Consumers don’t mind recommendations from artificial intelligence applications for travel and restaurant applications. But for healthcare—not so much.

A new survey of 2,000 adults by Harris Poll for Invoca, a provider of healthcare consumer engagement services, finds that nearly half (49%) of consumers would trust AI-generated advice for retail and 38% would trust AI-generated advice for hospitality, such as checking or comparing flight or hotel options or restaurant recommendations, but just 20% would trust AI-based advice for healthcare.

“Applying AI to the retail experience makes sense because it’s already a fairly frictionless purchase process, and the price to pay if something were to go wrong is minimal,” the survey says. “However, there’s clearly some consumer hesitation in industry verticals like healthcare when the stakes are likely higher.”

Age also plays a role in which consumer groups are amenable to AI suggestions, advice and recommendations for healthcare—and which ones aren’t. “At 80% younger consumers are more likely to be trusting of AI advice compared with 62% for consumers 35 and older, and 22% for consumers age 65 and above,” the survey says.

Regardless of age, consumers as patients also still like personal contact over any type of technology—except the phone. The survey found that 32% of consumers prefer to complete a transaction over the phone, compared to 30% who prefer in-person, 25% online, 6% via a brand’s mobile app and 5% via AI such as a chatbot.

“Many consumers strongly prefer human interaction to complete certain types of transactions,” says Invoca vice president of marketing Julia Stead. “While AI has been a real game changer for the ‘back office’ of and the ways to run businesses more efficiently, this study suggests that it still lags on the front end of business—the consumer interactions.”

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