Survey: 42 percent of Estonia’s residents use AI for health concerns

ERR reported that 42 percent of Estonia’s residents use artificial intelligence for health concerns, while 23 percent trust the information they receive from it. Emor research expert Kaisa Esko said on Raadio 2’s “R2 Hommik!” that people have retained a healthy degree of scepticism toward AI.

Emor conducted the healthcare and patient behaviour survey in June to assess how residents aged 16 to 74 view the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare. The survey included 1,051 respondents.

“We have conducted this survey for three years and wanted to map how people’s attitudes toward health issues change over time,” Esko said.

She said the results showed that people gather information from many sources but do not necessarily believe everything they read. AI’s inconsistent responses also contribute to scepticism, she said, noting that adding a single detail to a question can produce a completely different answer.

Esko said artificial intelligence could in future help doctors with preliminary work, such as managing information and preparing for appointments. At the same time, people want transparency and clear information about when they are communicating with an AI system and when they are speaking to a real expert.

She added that the popularity of automated solutions was partly driven by economic considerations, as paid medical services were not equally accessible to everyone.