February 18, 2025- A report from the American Medical Association (AMA) shows that physician sentiments around the use of AI in healthcare has been trending positive, based off of results from a survey conducted in late 2024.
AMA’s latest Augmented Intelligence Research survey explored changes in physician sentiment toward health AI from August 2023 to November 2024 by surveying over 1,100 practicing physicians.
According to the AMA, in 2024, 36 percent of physicians reported feeling more excited than concerned about AI, which is up from 30 percent compared to 2023. A growing majority of physicians also have recognized the benefits of AI, with 68 percent in 2024 reporting “at least some” advantage to AI in patient care, up from 63 percent in 2023.
The survey highlighted substantial growth of AI use overall, with the percentage of respondents using AI nearly doubling from 38 percent in 2023 to 66 percent in 2024. More physicians said they use AI tools for visit documentation, discharge instructions, care plans, and progress notes, and medical research and standard of care summaries than in 2023.
Many physicians said that AI tools could be helpful to increase work efficiency (75 percent in 2024 vs. 69 percent in 2023), reduce cognitive overload (48 percent in 2024 vs. 40 percent in 2023, and reduce stress and burnout (54 percent in 2024 vs. 44 percent in 2023). Addressing administrative burdens remains the biggest area of opportunity for AI in healthcare by far, with 57 percent of physicians reporting it is one of their key needs.
Despite the growing use of AI, 26 percent of physicians reported they are “certain that they don’t use AI-enabled tools” in their practice, highlighting a significant portion of physicians still uncertain about adopting AI tools in their practice. AMA Immediate Past President Dr. Jesse M. Ehrenfeld stated that, “There remains unresolved physician concerns with the design of health AI and the potential of flawed AI-enabled tools to put privacy at risk, integrate poorly with EHR systems, offer incorrect conclusions or recommendations, and introduce new liability concerns. Increased oversight ranked as the top regulatory action needed to increase physician confidence and adoption of AI.”