Abstract
Artificial intelligence (AI) tools are moving rapidly from back-office uses to health care to shape diagnoses, treatment choices, and follow-up recommendations. Yet adoption depends not only on whether AI can improve accuracy, but also on whether patients view the use of AI in health care as trustworthy, competent, and appropriately accountable, and whether those perceptions translate into concrete behavioral responses. This study uses randomized clinical vignettes to estimate how patients perceive physicians’ use of AI across common medical applications. The goal is to quantify the impact of AI use and of how it is framed on patients’ willingness to follow recommendations, their propensity to request second opinions, their trust in clinicians and institutions, and the perceived quality of health care. The goal is to identify which design and communication choices can preserve trust while enabling safe, effective integration of AI into medical decision-making.