Epic Connectors Let AI Agents Work Across Third-Party Healthcare Apps

Epic's new Connectors capability lets its AI agents access and act within third-party applications, removing the "swivel-chair" work that currently forces clinicians and staff to jump between systems to gather information or complete tasks.

The Connectors work with Epic's three AI tools — Emmie (patient-facing), Art (clinician), and Penny (revenue cycle and operations) — as well as custom agents healthcare organizations build through Agent Factory. One example: Emmie could place a meal order directly in a hospital's dietary management app, or pull ambulance arrival times from an outside system so the ED can prepare.

Key Takeaways

• Open standard: Epic is using the Model Context Protocol (MCP) as the basis for Connectors, keeping them interoperable and avoiding proprietary lock-in.
• March 2027 launch: Healthcare organizations will browse and enable developer-built Connectors through Epic Showroom starting March 2027.
• Permissions stay with health systems: Security, legal, and compliance teams must review and approve each Connector before any data flows — Epic cannot enable them unilaterally.

As VP Johnston Thayer described it, assistive AI is like lane-assist, while agentic AI is a self-driving car. Agents need purpose-built infrastructure — Connectors provide that — rather than workarounds through human-facing interfaces. Epic plans to charge developers for Showroom distribution, though pricing was not disclosed.

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