An AI template teaches splose AI how your practice documents, once, instead of once per note. You set the structure, add AI blocks to draft each section, and write one set of AI instructions that every block follows. Everything you teach a template carries into every note built from it.
This guide covers what an AI template is made of, how AI templates and block prompts work together, how to add each of them, and what to write in your instructions.
Before you begin
To set up AI in your progress note templates, you need:
splose AI enabled for your workspace
A splose AI subscription applied to your user
Permission to edit progress note templates
What an AI template is
You write the same kind of note over and over. The work that makes AI genuinely useful, telling it how your discipline documents, what each section covers and what to leave out, is worth doing once rather than every time you open a note.
That is what an AI template is for.
An AI template is an ordinary progress note template with AI built into it. There is no separate template type to create. Add AI blocks to a progress note template and it becomes one.
The three parts
The note structure. Your headings, tables, fixed text and placeholders, exactly as templates work today.
AI blocks. Each block drafts one section of the note from its own prompt. Your Subjective section would be one AI block.
AI instructions. One set of instructions that applies to every AI block in the template. This is where you tell the AI what to look at and how you want your notes written.
You do not need all three. A template with only structure is a normal template. Add blocks, and it starts drafting sections for you. Add AI templates, and every one of those blocks follows them too.
Build the blocks first. AI templates apply to AI blocks, so a template with no blocks will not change no matter what you write in the AI templates field.
Why it is worth setting up properly
You only do it once. Everything you teach a template carries into every note built from it, this week and next year. Refining a prompt inside a single note helps that note. Putting it in the template helps every note after it.
Your whole practice benefits. Progress note templates are shared, so everyone using one gets the same instructions and the same blocks. A senior clinician or team lead can set the standard once, and the whole team documents to it. New starters produce notes to your practice's standard from their first session, without needing to know anything about writing AI instructions.
Your notes stay consistent. The same structure, language and level of detail across every practitioner and every session. That matters for audits, handovers and continuity of care.
You change it in one place. Decide you want shorter notes, or different terminology, and you change the template. Every note from that point on follows the new version.
How AI templates and AI blocks work together
AI templates are for anything true of the whole note: what the AI should look at and how far back to go, what it must not include, your discipline, your writing style, your terminology. Write it once, and every block follows it.
A block's own prompt is for what that section actually is: what it covers, and how that particular section should be laid out.
When the two disagree, the block wins
If your AI template says "Write in short dot points" but your Summary block says "Write this as a short paragraph", the Summary comes back as a paragraph, and every other block comes back as dot points.
This is intentional. If you have taken the trouble to set something different on one block, we assume that is what you want.
What this means in practice: if an instruction you set does not seem to be applying to one section, check that block's own prompt first. It is almost always contradicting it.
Add AI blocks to your template
An AI block is a section of your note that splose AI drafts for you. You give it a prompt saying what that section is, and when you generate, it writes that section using your session transcript and your client's history. You read what it produced and accept it before it becomes part of the note.
Blocks are the part that does the writing, so build these first. AI instructions will not change anything until your template has at least one block in it.
Add a block
In the template editor, select + Add AI block at the top of the template, beside the AI instructions field.
Load an AI Block from your library, or add a new one.
Write a prompt saying what that section covers.
Save the template.
You can also add a block anywhere in the template using the + button, the / command, or the AI blocks dropdown.
What a block prompt should say
Keep each block prompt to what that section is, and nothing more.
For the Assessment section of an occupational therapy progress note, you might write:
This is the Assessment section of this progress note. Document a clinical analysis of the patient's occupational performance and progress based on today's session and the patient's documented history. Note progress toward goals, patterns across recent sessions, and any emerging clinical concerns. Reference specific goals where documented.
For the Presenting Concerns section of a speech pathology initial assessment, you might write:
This is the Presenting Concerns section of this assessment. Document the primary concerns raised by the patient, family, or carer during this assessment. Include the nature of the presenting difficulty, onset, and impact on daily communication, learning, feeding, or participation.
Everything else belongs in the template's AI instructions: your discipline, your writing style, which history to draw on, what to leave out. Set it there once and every block follows it.
A rule of thumb. If you find yourself writing the same sentence into more than one block prompt, it belongs in the AI instructions instead.
One thing to know before you build. AI blocks write text, not tables. A block can sit inside a table cell, which works well for simple label-and-response layouts. Plan for more elaborate tables to be completed by hand.
For the full detail on creating, generating, reviewing and refining blocks, see Using AI Blocks in splose.
Add AI instructions to a template
Go to Settings, then Templates, then Progress Notes.
Open the template you want to edit, or create a new one.
At the top of the template, click AI instructions.
If the AI instructions field is empty, select Start from example. This drops in a fill-in-the-blanks example you can adapt. At minimum, replace the placeholders with your discipline (for example, "Physiotherapist specialising in aged care") and your session type (for example, "Initial assessment").
Write your instructions, then select Save.
📝 Start from example only appears when the AI instructions field is empty. Library templates arrive with their instructions already written, so you'll be editing rather than starting from scratch.
If you have been repeating the same instructions in every block, this is what to do with them. Most practitioners have the same lines copied across all their block prompts: the discipline, the tense, the formatting, the things to leave out. Cut those out of the individual blocks and put them here once. Leave each block's prompt saying only what that section is. Your notes should come out the same, and from now on you change that style in one place instead of six.
What to put in your AI templates
Your AI template covers two things: what the AI should look at, and how it should write.
They can be as light or as detailed as you like. Two or three lines about how you write will noticeably improve your notes. A longer, more specific set will get you closer to how you would have written it yourself. Neither is wrong. It depends on how particular your practice is about documentation, and how much time you want to put in.
What follows is a menu, not a checklist. Take what is useful and leave the rest. If you only add one thing beyond your writing style, make it the second one below. Telling the AI what to look at usually improves a note more than anything else you can change, and it is the part most people never think to include.
1. Who you are and what you are writing
Start by telling it your discipline, the type of session it is, and what kind of note you want.
I am an occupational therapist, and I have just completed a session with a patient. I need to write a progress note documenting today's session in a SOTAP format.
2. What it should look at, and in what order
This is the most useful part, and the one most people skip. Be explicit about which sources you want used and how far back to go. Left to its own devices, the AI casts a wide net and pulls in more history than the note needs.
First, review any content already written in the current progress note. Then the patient details. Then the most recent 3 previous progress notes for this patient. Then the most recent appointment details, and the next 2 upcoming booked appointments if any exist. Use the session transcript as the primary source of clinical content, alongside the other retrieved information.
3. What it must not do
Content rules are how you keep the note clinically safe and free of noise.
Only include information explicitly present in the transcript, current note content, patient details, appointment details, or previous progress notes. Do not fabricate or infer clinical content not present in these sources.
Silently discard anything that is not clinically relevant: personal reminders, uncertainties, admin notes and self-corrections. If something is unclear or uncertain, omit it.
That second rule is worth its weight. Real sessions contain a lot that should not end up in a clinical record.
4. How it should read
Write in plain, direct clinical language. Use short, active and simple sentences. Avoid formal report language, passive constructions, and clinical jargon where plain language conveys the same meaning.
Refer to the patient by their preferred name.
5. How it should be laid out
Format each section using concise dot points unless this practitioner's previous notes use paragraphs, in which case match that style.
6. What you do not want in the output
Small, and it saves a lot of tidying up.
Output only the completed sections. Do not include bolded subheadings of each section in the output, as these are already in the note.
A full example
This is a complete set of AI templates for an occupational therapy progress note. Adapt it to your discipline and how you write.
I am an occupational therapist and I have just completed a session with a patient. I need to write a progress note documenting today's session in a SOTAP format.
First, review any content already written in the current progress note. Then the patient details. Then the most recent 3 previous progress notes for this patient. Then the most recent appointment details, and the next 2 upcoming booked appointments, if any exist. Use the session transcript as the primary source of clinical content, alongside the other retrieved information.
Content rules:
- Write in plain, direct clinical language appropriate to occupational therapy practice. Use short, active and simple sentences. Avoid formal report language, passive constructions, and clinical jargon where plain language conveys the same meaning.
- Only include information explicitly present in the transcript, current note content, patient details, or appointment details. Do not fabricate or infer clinical content not present in these sources.
- Silently discard anything that is not clinically relevant. If something is unclear or uncertain, omit it.
- Refer to the patient by their preferred name, not "the patient".
- Format each section using concise dot points.
You do not have to start there
The example above is a mature set of instructions, built up over time. You do not need to write that on day one. Start with three or four lines:
I am a [discipline] writing a progress note for a [service type] session.
Use the session transcript as the primary source. Also review the patient's details and their most recent 3 progress notes prior to this one.
Only include information present in those sources. Do not infer or invent clinical content.
Write in plain, direct language using short dot points.
Generate a note, read what comes back, and add a line for each thing you find yourself fixing by hand. That is how the longer example was built.
What does not belong here
Anything specific to one section. If it is only true of your Assessment block, put it in the Assessment block. Keeping section-specific detail out of your shared instructions is what stops your blocks contradicting each other.
Change AI templates for a single note
The instructions set on your template also appear inside every note built from it, so you can adjust them for one note without editing the template.
Open or create a progress note.
To the right of the Service dropdown, click AI template instructions.
Make your change, then choose what happens next:
Button | What it does | When to use it |
Generate all blocks | Saves your instruction changes for this note, then generates every AI block in it | You've finished editing and want the note drafted now |
Regenerate all blocks | Saves your changes and regenerates blocks you've already generated, following the new instructions | You've already generated blocks and want them redone under the updated instructions |
Keep changes | Saves your instruction changes for this note only, without generating anything | You're not ready to generate yet |
📝 These buttons only appear when you're editing instructions inside a progress note. In the template editor (Settings → Templates → Progress Notes), the AI instructions field will only include Save as an option.
Use this when a session is an exception: a longer initial assessment, a report-style write-up, or a note going to a third party.
Making changes to the AI templates within a progress note will only apply to that progress note, and not to the template. To edit the instructions for all future uses of that template, follow these steps.
Where AI templates come from
There are two ways to get an AI template.
Use one from the AI template library. splose has built discipline-specific templates with practising clinicians, with the AI blocks and AI instructions already written. This is the fastest way to see what a well-built AI template produces. See Using the AI template library.
Build your own. Add AI blocks to any progress note template or progress note and start writing prompts in each section. See Using AI Blocks in splose.
Most practitioners end up doing both: start with a library template, adjust it, and build their own for the note types we do not cover yet.
Things to note
AI templates have a 4000 character limit.
The AI templates field starts blank on every existing template, and a blank field means your template behaves exactly as it always has. Fill it in when you are ready.
Progress note templates are shared. AI templates you set on a template apply to everyone who uses it, from their next note onwards. Existing and in-progress notes are not changed.
AI templates do nothing on a template with no AI blocks in it.
Templates from the AI template library arrive with their AI templates already written, designed to work with their block prompts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to use AI templates?
Do I have to use AI templates?
No. The field starts blank and a blank field changes nothing. Your existing templates and blocks work exactly as they did.
Do AI templates replace my block prompts?
Do AI templates replace my block prompts?
No. You still need a prompt on each block saying what that section is. AI instructions handle everything that is true of every section, so your block prompts can get shorter.
Will AI templates write the whole note for me?
Will AI templates write the whole note for me?
No. AI instructions apply to your AI blocks. If there are no blocks in the template, nothing is generated.
What happens if my AI templates and a block prompt say different things?
What happens if my AI templates and a block prompt say different things?
The block wins for that section. Everything else follows your AI instructions.
Is there a length limit to AI templates?
Is there a length limit to AI templates?
Yes, 4000 characters.
If I change the AI templates on a shared template, does it affect my team?
If I change the AI templates on a shared template, does it affect my team?
Yes. Instructions set on a template apply to everyone who uses that template, from their next note onwards. Existing and in-progress notes are not changed.
Does changing AI templates update notes I have already written?
Does changing AI templates update notes I have already written?
No. It only affects notes generated from that point on.
Do library templates come with AI templates already written?
Do library templates come with AI templates already written?
Yes. Templates from the AI template library arrive with their AI instructions and block prompts written to work together. You can change them.
Can I control which client history the AI looks at?
Can I control which client history the AI looks at?
Yes. Your AI instructions are the place to say which sources to use and how much history to include. Being specific here usually improves the note more than anything else you can change.
Can I stop it inventing things?
Can I stop it inventing things?
You can reduce the risk. Add an instruction telling the AI to use only the sources you name and not to infer anything beyond them. AI can still get things wrong, so read the generated content before you accept it. What goes into the clinical record stays in your control.
Troubleshooting
I wrote AI templates, and nothing changed.
I wrote AI templates, and nothing changed.
AI instructions apply only to AI blocks. Check that your template has at least one AI block in it for the instructions to apply to.
One section is ignoring my AI templates.
One section is ignoring my AI templates.
Check that block's own prompt. If a block's prompt contradicts your AI instructions, the block wins for that section. Remove the contradicting line from the block, or change your AI instructions.
My existing templates have an empty AI templates field.
My existing templates have an empty AI templates field.
That is expected. The field starts blank on every existing template, and blank means your template behaves exactly as it always has. Fill it in when you are ready.
I cannot see the AI templates field.
I cannot see the AI templates field.
Check that you have a splose AI subscription and permission to edit progress note templates. Your workspace admin can check both.
My notes changed, but I did not change anything.
My notes changed, but I did not change anything.
If you work in a practice where templates are shared, check whether someone else has updated the template's AI instructions. Instructions set on a template apply to everyone using it.
The AI is pulling in old history I do not need, or missing history I do.
The AI is pulling in old history I do not need, or missing history I do.
Be explicit in your AI instructions about which sources to use and how far back to go. For example, "review the most recent 3 previous progress notes".