One in four uses AI for health

About one in four U.S. adults — more than 66 million people — say they have used an artificial intelligence tool or chatbot for physical or mental health information or advice. (westhealth.org) The finding comes from a nationally representative Gallup Panel survey of 5,660 adults age 18 and older, fielded from Oct. 27 to Dec. 22, 2025, and released by the West Health-Gallup Center on Healthcare in America on April 15, 2026. (westhealth.org) Among people who had used AI for health advice in the past 30 days, 71% said they wanted answers quickly and 71% said they wanted additional information. Another 67% said they were curious what AI would say. (westhealth.org) The survey suggests most users are not treating chatbots as a full substitute for medical care. West Health said more than half used AI before or after seeing a doctor, with 59% researching on their own before a visit and 56% doing the same after one. (westhealth.org) Some respondents also described cost and access pressures that pushed them toward AI. In the past 30 days, 27% of recent AI health users said they did not want to pay for a doctor’s visit, 21% said they did not have time to make an appointment, and 16% said they could not access a doctor or provider. (westhealth.org) The tools people reported using were not limited to medical apps. West Health-Gallup’s questionnaire lists general-purpose chatbots such as ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini and Grok alongside search tools, wearables, symptom checkers and mental health chatbots. (westhealth.gallup.com) Users said AI sometimes changed how they approached care. West Health reported that 46% of people who used AI for healthcare information said it made them feel more confident talking with or asking questions of a provider, while 22% said it helped them identify issues earlier and 19% said it helped them avoid unnecessary tests or procedures. (westhealth.org) Trust remains limited. A West Health-Gallup chart on trust in AI-generated health information shows a December 2025 sample of 5,630 adults, and separate reporting on the poll said only 4% strongly trusted the accuracy of AI health advice, while about one-third strongly or somewhat trusted it overall. (westhealth.gallup.com) (medicalxpress.com) Federal and global health officials have been trying to set guardrails as use spreads. The Food and Drug Administration’s Digital Health Advisory Committee spent its Nov. 6, 2025 meeting on generative artificial intelligence-enabled digital mental health medical devices, and the World Health Organization published guidance on large multimodal models for health on March 25, 2025. (fda.gov) (who.int) The picture in the poll is not of Americans handing medicine over to machines. It is of millions using AI the way they use search: first for speed, then for homework, and still with a doctor in the loop. (westhealth.org)