# Most Americans who use AI for health information do so to supplement doctor visits, Gallup finds > One in four U.S. adults now use AI tools for health information, a West Health-Gallup survey of 5,500 adults found. About 14 million skipped a doctor visit based on AI advice in the past 30 days. - Type: AI news - Page: https://completeaitraining.com/news/most-americans-who-use-ai-for-health-information-do-so-to/ - Published: 2026-04-15 - Updated: 2026-04-15 - Author: Jeroen Erne - Jobs: Healthcare - Reading time: 2 min ### One in Four Americans Now Use AI for Health Advice, Often Before Doctor Visits Twenty-five percent of U.S. adults have used an AI tool or chatbot for health information, according to a nationally representative survey of more than 5,500 adults conducted between October and December 2025 by the West Health-Gallup Center on Healthcare in America. Most treat AI as a supplement to traditional care rather than a replacement. Among recent users, 59% said they use [ChatGPT](https://completeaitraining.com/tag/chatgpt/), Google AI summaries, or similar tools to research before visiting a doctor. Fifty-six percent use AI after appointments to better understand their care. #### Who's Using AI for Health, and Why Age shapes how Americans approach AI-assisted health research. Sixty-nine percent of adults aged 18 to 29 who use AI for health information said they research before doctor visits, compared with 43% of those 65 and older. Income drives usage when cost or access barriers exist. Among households earning less than $24,000 annually, 32% said they used AI because they couldn't afford a doctor visit. That figure drops to 2% for households earning $180,000 or more. Some Americans turn to AI after experiencing poor care. Fourteen percent of recent users said they used AI because they couldn't pay for a visit, 16% because they couldn't access a provider, and 21% because they felt dismissed by a previous provider. #### What Americans Ask AI About Health questions tend to cluster around everyday concerns. Fifty-nine percent of recent users asked AI about nutrition or exercise, and 58% asked about physical symptoms. Beyond basic information, users seek help interpreting medical complexity. Forty-six percent asked AI to explain medication side effects, 44% to interpret medical information, and 38% to research a diagnosis. #### The Trust Problem Confidence in AI-generated health information remains low. Only 4% of users said they strongly trust its accuracy, while roughly one-third trust it, one-third neither trust nor distrust it, and one-third distrust it entirely. Safety concerns emerged in the data as well. Eleven percent of recent users said AI recommended healthcare information they believed was unsafe. #### Some Skip Doctor Visits After Using AI Fourteen percent of recent AI users said the information they received led them to skip a provider visit in the past 30 days. Projected across the entire adult population, this represents approximately 14 million Americans who did not see a healthcare provider because of AI-generated advice. The survey found that 46% of AI users said the tools made them feel more confident asking questions of their providers. Twenty-two percent said AI helped them identify issues earlier, and 19% said it helped them avoid unnecessary tests or procedures. #### What This Means for Healthcare Systems Healthcare providers face a shifting dynamic. As patients arrive with AI-researched questions and symptom lists, appointments may become more focused-or more complicated, depending on the accuracy of that research. The gap between low trust and continued use presents a challenge. Patients are making healthcare decisions based on information they don't fully believe in. Healthcare systems will need to address how [AI for Healthcare](https://completeaitraining.com/tag/healthcare/) fits into clinical workflows, particularly when distinguishing between appropriate supplemental use and cases where AI substitutes for necessary medical evaluation. --- This is the Markdown form of https://completeaitraining.com/news/most-americans-who-use-ai-for-health-information-do-so-to/. The whole site is mapped at https://completeaitraining.com/llms.txt.