ABBYY Survey Reveals Only 77% of Healthcare Providers Trust AI to Benefit Their Business, yet 95% plan to increase investment next year

• Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) a key driver for AI uptake according to 57% of respondents
• Large language models (LLMs) considered the most trustworthy type of AI at 92%
• Biggest concern about AI use is accuracy and reliability of data

New research from intelligent automation company ABBYY finds that fear of missing out (FOMO) plays a significant role in driving artificial intelligence (AI) investment, with 57% of global healthcare providers reporting they are worried their organization will be left behind if they don’t use it.

Over half (52%) cite that another key driver for investment was to increase efficiency and provide a better service to patients, with 48% saying they feel pressure to implement the tech because customers expect it. 39% invested because they had already seen good results with AI, and 35% felt pressure from the market to stay competitive.

In terms of trust, the healthcare sector is more skeptical than most other industries with just 77% admitting they trust AI to benefit their business compared to 82% in the financial services and insurance sectors, and 86% in IT and professional services (e.g. consulting, legal, and accounting). The top reasons for the skepticism were reliability and accuracy of data (55%), accuracy in interpretation and analysis (48%) and cybersecurity and data breaches (39%). Another concern was misuse by employees (48%), which was higher than most other industries such as insurance at only 29%.

Despite this, 95% of healthcare leaders will increase budgets next year and 60% plan to increase investment by between 11% and 30%, according to the ABBYY State of Intelligent Automation Report AI Trust Barometer.

Digging deeper, the study found the most trusted form of AI in healthcare is LLMs (92%), followed by purpose-built AI such as intelligent document processing (91%). This is possibly connected to LLMs’ position as the most used AI tool by healthcare organizations (60%), followed by purpose-built AI (47%). Machine learning, predictive software like process mining and RAG followed, all at 35%.

Maxime Vermeir, Senior Director of AI Strategy at ABBYY, commented, “It’s interesting to see the healthcare sector’s faith in LLMs despite the initial skepticism towards their tendency to hallucinate or provide inaccurate results. This indicates that the market is maturing by incorporating purpose-built tools and systems like IDP and RAG into their AI strategy, using them to address specific business needs and enable more trust in LLM-powered solutions.”

Regarding ethical use and trustworthiness, 95% of healthcare IT leaders feel confident their employers are following regulations on AI, yet only 53% of respondents have policies in place that security and compliance teams adhere to, and just 39% plan to implement policies soon. More than half (55%) said they’d feel more comfortable having knowledge of which AI regulations they need to comply with, and 49% said they’d feel happier knowing the company had a responsible AI policy in place.

Top areas where AI is used in healthcare:

• Customer service such as onboarding (58%)
• Marketing (47%)
• Operations (40%)
• Procure to pay (31%)
• Finance and administration (29%)
• Compliance (26%)

The ABBYY State of Intelligent Automation Report AI Trust Barometer gauged the level of trust and adoption of AI technologies across 1,200 IT decision makers in the UK, US, France, Germany, Australia and Singapore. The study was carried out June 3-12, 2024. Download the full free report for additional details here.