Health systems are accelerating AI deployment, and a recent Pew Research Center survey states that 72% of adult patients want to know when AI is involved in their care. Is there a trust deficit building in real time, underneath every ambient documentation tool and diagnostic model going live this year?
Patients have rarely had a seat at the table as AI rolls into healthcare. Ambient scribes, prior authorization tools, scheduling assistants — all deployed as back-office upgrades, not changes patients were ever asked about. The AI governance prioritization work doesn’t match how patients think about their own care.
Patients Want A Voice
The deeper finding isn’t about notification. It’s about control. Fifty-three percent of Americans say they have little to no say over whether their provider uses AI in their care. Sixty-three percent want more input than they currently have. Only 21% are comfortable with their current level of say. The traditional consent frameworks built around a single disclosure checkbox at intake won’t satisfy patients who want ongoing visibility into how and where AI enters their treatment.
The Demographic Split
The data also shows uneven trust across race and ethnicity. White adults are more likely than Black, Hispanic or Asian adults to want disclosure for high-stakes uses like diagnosis and scan analysis, and are also more likely to say they have little say over AI use in their care. That’s not a footnote. Equity concerns around algorithmic bias have already shaped how health systems validate and monitor clinical AI models. Patient trust and awareness need the same lens, or disclosure policies risk reinforcing the access gaps they’re meant to close.
What’s Next for CIO’s AI roadmap
None of this argues for slowing deployment. It argues for building disclosure into the product, not the policy binder. That means patient-facing signals when a note was AI-assisted, plain-language explanations of what a model actually did, and a consent process that treats ongoing say as the standard rather than a one-time formality.
As commercial vendors embed AI deeper into clinical and administrative workflows, patients should start from a different assumption: AI now touches nearly every part of care delivery, not just the visible parts. Retail and financial services got here first. Disclosure faded once AI became the default, not the exception. Healthcare is heading the same direction, whether patients are ready for it or not.
Interesting David, thank you.
"If we can't measure it, we can't manage it". Governance and how we prove value qualitatively and quantitatively will be key.