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Epic has introduced Connectors, a capability that lets its AI assistants Emmie, Art and Penny access data and take actions inside third-party applications; developer-created Connectors will appear on Epic Showroom starting in March 2027, as first reported by Fierce Healthcare. The Connectors work with Epic’s Agent Factory platform and with custom agents hospitals build there, extending the assistants’ reach beyond the EHR so agents can coordinate multi-step workflows across discrete systems. Epic said the initial standard for building Connectors will be the Model Context Protocol (MCP), and that health systems remain in control of permissions and approval before any Connector is enabled.
The goal is to take what is sometimes a fragmented experience today, where patients, clinicians and healthcare system staff need to be going between multiple different systems or gathering data from multiple different places and bringing that experience together,
Johnston Thayer, vice president of health informatics at Epic
Key takeaways
- Launch and availability: Developer-created Connectors will be available on Epic Showroom starting in March 2027, Epic said.
- Which AI tools are affected: Connectors let Epic’s AI assistants Emmie, Art and Penny, plus custom agents in Agent Factory, access and act in third-party apps.
- Standards and scale: Epic will initially adopt the Model Context Protocol (MCP) as the baseline standard for constructing Connectors.
- Testing and safety: Epic runs thousands of test cases and evaluations on its assistants and intends to pilot Connectors with health systems prior to the end of the year.
- Pre-built features: Epic said Agent Factory launched with more than 100 pre-built AI capabilities that organizations can adapt to their local protocols.
Table of contents
What Connectors do and how they change AI workflows
Epic's Connectors let an AI agent reach beyond the electronic health record to gather information and perform tasks inside third-party applications. A Connector can, for example, pull ambulance arrival time from an EMS app so emergency department staff can prepare, or place a meal order in a hospital dietary management system when a patient asks Emmie. That ability turns the assistants from EHR retrievers into an orchestration layer that can coordinate multi-step workflows across systems.
Agents in Agent Factory can call multiple Connectors to complete a single workflow: one Connector fetches scheduling availability, another checks transportation options and a third confirms a device’s availability. Epic frames this as reducing 'swivel-chair' work—switching between portals—and enabling agents to assemble the data clinicians and patients need without manual aggregation.
Standards, governance and safety controls
Epic said it will initially adopt the Model Context Protocol (MCP) as its standard for building Connectors, aiming to remain standards-based so developers have a clear specification to follow. Epic emphasized that health systems retain control over Connector permissions: before a Connector is activated, a system can inspect the specific actions it will perform, the categories of data it may access and any changes it could make, and security, legal and compliance staff review the resulting data flows.
Epic also described its AI assistants as governed by human-in-the-loop design and human-established protocols. The company said there are thousands of test cases and evaluations run regularly to ensure the assistants operate within specified guardrails, and Epic asserted Connectors will not give the copilots new autonomous capabilities. Those safeguards are intended to keep agent actions within approved limits even as agents surface more external information.
Early use cases and partner interest
Epic highlighted immediate clinical and operational uses that could benefit from Connectors. Examples include wayfinding for patients routed to MyChart by Emmie, checking assistive-device availability for surgical teams, and linking Art with document-management systems so clinicians can retrieve documents during a workflow. Epic named specific industry responses: Russ Thomas, chief executive officer of Availity, said Connectors could reduce administrative complexity across coverage, prior authorization and claims.
Joshua Titus, CEO of Gozio Health, said tying wayfinding into Emmie could smooth patient visits, and Derrek Seif of VPL said connecting VPLRx would surface real-time medication delivery status to care teams. Epic also plans to test Connectors with health systems before the year ends.
Developer and health system implications
Epic will let third-party developers list Connectors on Epic Showroom, and the company said it will charge developers to distribute Connectors there, though it did not disclose pricing. Epic said the charge reflects infrastructure work to make connections available and to respond to participating vendors; pricing details will be shared with vendors that elect to list in the Showroom.
For health systems, the practical implication is a new appraisal step: security, legal and compliance teams must vet each Connector’s read and write scope before enabling it. Health systems should map which operational processes they are willing to permit agents to touch, decide who approves Connector requests and run test cases that mirror real workflows before broad rollout.
| Connector use | Example app | Agent involved | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arrival data | Ambulance/EMS app | Art / Emmie | Pulls ETA so ED can prepare |
| Meal ordering | Dietary management | Emmie | Places patient meal order |
| Wayfinding | Gozio Health | Emmie | Delivers directions to patients |
| Medication status | VPLRx | Art / Penny | Shows medication delivery timing |
How Connectors could play out
The case for
- Faster, coordinated workflows if health systems approve well-scoped Connectors and vendors follow MCP builds, reducing time spent switching between portals.
- Reduced administrative friction for prior authorization, claims and scheduling when agents use Connectors to fetch and push data across systems.
The case against
- Security or privacy gaps if Connector permissions are misconfigured or third-party apps expose vulnerabilities; each Connector expands the surface for data flow.
- Implementation burden on health system compliance and IT teams to review, test and certify each Connector could slow adoption despite potential ROI.
What to be careful about
- Misconfigured Connector permissions could allow unnecessary read or write access to patient data if health system review is incomplete.
- Third-party app vulnerabilities or poor patching practices could expose data even when Epic’s agents operate within guardrails.
- Unclear vendor liability and contractual responsibility for actions taken through Connectors could create legal exposure for health systems.
- Operational risk from multi-step agent workflows failing across disparate systems, which could interrupt patient-facing or clinical processes.
The bottom line
Epic’s Connectors extend the company’s agent strategy by letting its assistants and custom Agent Factory agents reach into third-party applications to fetch data and perform defined tasks. The approach relies on standards such as MCP, health-system approval of Connector permissions, and Epic’s existing test-case regime; those controls shape whether Connectors will deliver reduced administrative burden or add operational and security complexity. For developers, the Showroom opens a commercial route—Epic will charge to list Connectors but has not disclosed pricing—while health systems must tighten review processes before enabling any Connector in production.
What to watch
- Watch for developer-created Connectors to appear on Epic Showroom in March 2027, when listings become publicly available.
- Watch for Epic’s pilot testing of Connectors with health system partners by the end of 2026, and the initial reports those pilots produce about governance and security.
- Watch for any changes to the standards Epic supports; the company said it will use the Model Context Protocol (MCP) initially but may adopt different preferred standards in the future.
Frequently asked questions
When will developers be able to publish Connectors on Epic’s marketplace?
Epic said developer-created Connectors will be available on Epic Showroom starting in March 2027.
Which Epic AI assistants can use Connectors?
Epic named Emmie (patient-facing), Art (clinician assistant) and Penny (revenue cycle and operations) as agents that can use Connectors, and said custom agents built in Agent Factory can also call Connectors.
What standards will developers use to build Connectors?
Epic plans to use the Model Context Protocol (MCP) initially as the standard for building Connectors, while leaving open the possibility of adopting different preferred standards later.
Who controls what a Connector can access in a health system?
Epic said permissions are handled at the health system level; security, legal and compliance teams at each system review what information a Connector can read and what it can change before enabling it.
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