A June 2025 survey by U.S.-based Rater8 discovered that 26% of sufferers reported that AI instruments — together with AI-generated evaluation summaries and conversational assistants like ChatGPT — had straight influenced their selection of healthcare supplier.
This locations AI on par with main care referrals (28%) and healthcare evaluation websites (29%) by way of affect.
“The standard referral pipeline is weakening, and practices with poor AI visibility danger important affected person leakage,” Rater8 stated.
The findings are based mostly on two affected person choice surveys performed by SurveyMonkey: one in December 2024 with 1,008 U.S. adults aged 18 and older, and one other in June 2025 with 1,024 U.S. adults, each designed with comparable demographic balances to make sure comparability.
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Adopting new behaviours
On-line critiques stay the inspiration of supplier selection. In December 2024, 84% of sufferers stated they checked on-line critiques earlier than reserving care. By June 2025, that determine remained unchanged, and greater than half (51%) reported studying not less than six critiques earlier than making a choice.
On the identical time, 73% of sufferers reported adopting new behaviours or instruments to analysis suppliers — together with AI chatbots like ChatGPT, voice search assistants reminiscent of Siri and Alexa, and social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
“This indicators a transparent shift: the affected person journey is not linear. It’s increasing into an AI-powered ecosystem the place a number of touchpoints form choices,” Rater8 stated.
Moreover, 31% of sufferers stated they use generative AI — reminiscent of ChatGPT or Google AI Overviews — to analysis or examine suppliers.
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Shifting belief
Sufferers are additionally rethinking who they belief when making healthcare choices.
- 61% stated they belief on-line critiques greater than private suggestions from mates or household.
- About one-third belief AI-generated search outcomes as a lot as conventional serps like Google, whereas practically one in 5 belief AI much more.
- Solely 11% expressed outright skepticism towards AI-powered suggestions.
Rater8 famous that though AI might help information sufferers towards suppliers, “genuine affected person experiences in the end drive remaining choices.”
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