelop innovative technology with certain vendors. Some of these vendors are startups. In rare cases, we’ve taken a flexible approach to how they finance their participation, offering arrangements that allow them to contribute to codevelopment without facing upfront costs.
“We do not disclose the specific terms of individual agreements. However, at no point has Epic operated a program that required companies to sell us an ownership stake, nor has Epic ever acquired another company.”
Axios first reported the end of the program Oct. 23.
