When Tiffany Davis has a question about a symptom, she said she does not call her doctor first. Instead, she consults ChatGPT, a habit she described as routine for health questions while she takes weight-loss injections. Davis, 42 and living in Mesquite, Texas, said she “basically” lets ChatGPT know her status and how she is feeling.
Davis is one of many Americans who, according to a West Health–Gallup Center on Healthcare in America poll published Wednesday, have turned to AI tools for health information or advice. The poll said it was conducted in late 2025 and reported that roughly one-quarter of U.S. adults had used an AI tool for health information or advice within the previous 30 days, with the AP report saying the findings were backed by at least three other recent surveys with similar results.
Dr. Karandeep Singh, chief health AI officer at the University of California San Diego Health, described AI tools that now often incorporate web search as an “upgraded” version of the kind of health searching Americans have done online for years. He said they act like a “better entry portal into web search,” because instead of scanning a large number of links, users can get an “executive summary.”
The Gallup results portrayed AI as a first step for many users looking for speed and context. The survey said about 7 in 10 U.S. adults who used AI for health research in the past 30 days said they wanted quick answers, additional information or were simply curious. It also said majorities used AI research both before seeing a doctor and after an appointment.
Rakesia Wilson, 39, in Theodore, Alabama, said she used AI to better understand lab results after an endocrinologist visit, and that she also uses ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot to decide whether she needs time away for an appointment or can monitor something. Wilson, who said she works up to 70-hour weeks as an assistant principal, said she does not always have time if the issue seems minor.
Other survey findings highlighted the role of access barriers and cost. The AP report said about 8 in 10 U.S. adults said they have sought out a doctor or other health care professional for health information in the past year, while about 3 in 10 said they sought information about AI tools and chatbots, according to a KFF poll conducted in late February. It also said Pew Research Center research conducted in October found about 2 in 10 U.S. adults say they get health information at least sometimes from AI chatbots, while about 85% said they do so from health care providers.
The same polling set also suggested some people use AI because professional care is not accessible or affordable. The Gallup study, as described by AP, reported that a small but significant share of respondents said they used AI because accessing health care was too expensive or inconvenient, including reasons such as not wanting to pay for a doctor’s visit and not having time to make an appointment. KFF’s late-February survey results, according to the AP report, found younger adults and lower-income people were more likely to say they used an AI tool for health information because they could not afford a provider or were having trouble accessing health care.
Trust in AI advice remains unsettled. The Gallup poll said about one-third of adults who had recently used AI for health information said they “strongly” or “somewhat” trust health information and advice generated by AI tools, while 34% distrusted it and another 33% neither trusted it nor distrusted it. Dr. Bobby Mukkamala, an ear, nose and throat doctor and president of the American Medical Association, said he liked that patients arrived with “more evolved questions” after using AI for research, but he said AI should be considered a tool rather than a substitute for medical care, adding that “physicians need to be involved in that care.”
Privacy concerns also surfaced in the KFF findings, the AP report said. It said about three-quarters of U.S. adults were “very concerned” or “somewhat concerned” about the privacy of personal medical or health information provided to AI tools or chatbots. Singh said most AI tools have settings users can toggle to prevent their data from being used to train future models, but he said that required user vigilance.
Tamara Ruppart, 47, in Los Angeles, said she was lucky enough to have doctors in her husband’s family she could contact instead of turning to AI, and that with a family history of breast cancer using a chatbot for health advice felt too risky. Ruppart said, “Health care is something that’s pretty serious,” and she added that “if it’s wrong, you could really hurt yourself.”