Researchers led by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have found that individuals show less trust in preventive care interventions suggested by artificial intelligence (AI) than when the same interventions are prompted by human health experts.

Preventive care interventions are activities aimed at reducing risks to health, such as undertaking a health screening, increasing physical activity, and receiving a vaccination.

Studying 15,000 users of a health mobile application in South Korea, the researchers found that emphasising the involvement of a human health expert in an AI-suggested intervention could improve its acceptance and effectiveness.

These findings suggest that the human element remains important even as the healthcare sector increasingly adopts AI to screen, diagnose and treat patients more efficiently. The findings could also contribute to the design of more effective AI prompted preventive care interventions, said the researchers.