Erin is in her early 40s. She works part time in a demanding job and has two kids in primary school. She feels constantly exhausted, she’s often angry and feels like she can’t think like she used to. Her friend tells her it’s perimenopause.

She books an appointment to talk to her GP. She doesn’t know anything about perimenopause so asks ChatGPT what it is and what treatments are available.

Erin is certainly not alone. Between 30% and 55% of adults report they have used ChatGPT, or other large language models or chatbots for their health. And this use is increasing.

Even if you’re not using an AI chatbot, a simple Google search will often produce an AI summary.

So how does this impact patient care? And how can you make the process safer and more effective?

Why do people use AI chatbots for health?

A recent survey in the United Kingdom found while some people asked chatbots health questions because they were curious, more than one in three used them to decide whether they needed to see a GP.

Around half found chatbots more convenient than regular services, with questions frequently occurring at night or in the morning, outside the hours of traditional health services.

Of those who used a chatbot, more than half believed it had been good for their physical and mental health.

A 2026 analysis of over 500,000 health conversations with Microsoft co-pilot found one in five related to personal symptoms and treatments. Many queries related to someone else, such as a child or........

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