Healio survey finds health care AI use rising despite trust gaps

By AI, Created 4:06 PM UTC, June 01, 2026, /AGP/ – A new Healio survey of 618 U.S. health care professionals found 70% are already using AI in their practice, including 48% of regular users for clinical decision support. The findings point to fast-growing adoption alongside low trust, weak guardrails and concern about accuracy, liability and overreliance.

Why it matters: - AI is moving into everyday clinical work faster than hospitals and practices are building clear rules around it. - The gap between adoption and trust raises patient-safety, legal and governance questions for health systems. - The findings show AI is already influencing care decisions, not just administrative tasks.

What happened: - Healio surveyed 618 U.S. health care professionals between March 16 and April 1, 2026, using the Qualtrics survey platform. - Seventy percent of respondents said they currently use AI in their practice. - Among regular AI users, 48% use AI for clinical decision support. - The most common uses are documentation, note generation, and research and literature review.

The details: - More than one-third of health care professionals, 34%, said they have low or very low trust in AI. - Even in that group, 44% still use AI in practice at least occasionally. - Among respondents who use AI for clinical decision making, 16% also reported low or no trust in AI tools. - Nearly 70% said their hospital, practice or health system supports AI use. - Only 15% said their organization has clear and comprehensive AI policies. - More than half, 51%, said their policies are limited or still evolving. - Another 28% said they have no formal policies. - Forty percent of HCPs at organizations that do not support AI still use it professionally. - Those users are more likely to rely on general-purpose platforms. - Ninety percent use ChatGPT, Claude, Google Gemini or Microsoft Copilot in a professional capacity, compared with 76% of users in AI-supportive organizations. - Physicians made up 52% of respondents. - Respondents came from private practice, academic medical centers and community hospitals. - The survey included professionals with experience ranging from early career to more than 30 years. - Respondents were distributed across six U.S. regions.

Between the lines: - The survey suggests AI adoption is being driven by utility and convenience, even when confidence in the tools is shaky. - The heavy use of consumer-grade platforms inside clinical settings suggests many providers are improvising rather than following standardized workflows. - The absence of clear policies leaves individual clinicians to decide when AI is appropriate, which can widen variation in care and risk. - Healio framed the results as evidence that HCPs need help with self-governance and tool selection.

What’s next: - Healio is steering clinicians toward more disciplined AI use as hospitals and practices continue to build policies. - Healio AI, launched in 2025, is positioned as a free, HIPAA-compliant tool for evidence-based decision support at the point of care. - The tool is updated daily and draws from PubMed-indexed research, active clinical trials, drug data, peer-reviewed studies, FDA data and Healio’s editorial coverage. - Healio says the product is meant to augment diagnosis and potentially speed treatment timelines. - Download the full report for more details.

The bottom line: - U.S. health care professionals are adopting AI faster than institutions are governing it, and that mismatch is now part of daily clinical practice.