Three in five Brits now use AI to self-diagnose. That should worry us, and reassure us

When your GP is fully booked and your phone is always available

Three in five Brits (59%) now use AI to self-diagnose their health with more than a third (35%) likely to try it in future. Read that again.

They are not just students, not tech workers, and not hypochondriacs. This is the country we are talking about. And it’s also not because we suddenly trust machines more than doctors. It’s because we can’t always reach doctors. For me, it’s because I’m sometimes anxious, tired, and living in a perimenopausal body that keeps changing. I need support.

I am 50. I lift weights. I go to the gym at least three times a week. I also wake up at 3am for no obvious reason, because my hormones run the night shift.

If I want a GP appointment, I don’t speak to a human first now. I have to type my problem into a screen and let a chatbot guide me through a set of pre-written questions. Sometimes it sends me off-track and I have to start again. I then wait for a call back from a receptionist, usually they call back while I’m already on another call. Often I’m told there’s no availability and that the GP will ring me “at some point during the day,” which for me is usually code for “whenever I’m least able to answer.”

By the time I do speak to someone, and sometimes I don’t because I’ve given up trying to get a response, the symptom has either resolved or shapeshifted into something else entirely. So instead I have typed things into a search bar at midnight. For myself, for my family. Not because I want a diagnosis, but because I want language and reassurance. A sense of scale. Better questions to ask when I finally do reach a professional.

And often, that small act has been enough to let me go back to sleep.

What people are really asking machines about their bodies

According to new research fromConfused.com:

• 63% use AI for symptom checks
• 50% for medication or condition side effects
• 38% for lifestyle and wellbeing advice
• 30% for treatment options
• 20% for mental health support

Eighty-five percent of 18 to 24-year-olds now rely on AI for health queries, and thirty-five percent of over-65s do too. This is not digital madness, it’s adaptation.

Is AI making people healthier?

A small but meaningful number say yes. Eleven percent say AI improved their condition “a great deal.” Forty-one percent say it helped “somewhat.” Only nine percent say it didn’t help at all.

This tells us something important. AI is not curing people. It is calming them, orienting them, and sending them somewhere sensible next. It gives language to discomfort and turns vague unease into specific questions. It stops me spiralling into “something is wrong” and helps me reach the conclusion “this is what might be happening.”

Why women, especially midlife women, lean on it

Midlife is a blur of overlapping symptoms. Fatigue that could be stress, hormones, iron, thyroid, or just life. Weight gain that could be metabolic, emotional, hormonal, or simply the price of enjoying bread.

We are often also:

• Caring for children
• Caring for parents
• Working
• Running households
• Managing our own changing bodies, often invisibly
• We do not use AI to replace medicine, but we can use it to hold ourselves together between appointments.

The danger is not that people use AI. It’s that they have to

Tom Vaughan from Confused.com says AI should not replace a GP. He is right.

He comments: “Advances in AI technology have created a new way for people to approach  healthcare and self-diagnosis. More individuals are taking steps to support their own and their family’s wellbeing, getting ahead of health concerns and addressing situations as quickly as possible.  

“While AI can be useful for initial research and gaining an understanding of a condition, it’s clear that for the ultimate peace of mind people should consult a GP or pharmacist. GPs and other medical professionals are the only people who can accurately diagnose conditions, some of which may worsen or become long-term illnesses without the proper treatment.”

But the deeper truth is that people are not replacing GPs with AI. They are replacing waiting with AI.
They are replacing uncertainty with AI. They are replacing being alone with worry with a conversation, however imperfect. That is not recklessness. That is coping.

My position, since this is an opinion column

AI is a tool, not a doctor. It can’t heal, but used well, it can empower people, especially those who feel unheard. And used badly, it feeds anxiety and false certainty. The responsibility is not only on the user. It is on systems that leave people with no other first port of call.

The uncomfortable conclusion

Three in five Brits now ask machines what their bodies are doing. It tells us that people are trying to care for themselves in a world where care is not always easy to reach, and that is something that needs fixing.

Your turn

Have you ever turned to AI about your health? Did it help you feel calmer, or did it make things worse? I’d genuinely like to know, because this is shaping how we all live.