Epic will let its hospital AI agents reach into other apps, from ambulance trackers to the cafeteria

Epic, the electronic health record giant, said on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, that app developers can now build "Connectors" that link their software to Epic's AI agents, so the agents can pull in outside information or complete tasks in other apps, such as ordering a hospitalized patient's meal.

Epic sits under the medical records of most Americans, so when it decides how AI agents should talk to everything else in the hospital, that becomes the plumbing for a big chunk of U.S. healthcare. Picking MCP, the same open standard the rest of the AI industry is converging on, is a quietly big deal: it means a meal-ordering app and a prior-authorization tool can plug into the same agents. The catch is the toll booth. Epic decides what gets listed in Showroom and charges developers to be there, so "open and standards-based" still runs through Epic's front door. And with nothing live until health systems test it, this is a roadmap, not a rollout.

Epic is releasing a way for app developers to build Connectors, links between their software and Epic. An electronic health record is the chart software a hospital already runs. A Connector can bring information from another app into Epic. Epic's example is an ambulance app: the emergency department sees when the ambulance will arrive and can get ready. A Connector can also let Epic finish a task in another app. Epic's example there is a meal. A hospitalized patient asks Emmie for food, and Emmie places the order in the hospital's dietary app. Those examples are Epic's.

The agents on Epic's side are Emmie, Art, and Penny. Emmie is Epic's AI for patients. Art is the one for clinicians. Penny is the one for revenue-cycle and operations teams. Revenue cycle is the path from a bill to a paid claim. Health systems can also point custom AI they build in Agent Factory at a Connector. Agent Factory is Epic's workshop for making those agents. It debuted at Epic's User Group Meeting in August with more than 100 pre-built AI features, Fierce Healthcare reports. Those lines are Epic's and Fierce's.

Johnston Thayer, Epic's vice president of health informatics, gave Fierce two more examples. Emmie can bring a patient the hospital's wayfinding instructions, the directions from one department to another. A surgical team can check a medical-equipment app to see whether an assistive device is free. Derek De Young, who leads Agent Factory development, says Connectors cut "swivel-chair" work, the switching from one app to another. Those lines are Fierce's, quoting Thayer and De Young.

Epic plans to start testing Connectors with some health-system partners by the end of 2026, Fierce reports. Health systems can find developer-built Connectors on Epic Showroom starting in March 2027, Epic says. Showroom is Epic's catalog of apps. The announcements do not describe a Connector running in a hospital today.

Before a health system turns a Connector on, it can review what the Connector can do, what information it can read, and what it can change. Permissions are handled at the health-system level, Epic says. Thayer told Fierce the same.

Epic will start with the Model Context Protocol, shortened to MCP, as the standard for building Connectors. MCP is a shared plug so one piece of software can pass a task or a piece of information to another. Thayer told Fierce that Epic may switch if a different standard wins. Those lines are Fierce's.

Epic will charge developers to distribute Connectors through Showroom. Fierce reports that the price was not disclosed. The announcements do not print a number.

Thayer told Fierce that Connectors give the agents no new autonomous actions. They bring in more information for work the agents already do, inside the guardrails those agents already have. An autonomous action, in that distinction, would be the agent deciding on a new kind of move by itself. Thayer says this does not add that.

Developers Epic quotes as early builders are Availity, which works on insurance coverage, prior authorization, and claims; Gozio Health, which does wayfinding; and VPL, whose VPLRx tracks medication delivery. Prior authorization is an insurer's yes or no before it will pay for a treatment. Those names are Epic's. The posts do not say those Connectors are in use at a hospital, and they do not publish a result about patient outcomes or safety.

In plain terms, Epic said on Wednesday that other companies can now build Connectors so Emmie, Art, Penny, and a health system's own Agent Factory agents can read another app or take a step inside it, such as ordering a patient's meal. Testing with some health systems is planned by the end of the year. A Showroom listing is planned for March 2027. Epic did not publish a price.