Healthcare remains one of the few major sectors where the healthcare patient experience is hindered by persistent obstacles. Consumers continue to face long wait times on hold, are forced to recount their medical backgrounds at each appointment, and are often left to manage their own recovery process.
These are the same consumers who are increasingly accustomed to instant answers, proactive recommendations, and always-on support in nearly every other aspect of their lives.
Just two years ago, the idea of using AI to help fill this gap made patients uncomfortable.
Today, AI acceptance in the healthcare patient experience is widespread and even expected — with certain guardrails.
To better understand these changing perspectives, Salesforce surveyed more than 3,200 health consumers across eight countries for the latest Connected Health Consumer Report, The Health Consumer Mandate in the Age of Agentic AI. The findings reveal four key messages:
See what 3,200 patients expect from AI in healthcare and how providers can close the gap.
Here are five things patients are telling us about AI, and what providers can do about it.
For many patients, frustration begins before care even starts. Scheduling remains one of the biggest barriers to access, despite years of investment in digital tools. According to the research, 58% of patients will delay or even skip necessary care because scheduling is too difficult.
Digital tools like portals don’t always alleviate the struggle either. While immediate access eliminates wait times, 46% of patients say starting the process online is too confusing. This is why one in six patients now say ease of digital access is a deciding factor when choosing a new provider.
The stakes are higher than a lost scheduling opportunity. Patients abandoning care ultimately leads to gaps in quality, healthcare outcomes, and revenue.
“To rebuild and ensure patient retention, commercial providers must prioritize a seamless care journey of integrated communication, records, and scheduling,” said Amit Khanna, SVP & GM, Agentforce Health, Salesforce. “For healthcare organizations, the key to meeting overwhelming demand lies in proactively intervening before costly emergency care or chronic condition management.”
Availability is increasingly part of how patients define good care. Patient needs don’t disappear when offices close, but support often does. Providers who leave no option to connect with their patients in the evenings, on weekends, or between appointments leave patient loyalty on the table.
Always-on AI agents offer a potential solution to meet the rising demands for accessibility, responsiveness, and continuity of support. In fact, 67% of patients would rather have access to 24/7 help through an AI agent than wait to speak with someone during regular office hours.
For providers, always-on assistance can even be a retention strategy, as those that provide timely support can strengthen loyalty, improve continuity, and reduce friction throughout the care journey. Already, 44% of patients say a 24/7 agentic assistant would make them more likely to stay with a provider for follow-up care, while 55% would switch to a provider offering real-time, AI-driven insurance eligibility verification.
Hear Salesforce experts unpack what patients expect from AI and what providers must do next.
One of healthcare’s biggest blind spots occurs after patients leave the appointment. Nearly one in four patients report leaving visits confused about their next step, treatment plan, or follow-up instructions.
Yet, 70% say proactive AI check-ins would help them stay on track between visits, signaling that care adherence often depends less on what happens during the visit and more on what happens afterward.
AI may bridge this gap by reinforcing instructions, answering questions, and providing timely reminders. This is especially true among Gen Z, as 31% say they would turn to AI first when unsure about next steps after an appointment — more than any other generation.
Learn how Transcend used agentic AI for always-on patient support and achieved a 100% boost in customer lifetime value.
A patient’s health is the sum of all the care they receive across medical settings, not a single appointment in an isolated location. Still, care outside of the primary provider (like at the ER) often goes unaccounted for, leading to confusion with discharge instructions, medication changes, specialist referrals, and follow-up appointments.
As a result, 90% of patients now wish their primary care physician automatically knew about these visits, highlighting widespread frustration with disconnected records and siloed communication. To address this disconnect, 77% of patients say they would highly value an AI tool that simplifies the handoff between hospital care and at-home recovery.
For providers, improving the discharge experience isn’t just about reducing readmissions or increasing awareness of each patients’ care. It’s an opportunity to strengthen trust, improve outcomes, and build long-term loyalty by ensuring patients feel supported beyond the walls of the hospital.
Patient attitudes toward AI have shifted considerably in the last few years. Today, 64% of patients say they would share their full medical history with AI for faster diagnosis. Despite this increased willingness, patients still want a say in how AI should operate, making trust a prerequisite.
Where the AI lives and who’s accountable for it matters. Patients are three times more likely to trust AI in their provider’s portal over a public chatbot. Even then, 89% want a clear “escalate to a human” option when AI is used for administrative support; 90% when it comes to AI for medical support.
Provider-embedded AI with clear governance is not only safer, it’s a competitive differentiator. As patients increasingly seek providers that are responsive and easy to engage with, 62% say they would trust an AI agent integrated into their doctor’s secure portal more than a public AI chatbot.
Patients have already decided that AI has value in healthcare. What they want isn’t “futuristic tech” for its own sake, however. It’s AI-supported answers that are easier to access, available when they need it, connected across the care journey, and supported by trusted guardrails.
Providers that deliver on these expectations will be better positioned to earn patient trust, strengthen loyalty, and improve outcomes.
To deliver:
The future of the healthcare patient experience won’t be defined by AI alone. It will be defined by how effectively providers use AI to remove friction, create continuity, and help patients feel supported at every step of their journey.
See how Agentforce helps providers and payers deliver seamless, always-on patient and member experiences.
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