Most American patients are comfortable with artificial intelligence helping to decide their diagnosis or treatment, as long as a doctor can change or overrule its decision, according to a Gallup survey published on November 9. Among U.S. adults who had seen a primary care provider in the past year, 56% said they were somewhat or very comfortable with that arrangement. Only 9% felt the same about AI making those decisions with no review by a provider. The pattern held for reading medical scans and choosing medicines. The survey, run with the nonprofit West Health, questioned 5,330 adults in August. Among patients uneasy with AI acting alone, the most chosen reassurance was the right to ask for a provider’s review, picked by just under half.

Doctors read their patients differently. In a separate online survey of 1,007 primary care physicians, their estimate of how many patients would accept AI under a doctor’s override was 20 points below what patients actually said. Physicians are already using the tools: 89% had used AI for at least one work task in the past year, most often to look up information about medicines, and half used it to write clinical notes. Yet only 20% had received formal training in AI, and just 11% of those in independent practices. For patients, the survey suggests, the condition is not whether AI is used but whether a doctor keeps the final word, which requires doctors trained to check it.