Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots in healthcare top the 2026 list of the most significant health technology hazards.
The report is prepared annually by ECRI, an independent, nonpartisan patient safety organization.
ECRI says that chatbots can provide valuable assistance, but they can also provide false or misleading information that could result in significant patient harm. Thus, ECRI advises caution whenever using a chatbot for information that can impact patient care.
Rather than truly understanding context or meaning, AI systems generate responses by predicting sequences of words based on patterns learned from their training data.
The risks of using chatbots for healthcare decisions could become an even greater concern as higher healthcare costs and hospital or clinic closures reduce access to care, leading more patients to rely on them as a substitute for professional medical advice.
Chatbots can also exacerbate existing health disparities, according to ECRI's experts. Any biases embedded in the data used to train chatbots can distort how the models interpret information, leading to responses that reinforce stereotypes and inequities.
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