Do People Trust AI Chatbots for Health Info? What Pew Found (2026)
Can you trust an AI chatbot for health information? Pew Research Center's April 2026 report suggests users themselves are not sure. In the survey of 5,111 US adults, 22% said they used AI chatbots for health information at least sometimes (7% often or extremely often), and 36% used social media for it. The ratings split in a revealing way: 48% of chatbot health users called the information highly convenient and 41% called it easy to understand, but only 18% called it highly accurate, against 65% of people who rate information from healthcare providers highly accurate. Only 23% found chatbot information highly personalized. Younger adults lean on it hardest: 32% of adults 18 to 29 used chatbots for health information at least sometimes, against 16% of adults 50 to 64 and 10% of those 65 and over. Convenient and accurate are not the same claim, which is the whole problem with using a chatbot to sort out perimenopause.
Where this fits: Should You Trust AI for Perimenopause Answers?
Claims this source supports
- 22% of US adults get health information from AI chatbots at least sometimes, including 7% who do so often or extremely often; 36% get health information from social media at least sometimes.
- 85% of US adults get health information from health care providers at least sometimes – still the dominant source by far – while 66% get it from people with a similar health issue and 60% from major health information websites.
- 61% of adults who get health information from AI chatbots at least sometimes also get it from social media.
- Among adults who get health information from AI chatbots, 48% say it is highly convenient, 41% say it is extremely or very easy to understand, and only 23% say it is highly personalized (47% say not too or not at all personalized).
- On accuracy, slightly more chatbot health-information users say the information is not too or not at all accurate (23%) than say it is highly accurate (18%) – versus 65% of health-care-provider users who rate provider information highly accurate.
- Younger adults are more likely to use AI chatbots for health information: 32% of adults 18-29 at least sometimes, versus 16% of adults 50-64 and 10% of those 65+.