Deloitte: healthcare consumers’ trust in generative AI has room to grow

Deloitte’s 2024 Health Care Consumer Survey found that consumers’ distrust in the health-related information provided by generative AI is a major hurdle to the technology’s adoption in healthcare.

The report, which surveyed over 2,000 US adults in March 2024 about their use of GenAI for health and wellness purposes, highlighted that consumers continue to be generally optimistic about the technology’s potential to tackle issues like healthcare access and affordability. However, consumers are wary of the information provided by GenAI.

Consumers’ adoption of the technology for health reasons – defined as “options such as learning more about health conditions, looking for treatment options for conditions, recommendations for where to seek care, finding, comparing health plans and providers,” – has remained largely stagnant in the last year, with survey findings indicating that 37% of consumers reported using these tools in 2024 compared to 40% in Deloitte’s 2023 Health Care Consumer Survey.

Distrust is a major driver of this trend, with 30% of this year’s survey respondents choosing “I don’t trust the information” when asked why they’re not using GenAI for health and wellness purposes. Last year, only 23% of participants selected this response.

This increase in distrust was seen across all age groups, with significant increases among millennials and baby boomers. In 2023, 21% of millennials expressed distrust in the information provided by GenAI, rising to 30% this year. Similarly, baby boomers’ distrust rose from 24% to 32% in the past year.

For those that are utilizing GenAI for health reasons, many are turning to free, publicly available tools.

Of these users, two-thirds indicated that they believe the technology has the potential to lower individual health costs and reduce wait times for doctor appointments.

Despite this, the survey highlighted that the rapid development of GenAI can cause these freely available tools to provide inaccurate information to consumers, which may diminish trust.

The report emphasized that healthcare organizations have an opportunity to bolster consumer trust in the technology by educating patients, providing consumers with healthcare-specific GenAI tools and tackling privacy concerns.

To do this, the survey lays out multiple recommendations for healthcare organizations to engage consumers and earn their trust.

The first recommendation involves engaging clinicians as agents of change within the organization. Trust is crucial to the provider-patient relationship, and patients often place a high degree of trust in their physicians. The survey revealed that 74% of participants viewed doctors as their most trusted source of information regarding treatment options.

Patients’ reliance on their care teams for health-related information makes clinicians well-situated to educate patients on the potential benefits of GenAI use in healthcare, such as speeding up diagnosis and driving personalized care.

The report indicated that engaging clinicians could be a valuable first step to increase consumer trust, as 71% of respondents reported being comfortable with their doctors using GenAI to convey treatment information, while 65% and 53% noted they were comfortable with their providers using the technology to interpret diagnostic results and diagnose conditions, respectively.

The report further recommended that healthcare organizations revise their policies to ensure that GenAI use complies with all state and federal regulations pertaining to the storage of protected health information.

The survey also underscored the importance of transparency, emphasizing that while many consumers are comfortable with providers using GenAI, 80% of survey respondents stated that they want to know how the technology is being used, particularly if the technology is deployed to augment healthcare decisions, provide support or identify treatment options.  

Of those not currently utilizing GenAI themselves, 64% reported being supportive of their providers using it for care delivery – but this was contingent on their data being responsibly handled and protected.

To address these concerns, the report suggested that healthcare organizations develop transparent processes and patient protection programs related to GenAI use that prioritize explainability, monitoring and assessment of the technology.

Finally, the survey recommended that healthcare organizations partner with credible community organizations to boost consumer trust in GenAI. The report noted that community health centers, public health agencies and faith-based organizations are generally considered trustworthy by community members, making them valuable resources for education around the use of GenAI in healthcare.

“The future of GenAI in healthcare is full of potential — especially if consumer trust can be established and sustained,” the survey stated. “The path to success involves not only technological progress, but also the capacity of healthcare organizations to align this technology with the values, expectations and trust of the consumers they cater to. With that commitment, GenAI could be more than a transformative tool, it could become a trusted ally in the pursuit of better health outcomes and more affordable healthcare.”