Understanding the effect of a patient's severity of illness on medical AI utilization

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) promises considerable changes in clinical practice, yet little is known about the impact of patients’ severity of illness on their medical AI utilization. The study suggests that the patients’ severity of illness decreases their intention to use medical AI because the AI cannot meet their increasing need for doctors’ empathy. To examine the effect of illness severity on medical AI utilization, a scenario-based online experiment (N=227) was conducted. The experimental results revealed patients’ strong preference for human doctors compared to medical AI regardless of illness severity. Perceived empathy of medical AI mediates the reluctance to healthcare provided by AI. The findings enhance understanding of human-AI interaction and doctor-patient communication and provide practical implications for medical AI service developers.