Last week, Pew Research Center published "Americans Are Open to AI in Healthcare, but Want Humans Making Final Calls," based on a survey of 3,488 U.S. adults conducted June 22-28, 2026. The following are selected quotes:
"Americans are generally open to AI handling administrative and medical tasks, but they largely don't want AI operating without human oversight."
"The openness drops off for decisions that directly drive diagnoses or insurance decisions. For example, nearly half (46%) do not want AI to have anything to do with making insurance claim decisions. And just 5% are open to AI making these calls on its own, with no human review."
"Far more say AI will make the security of personal health information worse (51%) than say it will make it better (8%)."
"There's been an uptick in negativity among the youngest adults - from 29% in 2022 to 45% in 2026."
OUR TAKE
Health systems that show how clinicians review AI-supported diagnoses will be better positioned to win patient trust and "human-reviewed" in messaging and disclosures will likely become more prominent.
If more Americans expect AI to weaken health-data security than strengthen it, providers will need to show how patient data is protected before they can expand AI use. Additionally, growing skepticism among the young adults needs to be addressed
The automation of scheduling, refills, visit note-taking and interpreting for non-English-speaking patients will become more frequent, while AI in diagnosis and insurance decisions will require more explicit human review and safeguards.