Nearly two-thirds (66%) of U.S. patients with sensitive health issues are more comfortable making appointments with chatbots than with staff, according to the Talkdesk U.S. Consumer Healthcare Survey, conducted in August 2024 on the online platform Pollfish. Talkdesk received responses from 1,000 men and women aged 18 and over.

Meanwhile, 62% of patients felt support provided by their healthcare organizations has either worsened or remained stagnant in the past year, the survey found.

And 23% cited difficulties due to dealing with multiple departments to accomplish something like scheduling an appointment or insurance issues. Yet 51% of respondents believe AI will enhance their patient experience within the next year:

• Three in five men expressed optimism compared with 44% of women.

• 60% of Millennials exhibited high hopes.

Patty Hayward is general manager of healthcare and life sciences at Talkdesk, vendor of a cloud-native, generative AI-powered customer experience platform. We interviewed her to dig into the survey and the issues behind it.

Q. Your survey says 66% of patients with sensitive health issues feel more comfortable making appointments with chatbots than staff. Why do you think this is?

A. It's important to remember that discussing a patient's health issues is a job for healthcare professionals. To patients, however, these issues may be intensely personal. Which is understandable because not much is more personal than your health.

When people are hesitant or embarrassed to talk about sensitive health issues, even with a healthcare professional or support staff, there can be a lot of reasons why. Often it ultimately comes down to a fear of being judged. Our survey shows half of the respondents said they appreciate that AI chatbots don't judge them. Another third of respondents said they appreciate that chatbots don't rush them or make them feel stupid.

That's why it's important for provider and payer organizations to give patients and members an option to communicate with an AI chatbot when they reach out to customer support. It's less uncomfortable and threatening, but they still can accomplish their objectives of setting up an appointment with a clinician or arranging a conversation with their payers' customer support staff.

Having said all that, the survey also shows four in five patients would rather get medical advice from an actual physician, so they're not ready for Dr. Bot yet. And it's very possible we never get to that point. Our data shows a mix of human and AI is best for patients.

Q. 62% of U.S. patients feel support provided by their healthcare organizations has either worsened or remained stagnant in the past year. What in your opinion can AI do to help this situation?

A. Unfortunately, their complaints about worsening support likely are grounded in reality because most healthcare organizations today are woefully understaffed. And that's where AI can transform the customer – and service agent – experience.

By offering patients and members self-help support options, providers and payers can ease the crushing workload under which support desk agents typically labor. In addition, AI can assist agents by providing them with relevant patient/member information in real time while they are trying to help callers, thus facilitating the conversation.

Half of the patients in our survey are optimistic AI will improve their overall experience with medical providers and the healthcare system in the next year and anticipate seeing more administrative efficiencies. I think that's a promising sign, and I believe healthcare consumer confidence in AI will grow.

Q. 23% of U.S. patients cited difficulties due to dealing with multiple departments to accomplish something like scheduling an appointment or insurance issues. What role can AI play here to help these patients?

A. Our survey makes clear that many patients are fed up with having to navigate the complexities of our healthcare system. When nearly one in four of your customers are frustrated, that's a threat to the business and revenue stability.

You know what happens when a person is bounced from one department to another and put on hold every step of the way? Some of these patients simply give up trying to make that appointment or have that discussion about coverage, which means they are delaying treatment they may really need.

AI can help by interacting with patients/members via voice or text to get the information necessary to quickly route them to the right department. AI also may be able to enable the patient/member to get the information they need or make an appointment themselves, without having to interact with an agent or other support staff.

Q. 51% of respondents believe AI will enhance their patient experience within the next year. 60% of Millennials exhibited high hopes. Where do you think these patients are getting these high hopes? How do they know about AI and how do they come to the conclusion AI will make things better?

A. Millennials are particularly hopeful about AI because technology has virtually always been part of their lives. They understand the value of emerging technologies and don't fear them. And they are hopeful about this specific technology because they use AI every day and see how it helps them in multiple ways.

Their smartphones, computers, televisions, appliances and other devices are AI-enabled. And they use AI when they interact with online retailers, when they book travel plans, when they conduct online research and when they're doing their jobs. They see that AI does useful things and won't try to kill them. You have to admit that's a compelling value proposition.

Increasingly, this level of comfort with AI is becoming the case with consumers of all ages. Plenty of Medicare patients are perfectly capable of and willing to interact with an AI bot to make an appointment or refill a prescription.

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