Over the past few decades, artificial intelligence has transformed many industries; from car manufacturing to retail to restaurants. Healthcare is one of the latest industries increasingly adopting artificial intelligence technology and integrating it into many areas.

Probably the most important technology in this regard is AI chatbots. These are software designed to interact with humans and answer their queries. AI chatbots are currently being used in e-commerce, banking, and now healthcare as well.

Patients seeking treatment usually don’t know much about their conditions and rely on healthcare professionals for diagnosis and treatment as well as regular medical assistance. From both a financial and a logistical point of view, this adds a big strain on healthcare institutions who have to hire a number of employees to answer patient queries, check their symptoms in order to direct them to the relevant medical professional and provide regular checkups to patients.

Patient Engagement

AI chatbots are increasingly being used by the healthcare industry in a number of different areas to lighten the financial and logistical load.

At the very first stage, AI chatbots streamline the number of people approaching healthcare professionals with queries. People normally know very little about medical conditions and have to approach a healthcare professional with the simplest of questions. Some people instead prefer to use internet search engines to get answers. This latter approach is problematic as there is a wide range of confusing and sometimes misleading information related to medical conditions available on the internet.

Through AI chatbots, people will no longer have to either approach medical professionals or rely on internet search engines. Instead, FAQ chatbots can analyze queries and return appropriate responses.

At the next stage, AI chatbots help patients schedule appointments. Traditionally, patients would have to call the hospital help desk or the office secretaries of medical professionals for this. However, chatbots allow patients to easily schedule appointments within a matter of minutes without getting in touch with a human receptionist or secretary. Through chatbots, patients can easily choose the clinic and the professional they want an appointment with. Some chatbots can also be used to set follow-up reminders for patient convenience.

A third area in which AI chatbots are helpful in advising patients on the relevant medical professional based on symptoms. This is one area in which patients themselves are often confused and sometimes end up scheduling appointments with the wrong clinic or professional. For this reason, healthcare institutes sometimes hire receptionists to provide proper and relevant advice to patients. However, this is unnecessary as chatbots are now available for this role. AI chatbots with the right technology can receive information input from patients about their symptoms, analyze it, and return relevant information concerning which clinics and professionals to approach.

Chatbots with the right technology can provide a very human and personalized experience to patients, resulting in greater patient satisfaction.

Mental Health

Therapy can often be quite expensive. People who’re struggling with mental health issues often don’t feel the need to go to therapy as they consider it an unnecessary financial burden. In addition, patients who are undergoing therapy are often advised to keep a diary to put their feelings into words, and/or talk with their loved ones about their experiences and sentiments.

Chatbots can be quite beneficial in this regard. People who aren’t willing to go to therapy can use chatbots as a way to discuss their feelings, experiences and problems. Simply being able to talk to another person about such things can be quite helpful. Therapy patients can also use chatbots similarly as an alternative to keeping a diary.

Regular Medical Assistance

Patients often have to return to clinics for routine checkups. This increases the financial burden on patients, and also ends up taking much of the time of medical professionals. With chatbots, many of these checkups can be conducted without the need of the professionals. This will drive down healthcare costs for patients, and also free up the schedules of professionals who can deal with patients who require more urgent or in-person treatment.

Similarly, patients who are prescribed medication spend a lot of time searching about the medication they have to take. As mentioned above, this can be problematic as a lot of such information available online is confusing. Chatbots can simplify this by answering any questions that patients may have. They can also keep records of patient symptoms to assess how well the medication is working.

Medical Research

Employing chatbots can be quite beneficial to medical research. Large amounts of patient data that is stored by chatbots can be analyzed for research purposes. As AI Chatbot technology improves, we are likely to see many breakthroughs in research.

Similarly, medical professionals can use chatbots with machine learning technology to keep up with the latest medical research and thus provide better treatment to patients.

The Future of Healthcare

AI chatbots are the future of healthcare. According to a report by Frost & Sullivan, 90% of American hospitals and clinics will be using chatbot technology by 2025. The reason for this is that employing chatbot technology can result in up to 50% reduction in costs for healthcare institutes. According to a report by Accenture, by 2026 the American healthcare industry will be able to achieve up to 150 billion USD in annual savings. The reciprocating impact is also visible on AI bots developing firms who are especially targeting the Healthcare sector due to its immense potential.

Conclusion

It is important for the healthcare industry to keep up with the latest technological innovation. The primary purpose of the healthcare industry is to ensure the lives and health of people. This can only be achieved with the maximum efficiency possible if the industry is keeping up with the latest research and technology.

AI chatbots are an important technology in this regard. The right chatbot technology can provide greater patient satisfaction, while simultaneously lightening the load on medical professionals. Through this technology, medical professionals can keep up with the latest medical research in order to provide their patients with the best care possible. Not only do AI chatbots help in research by collecting and analyzing vast amounts of data, but the savings achieved by the healthcare industry through utilizing chatbots can also be invested in more medical research.

Therefore, it is important for clinics and professionals to start utilizing AI chatbots.