How to Humanize the Search Experience & Close the AI Trust Gap

People take health advice from AI — even without fully trusting it

That’s one of the surprising findings from our national survey on AI in healthcare search, conducted in collaboration with our research partners at Klein & Partners.

We surveyed 1,000 U.S. consumers about their trust in AI and how they use AI-generated answers to make health decisions.

Here’s what we learned, and why it matters in your healthcare search strategy.

(Already read our 2025 survey report and want to skip straight to our advice? Scroll down to “Takeaways for your healthcare search strategy” and do not pass go.)

4 key findings from our survey on trust in AI

Do people trust AI in healthcare?

Trust in AI is moderate, with an average consumer trust rating of 6.7 out of 10. We found that there are about as many AI skeptics as there are optimists. And there’s an equally sizable third group: People who are neutral about AI and simply use it for convenience.

Do healthcare consumers understand how AI works?

AI literacy appears to be limited. While most people know that Google’s AI Overviews are AI-generated responses, many don’t understand how AI chooses its sources. For instance, about 1 in 4 people mistakenly think brands “pay to play” in AI Overviews.

Do people click through to sources for healthcare searches?

If you ask consumers (take our word on this), they’ll tell you they like doing their own research beyond reading an AI Overview. Only 23% of people admit to stopping a search with the AI-generated answer.

Many claim to click through to sources or continue scrolling through search results. However, the data on zero-click search behavior suggests otherwise: Zero-click behavior is increasing across the board — including in the healthcare industry.

How does AI impact the patient journey?

Here’s where it gets interesting. Despite consumers’ shaky trust, lack of understanding, and claims of doing their own research before listening to AI, 38% of people have made a healthcare decision based on an AI answer.

AI can influence the beginning of a patient journey — helping someone understand symptoms — or even deliver the final push to book an appointment. AI affects awareness, consideration, and conversion. As healthcare marketers, we’d be remiss to ignore it.

Takeaways for your healthcare search strategy

So, what does this mean for healthcare marketers?

Patients are already making decisions based on AI, so your content needs to meet them where they are (in AI Overviews, chatbots, and AI Mode) and humanize the algorithmic experience. Here’s how.

1. Build trust through credibility and human reassurance

With AI driving some patient journeys, it risks feeling impersonal. Healthcare is emotional, vulnerable, and at times, scary. AI-generated summaries miss that.

Demonstrate trustworthiness through:

• Accuracy: Help patients validate your content’s accuracy with transparency around information sourcing and clinician review.
• Empathy: Emotionally connect in a way that only humans can. Use stories, approachable language, and the right tone.
• Access to humans: Offer clear, prominent CTAs to “Talk to a nurse” or “Schedule a consult” to appeal to those who still prefer to talk to someone.

2. Write for 2 kinds of “readers”

AI bots are scraping your content. Make it easy to do so these tools cite your website. But in the process, don’t mistakenly alienate the readers who truly matter.

Create dual pathways across your website: concise, structured information for AI (more on that later), and richer, human-led information for people. Otherwise, you’re just talking to bots. And bots don’t need healthcare.

3. Pair AI visibility with brand marketing

Just showing up in AI search isn’t enough to build familiarity and trust. Show up consistently, predictably, and sounding like a human.

Here’s how:

• Repetition: Use consistent visual and verbal cues across platforms to build recognition. Think short, branded phrases and familiar brand icons.
• Local trust: Reinforce local expertise (“Expert answers from [City] specialists”) to counter AI’s bias toward national brands.
• Storytelling: Bring differentiators and key messages to life with emotive brand storytelling.

4. Optimize for AI, since it does influence consumer behavior

When AI answers affect decision-making, visibility in AI matters. Use GEO to improve your chances of being cited. Structure your content, cite original sources, use schema markup, and provide clear summaries for crawlers. (Read more about GEO strategies here.)

Also, ensure your brand name, logo, locations, and other key information match up everywhere online. This helps AI recognize your organization correctly.

5. Document your AI visibility and governance plan

GEO is like laundry — it’s never truly finished. Track how your content appears in AI Overviews or chat tools (learn how in this article) and update content structure and messaging as the space evolves.

Outline how your team creates, monitors, and updates content for AI visibility to maintain your gains and keep seeing improvements.

6. Measure outcomes (not just traffic)

In a search landscape leaning increasingly toward zero-click, traffic and clicks are being exposed as the vanity metrics they really are.

Don’t stop checking your web analytics platforms, but do shift priority to the metrics that reflect business outcomes. Focus on conversions (e.g., appointment bookings, contact submissions, and resource downloads), engagement quality, and brand trust indicators.