What does it really mean for healthcare when patients are consulting AI before they consult a clinician? It’s a shift Jenny Williams understands from both sides: after years as a GP, she now works as a Product Manager at Semble, shaping tools designed to improve the clinical experience.
In this article, she unpacks how generative AI is changing expectations on both sides of the consultation, exploring how it can become a partner in care, not a competing voice, when approached with openness and collaboration.
I still remember the rhythm of a busy GP clinic: 10-minute appointments, a queue of patients and the quiet pressure of wanting to give each one your full attention. Now, in product management, I think about that experience every day: how technology can help reclaim the time and connection that make medicine human.
Outside of the consultation room, generative AI is changing how patients seek and understand information about their health. A new report from Semble shows patients are consulting platforms like ChatGPT for healthcare advice, driven by curiosity and a genuine desire to understand their own health. But while that curiosity is positive, the responses aren’t always accurate or reliable.
For many healthcare professionals, the instinct might be to resist this shift. But it must be seen as an opportunity to lean in. When used thoughtfully, generative AI can help patients come to appointments better informed and give clinicians the space to consult more meaningfully.
The challenge now is to shape this new dynamic so it strengthens care on both sides, helping clinicians work more efficiently and patients feel more empowered.
Meeting patients earlier in their journey
The real opportunity lies before the consultation even happens.
A patient’s healthcare journey begins when symptoms or worries arise, not when they arrive at an appointment. That’s exactly where healthcare providers can step in, meeting patients with tools that are both reliable and clinically safe, and create clear, transparent pathways for care.
It’s possible for this interaction to happen before an appointment takes place. Regulated AI symptom checkers or triage tools can help guide patients to the right care earlier. Clinics can also make access to their care feel ‘always on’, offering online booking that supports continuity and asynchronous consultations where appropriate.
Once an appointment is booked, providing prompts on pre-consultation forms that ask whether they’ve read anything or been advised online helps to normalise the behaviour of searching AI and gives clinicians valuable context before the appointment begins.
And crucially, clinics can help better prepare patients. Being unwell can be a frightening experience. Clinically validated AI chatbots hosted on a clinic’s own site could help patients reflect on their worries and curate tailored question lists to bring into appointments. Interactive guides would demystify the care pathway, explaining who they’ll see, what tests might happen and what comes next.
Consultations are evolving, not disappearing
Our new report shows that many patients will turn to Google, social media or generative AI before speaking to a healthcare professional. They may not disclose this, but their research will have already shaped their concerns and expectations.
Good consultations start with good communication. Clinicians should enquire openly from the start, inviting those conversations into the room early and setting a tone of ease and openness. As we were taught in medical school, simple questions about a patient’s ideas, concerns and expectations can make all the difference to the doctor-patient dynamic.
Open questions like “What were you hoping for from today’s appointment?” or “Is there anything you’ve already read about your symptoms?” will help clinicians understand not just the medical facts, but the mindset a patient is bringing in.
If a patient arrives willing to lead with AI-driven ideas, this information shouldn’t derail a consultation, but instead supercharge it. Here the key is not more questions, but more collaborative questions:
- “What did the tool suggest?”
- “What worried you most?”
- “What do you hope to take away today?”
When the patient leaves, this ensures both are on the same page. They leave with not just what the AI said, but also the clinicians expert opinion. They have arrived with information; the clinician can apply their knowledge to ascertain if it’s good or bad information. That way, the relationship has become a partnership, instead of a one-way broadcast.
I also believe that using AI tools within the consultation, like an ambient voice scribe, gives clinicians more time for those conversations that matter. The result is that clinicians can maintain eye contact with the patient instead of the screen, so patients feel heard.
The scribe records and summarises, leaving space for clinicians to apply the human touch that’s so important and irreplaceable in healthcare, but it also automatically generates patient letters in a plain, easy-to-understand language. Its these innovations that ensure patients stay informed and actively involved at every step of their journey.
Addressing the inequality in AI care
As a former NHS clinician, I’ve seen how language, health literacy and access barriers create real inequality. AI is built on data and that data has bias. Left unchecked, AI tools risk amplifying those inequalities and providing users with inaccurate information.
But there is early evidence that suggests digitisation and AI could help reduce inequalities by improving access and bridging communication gaps. An LLM can translate medical jargon. It can express complex topics in plain language or other accessible formats. For a patient whose first language isn’t English, or those whose health conditions make language comprehension more challenging, those things matter.
So I encourage clinics to learn from where patients are turning. Look at where your processes exclude and think: how can we design that interface so that patients of any literacy or language feel confident using it? Because the tools exist. It’s up to you to choose them wisely.
What the future of consultations looks like in an age of AI-empowered patients
When handled thoughtfully, AI benefits everyone: patients feel informed and empowered, while clinicians can focus on the rewarding, human side of medicine.
Having worked on both sides, first as a GP and now as a product manager, I’m convinced of one thing: generative AI should never replace clinical judgement, but it can strengthen it.
Because even as patients turn to AI, their next step should still be turning to their clinician. It’s the human context, empathy and understanding that keep the promise of healthcare alive.
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