Nearly One-In-Six Americans Have Acted On AI Medical Advice Without Speaking To Human, Poll Shows

Over 15% of Americans have previously made healthcare decisions based on advice from artificial intelligence programs without first consulting a human doctor, per an Insuranceopedia survey released Wednesday.

Almost one in six respondents, 15.2%, reported skipping, delaying, or seeking medical treatment based on AI advice, per the survey. By comparison, about 9% of Americans had paid, disputed or ignored a medical bill based on what an AI chatbot told them, while 8.9% had used AI advice to select or change a health insurance plan, the poll shows.

The new poll suggests that over 18% of respondents aged 18–24 made a medical bill-related decision based on recommendations from a chatbot, while about 15% of respondents aged 25–34 did the same.

“Our data show that education or digital literacy don’t make much difference when it comes to who is willing to take AI medical advice a step further and act on it without consulting a doctor. While this is clearly a risky trend, it seems that affordability, speed, and convenience are starting to outweigh professional advice,” Insuranceopedia CEO Max Coupland said in a statement.

Twenty-six percent of millennials said they would likely skip, postpone or seek medical treatment based solely on AI advice, according to the survey. Moreover, almost 19% of Americans aged 35 to 44 with health insurance reported having done the same thing. (Read more from “Nearly One-In-Six Americans Have Acted On AI Medical Advice Without Speaking To Human, Poll Shows” HERE)