Privacy fears keep patients from using AI in healthcare: survey
- Over 70% of patients worry about the privacy of their health information.
- Around 89% say AI health responses need human oversight.
- About 30% would use AI to find a healthcare provider.
- Ipsos polled 254 U.S. patients in March for Wolters Kluwer.
WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES — Patients are less willing to use artificial intelligence (AI) for healthcare when it needs access to their personal data or protected health information, with over 70% worried about the privacy of that information.
Around 89% said AI responses in healthcare need human oversight.
Trust gap limits AI use
The findings come from a survey that market research firm Ipsos conducted for Wolters Kluwer, polling 254 U.S. patients in March, Healthcare Dive reported.
AI is already part of daily life for many respondents, with 40% saying they use it at least once a day in their personal lives.
About 1 in 4 said they sought healthcare sooner after using AI to research symptoms or conditions.
Patients ages 25 to 34 and those in rural areas said the main benefit was getting answers to health questions faster than waiting for clinicians.
But only about 30% said they would use AI to find a healthcare provider, 28% to create a personal diet plan, workout routine or sleep schedule, and 19% to navigate insurance coverage.
That runs counter to prior research showing patients use AI to search for providers online and ask questions about health insurance.
Privacy concerns were more pronounced among women and rural patients than among their counterparts.
Patients want human checks
Patients also worried about AI’s propensity for bias (72%) and hallucinations (69%), with those aged 25 to 29 more concerned about AI risks than other age groups.
A vast majority said it is important that a human expert validates AI-generated health responses, and most expect clinical AI tools to be formally approved by their health system.
Yet AI tools appear to be at least occasionally implemented without IT approval, which could worsen patient trust.
Nearly half said AI tools used for health advice should undergo federal testing and approval, similar to the scrutiny new medications face.
Respondents also flagged a lack of clarity over who is responsible if AI recommendations are wrong or harmful.
For health systems, the results suggest that patient-facing AI will only win adoption if it comes with clear governance and a human in the loop.
That applies equally to healthcare outsourcing partners running patient access, scheduling and telehealth support, where AI tools touch protected health information every day.
Organizations comparing vendors among the top U.S. healthcare outsourcing companies can ask how each one validates AI outputs and protects patient data.
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Disclosure: Outsource Accelerator uses AI tools in the backend of its editorial workflow. Every article is reviewed and verified by a human editor before publication.
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