Study Sheds Light on Public Perception of Physicians Who Use AI: Daily Dose

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Patient Care brings primary care clinicians a lot of medical news every day—it’s easy to miss an important study. The Daily Dose provides a concise summary of one of the website's leading stories you may not have seen.

On July 18, 2025, we reported on a study published in JAMA Network Open that was designed to assess how the public perceives physicians who use artificial intelligence (AI).

The study

Investigators conducted an online survey in January 2025, recruiting 1276 US adults using quota sampling based on 2021 census data. Participants included 680 women (53.3%), 584 men (45.8%), and had a mean age of 46.2 years. The research team used a randomized design where participants viewed fictitious advertisements for a family doctor that might be seen on billboards or on social media.

After being divided into 4 groups, participants in each arm were shown an identical advertisement with one specific difference: whether the physician mentioned using AI for administrative tasks, diagnostic purposes, therapeutic applications, or made no AI reference at all. Participants rated each physician on competence, trustworthiness, empathy, and willingness to make an appointment using 5-point scales.

The findings

Compared with the control group, which saw the advertisement with no mention of AI, the groups who saw advertisements referencing AI use rated the physician lower in all 4 domains.

1) Competence

Control group (3.85 points) vs:

• Administrative AI (3.71 points, P =.04)

• Diagnostic AI (3.66 points, P =.007)

• Therapeutic AI (3.58 points, P <.001)

2) Trustworthiness

Control group (3.88 points) vs:

• Administrative AI (3.66 points, P =.001)

• Diagnostic AI (3.62 points, P <.001)

• Therapeutic AI (3.61 points, P <.001)

3) Empathy

Control group (4.00 points) vs:

• Administrative AI (3.80 points, P =.001)

• Diagnostic AI (3.82 points, P =.005)

• Therapeutic AI (3.72 points, P <.001).

4) Willingness to schedule an appointment with a physician

Control group (3.61 points) vs:

• Administrative AI (3.32 points, P <.001)

• Diagnostic AI (3.16 points, P <.001)

• Therapeutic AI (3.15 points, P <.001)

Authors' comments

"In line with prior research, our results indicate that the public has certain reservations about the integration of AI in health care. While the present effect sizes are relatively small, in particular regarding AI use for administrative purposes, they may be highly relevant as trust in health care practitioners is closely linked to subjective treatment outcomes."

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