How patients are using and not using AI when it comes to their healthcare
Forty percent (40%) of those surveyed said they use AI at least once per day in their personal life, and when it comes to health-related tasks, patients report using a mix of different AI applications, with the majority choosing Google Gemini and ChatGPT.
Interestingly, patients are far more likely to use AI for general fact-finding tasks, such as researching side effects or potential drug interactions, learning more about their diagnosis or condition, checking their symptoms, or simplifying medical jargon.
In stark contrast, they use AI much less for tasks that may require personal data, such as finding a healthcare provider and scheduling an appointment, creating personal diet plans, workout routines, or sleep schedules, using a chatbot for emotional support, or navigating insurance coverage.
This highlights an underlying trust gap when it comes to AI and the disclosure of personal health information. In fact, 74% of patients say they worry about the privacy of their health information, and 71% say they worry about the sale or leak of their protected health information. These concerns are higher for women (78% versus 65% of men) and rural patients (83% versus 72% for urban and 66% for suburban patients).
Which of the following health-related tasks have you used, or would you consider using, an AI tool?
When patients do choose to use AI for health tasks, they receive the most benefit from asking it to break down complex medical information so it’s easier to understand. In fact, one-in-four (26%) patients say that they have sought medical care sooner after researching a potential symptom or condition using AI.
Late Gen Z and early Millennial patients (ages 25-34) note the primary benefit of AI is that it is faster in getting to the answer than waiting for a doctor/nurse. Patients in rural settings ranked both of these two benefits higher than urban patients.
Patient perspectives on autonomous AI in healthcare
Patients are generally comfortable with AI autonomously handling appointment scheduling and note taking, however disparities quickly emerge along gender and age brackets. Men report much higher comfort levels than women when it comes to AI autonomously conducting health-related tasks.
How comfortable would you be with AI being used to do the following autonomously (completely on its own)?
How AI is transforming the patient experience in healthcare?
With the majority of patients choosing to use AI to find and clarify health information, it’s not surprising that 70% of patients say they completely or somewhat agree that AI is currently helping to enable better patient health literacy and engagement. This sentiment is highest for patients ages 18-44.
Geographically speaking, 74% of patients living in urban areas say they believe AI is improving health literacy, compared to 65% of rural patients.
When asked what next steps they take after consulting AI for a health-related question, roughly a third of patients choose to verify the information with a doctor or healthcare professional, and slightly more than one-in-four will cross-reference AI-generated information with a trusted medical website, such as the Mayo Clinic or Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
Drilling a bit further into how patients use AI-generated content, 42% say they frequently or very frequently bring health information to an appointment, with patients aged 18-29 tending to bring AI-generated health information to their medical appointment more frequently than other age groups. Interestingly, women are significantly more likely to never take that information to an appointment, and patients aged 65+ are also more likely to never take AI-generated health content to their clinician. Regardless of age, most patients found that their clinicians welcome and engage with the information they bring.
From a geographic perspective, 57% of patients in urban locations say they bring AI-generated health information to their medical appointments as compared to 31% of rural patients. When it comes to clinician receptivity of this information, 67% of urban patients say it was welcomed compared to 47% of rural patients.
While most patients believe AI is helping to improve the care people receive from their doctors and other healthcare providers, this number is higher for men (78%) than women (60%).