60% of Your Patients Don't Want This

The numbers are clear

In 2022, Pew Research Center surveyed 11,004 U.S. adults about AI in healthcare. The headline result: 60% said they'd be uncomfortable if their own healthcare provider relied on artificial intelligence for their care. Not a slim majority. A clear supermajority.

That same survey found 57% believe AI would make the patient-provider relationship worse. Only 38% think AI in healthcare would lead to better outcomes overall. These aren't fringe skeptics. This is the American mainstream.

And the trend line isn't moving in AI's favor. By 2024-2025, 61% of patients said they want more personal control over how AI is used in their care, up six points from earlier polling. As AI tools have become more visible in healthcare, patients haven't warmed up to them. They've gotten more cautious.

Women are more skeptical. That matters here.

Pew's data breaks down by gender, and the gap is significant. 66% of women said they're uncomfortable with AI in their healthcare. For men, it's 54%. That's a 12-point spread.

If you run a NaProTechnology practice or a FertilityCare center, your patient population is overwhelmingly women. Many of them are navigating deeply personal health decisions: infertility, endometriosis, PCOS, recurrent pregnancy loss, cycle irregularities. They didn't find you by accident. They searched for a different kind of care.

Two-thirds of your likely patient demographic is telling researchers they don't want AI involved in their healthcare experience. That's not a data point to dismiss. It's a signal about what your patients value and what they expect from you.

What patients actually trust AI to do

The data isn't all rejection. Patients draw a sharp line between AI in clinical care and AI in administrative tasks, and they're surprisingly comfortable with the second category.

Scheduling, appointment reminders, insurance questions, prescription refill notifications, wait time estimates. Patients accept AI handling these tasks because they're logistical, not clinical. Nobody's health depends on how efficiently an appointment gets booked.

There's also an interesting finding about hybrid systems. When AI works alongside a human provider rather than replacing one, patient satisfaction scores hit 4.3 out of 5. That's high. Patients don't hate AI. They hate AI instead of a person. They're fine with AI alongside a person.

This distinction matters a lot for small practices trying to figure out where AI fits. The answer from patients is consistent: in the back office, yes. In the exam room, no.

They'll use AI to find you. They don't want it to treat them.

Here's a nuance that gets lost in the headlines. 73% of patients now use AI tools when researching healthcare providers. They're asking ChatGPT about symptoms. They're using Perplexity to compare practitioners. They're reading AI-generated summaries of conditions and treatment options.

But researching is different from trusting. A patient will use an AI tool to learn about Creighton Model charting or find a NaPro surgeon in their area. That doesn't mean they want an AI system managing their care once they walk through your door.

This creates an interesting dynamic for RRM practices. Your patients are more likely to discover you through AI-powered search than ever before. Your online presence matters more because of AI, not less. But the thing that makes them stay, the thing that converts a search result into a patient relationship, is the human experience they get when they arrive.

Why this fits the RRM model

Practitioners who chose restorative reproductive medicine already understand this instinct at a deep level. The entire philosophy of RRM is built on the idea that patients deserve individualized, attentive care that addresses root causes rather than bypassing them. NaProTechnology doesn't automate treatment. It requires careful observation, cycle-by-cycle analysis, and collaborative decision-making between the patient and practitioner.

Your patients chose you for exactly the same reason they're uncomfortable with AI in healthcare. They wanted more human attention, not less. They wanted someone who would listen, not an algorithm that would process. The Pew data isn't telling you something you don't already know. It's confirming what your patient relationships already demonstrate every day.

That's actually a competitive advantage. While large health systems are rushing to deploy AI chatbots and automated triage systems, your patients are actively looking for the opposite. They're looking for you.

Where this leaves you

The data doesn't say AI has no place in medicine. It says patients want to choose where it goes. And for most of them, the exam room isn't it.

For a small NaPro practice, that means the smart play is straightforward. Use AI to make your practice easier to find online. Use it to handle scheduling, reminders, and routine administrative communication. Use it to keep your website current and visible in both traditional and AI-powered search.

But keep the clinical experience human. That's not a limitation. It's what your patients are paying for. It's what they searched for. And according to 11,000 Americans surveyed by one of the most respected research organizations in the country, it's what they prefer.

The practices that get this balance right won't just satisfy their current patients. They'll attract the growing number of people who are searching for healthcare that feels personal, attentive, and human. That's the market moving toward you, not away from you.