The New Front Door to Healthcare: How Consumers Are Using AI

We surveyed 1,548 U.S. adults about how they use AI for health decisions, with oversamples of Hispanic, Black, and Asian consumers. Forty-three percent have asked an AI chatbot a health question in the past year. Among Hispanic consumers it's 57%. Among Asian consumers, 54%.

Doctors are already feeling this. Sixty percent of people who've used AI for a health question said it sent them to an appointment they wouldn't have booked otherwise. Sixty-five percent said it gave them a specific drug or treatment name to bring up once they were in the room.

That second number surprised us more than the adoption figure did. Forty-three percent using a chatbot sounds like a curiosity stat but patients showing up already able to name a treatment changes the actual conversation happening in the exam room.

Download the full report here.

Trust hasn't caught up to usage, though. Forty percent of people trust AI chatbots for health information. Trust in Doctors sits at 81%, pharmacists at 70%.

We expected that gap to be about quality. It isn't, at least not according to the people who've actually used these tools: 85% or more of AI health users, across every group we measured, rate the information they got as accurate. So the 40% trust number isn't a verdict on whether AI gets things right. It's a judgement on who's saying it.

We tested that directly. Would you trust an AI health tool built by a big tech company? Thirty-four percent said yes. Would you trust one provided by your own doctor or hospital? Sixty percent said yes.

A 26-point swing on branding alone is a bigger lever than most product features a health system could build this year. If you're a hospital or a pharma brand hesitant to touch AI because it feels like Silicon Valley's territory, this data says the opposite: your name is worth more here than theirs is.

Hispanic and Asian consumers got there first

Hispanic and Asian respondents lead nearly every measure in this study: usage, trust, optimism about where AI is headed, interest in new features. Fifty-six percent of Hispanic consumers are optimistic about AI's future, against 47% for the total market. Fifty-seven percent of Asian consumers trust AI chatbots for health info, against 36% of White consumers.

Some of that comes down to language. Fifty-three percent of Hispanic consumers have used AI to get health information in Spanish or another preferred language, and 38% said it worked well. Forty-one percent of Asian consumers have used AI in a heritage language, and 47% said it gave them information they couldn't easily find elsewhere.

We want to flag something in that number, “Worked well” and “worked” aren't the same claim, and we're relying on self-report here, not a clinical accuracy check. Still, for a household that's been stuck translating a pamphlet by hand or waiting weeks for a bilingual appointment slot, “worked well enough to help” is a real result, and it's one users are reporting without much prompting from us. A brand that shows up early with genuine language support in this space is solving a problem that's been difficult to address for a long time.

Three groups worth a closer look

Black consumers show lower AI usage for health questions (35%, against 43% market-wide), but the reason isn't distrust of the technology. The top answer non-users gave was “I prefer a real doctor.” The second was simply not using AI much at all. Black non-users were also more than twice as likely as Asian or White non-users to say they didn't know AI could help with this kind of question in the first place.

Women lag men on almost everything we asked: usage, trust, comfort, optimism. Only 23% of women who've used AI for health questions have told their doctor about it, compared with 37% of men. Whatever's driving that gap, it isn't education or income, since we controlled for those. It looks more like confidence, and confidence gaps close differently than awareness gaps do.

Boomers are the strangest case in the dataset. Once they try AI for a health question, 90% rate the information as accurate, the highest of any generation. But general trust in AI chatbots among Boomers sits at 27%, the lowest of any generation. They rate it best and trust it least.

One more thing worth noting on the doctor side of this: trust in providers themselves is high and fairly even across the market, with one exception. Black consumers report comfort discussing health concerns with a provider at 82%, ten points below every other group we measured. That gap predates AI and probably says more about the health system than about any chatbot.

What we'd actually do with this

AI will continue to shape how consumers find health information and prepare for medical decisions. Thirty-nine percent expect their use of AI for health to increase. The figure reaches 51% among Asian consumers and 44% among Hispanic consumers.

Healthcare organizations should begin with several priorities:

Build AI tools around established relationships with doctors, health systems and trusted health brands. Develop practical features tied to clear consumer needs. Invest in multilingual and culturally informed experiences. Explain privacy protections and information sources. Give consumers clear guidance about the appropriate role of AI in health decisions.

The adoption data shows that consumers have already incorporated AI into their healthcare routines. Their questions, expectations and behaviors will continue to evolve as the technology becomes more familiar.

Healthcare brands now have an opportunity to shape that experience with accuracy, transparency and cultural relevance.

Download the full report here.

This analysis is drawn from ThinkNow's national study of 1,548 U.S. adults, fielded with oversamples of Hispanic, Black, and Asian consumers. Full topline data and methodology available on request.