2nd April 2026
Listening to the public about how AI should support their care is at the heart of CERSI‑AI’s mission. That’s why we funded new work to understand how patients feel about Ambient Voice Technology (AVT), AI tools that can listen to healthcare conversations.
Robin Carpenter from our partner Newton’s Tree has been leading a representative public dialogue to explore the public’s hopes, concerns, and expectations of AVTs. In the blog below, he shares why this matters, and the work to date on this project which aims to elevate the patient voice in the future of AI in the NHS.
Who asked you?
Ambient Voice Technology (AVT), which is AI that listens to conversations to transcribe and summarise them, appeared in healthcare very quickly. This was arguably driven by their value: potentially helping an overwhelmed workforce manage their cognitive load and reducing their burnout. As you would expect, the healthcare ecosystem responded to their rapid emergence by focusing on their safety. National bodies focused on their regulation and managing the known issues like omitting or fabricating information. However, as national bodies, the NHS, and AI vendors collaborated on making this work, someone important seemed to be missing from the conversation:
The patients.
It seemed like there was an important public dialogue to be had about introducing a new third party that will record some of our most intimate conversations and confessions.
Laying the foundations
So, I sought funding from CERSI-AI to set-up a public dialogue to address this. In preparation I spoke to pretty much every leading UK expert on medical AVTs to make sure my idea held water.
What struck me was how much this idea -having a robust public dialogue on AVTs- resonated with people. In calls individuals shared concerns about how their loved ones would be impacted by AVTs, fears that immigration status information would move beyond the clinical team, or questions about how well anybody really understood what they may be ‘consenting’ to.
I submitted a proposal to CERSI-AI and I was lucky enough to be awarded a grant. This grant was paramount because doing a public dialogue well is not cheap, and I wanted this to be done well.
The whole village came together
I can’t stress this enough: doing a public dialogue well takes a village. After speaking to several highly regarded organisations to deliver the public dialogue -to ensure it maintains independence- I chose an independent organisation named Hopkins Van Mil. I chose them for several reasons. They are very experienced, they really focus on their ethical support of participants, and they have delivered several impactful public dialogues on hard hitting topics from digital IDs to assisted dying.
We then needed to establish a governance board to oversee the whole project, and I reached out to leaders in our community, and they said yes! It is composed of people from leading think tanks, charities, and the public sector.
Next, in preparation for the public dialogue, we needed to create education materials for the participants. Again, I reached out to the leaders in the UK healthcare AI space -people I honestly thought would have no time to even read my email- and they said yes, as well!
The very best in the UK healthcare AI community came together to give the members of the public everything they would need to have a robust conversation.
I am overwhelmed with gratitude for their support.
The big day
After months of work, the public dialogue took place in late March, and it may have been the best day of my career. Everything we have been working on for months came together for a robust, honest, and practical conversation. We also had AVT policy writers from the public sector observe the event so they could hear the public’s thoughts first hand.
Hopkins Van Mil has now begun their analysis, and we should have early findings soon. In the meantime, I am working with some groups to help ensure the patient’s voice is heard.
The village needs you
I am working hard to make sure the patient’s voice is loud, speaking to politicians, journalists, and civil servants to name a few groups. But, the patient’s voice can always be louder.
If you know any journalists, think tanks, civil servants, or parliamentarians that would be interested in supporting the patient’s voice, and you are happy to introduce me, then please email me at: avtpublicdialogue@newtonstree.com
Robin Carpenter
Head of AI Governance and policy at Newton’s Tree
Robin Carpenter is the Head of AI Governance and policy at Newton’s Tree, where he focuses on developing best practice in evaluation, deployment, and monitoring of healthcare AI. He is also Visiting Lecturer at King’s College London, an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham, on the oversight committee of several large health tech conferences, and advises locally and nationally on healthcare AI.
