Gen Z Is Nearly 8x More Likely Than Seniors to Turn to AI When They Can’t Afford a Doctor

As healthcare becomes increasingly expensive, more Americans are looking for other sources of medical advice, and a growing number are turning to AI chatbots. While one in four Americans has asked AI a medical question because they couldn’t afford to see a doctor in the past year, the trend is driven mostly by younger adults.

An Insuranceopedia Health Insurance & AI Survey found that 53.1% of Gen Z adults have turned to AI for medical advice because they couldn’t afford a doctor, compared with only 6.8% of seniors. This means Gen Z is nearly eight times more likely to turn to a chatbot when the cost of seeing a doctor becomes a barrier.

AI Medical Advice Is Creating a Growing Generational Divide Among Americans

Over the past few years, AI has become an increasingly convenient tool in healthcare, providing speed, availability, and seemingly expert advice when it becomes hard to reach a health insurer or a real doctor. And while some might say this shift is limited to tech-savvy younger Americans, the truth is that all generations are turning to chatbots for medical and healthcare advice, at least to some extent.

Insuranceopedia surveyed 1,250 insured U.S. adults to understand better why Americans use artificial intelligence in healthcare and what makes it more appealing than traditional health insurance support.

When asked why they might trust a chatbot over their health insurer to explain coverage, 33.6% cited its 24/7 availability, 29.8% valued plain-language explanations, and 28.6% said it was faster than getting through to their insurer. Another 21.7% felt AI had no reason to deny coverage or protect the company.

However, when it comes to seeking medical advice, cost appears to be the main driver, with one in four Americans asking a chatbot for medical advice because they couldn’t afford to see a doctor. The survey also found an emerging generational divide in how Americans deal with high healthcare costs.

More than half of Gen Z adults aged 18 to 24, or 53.1%, have asked an AI chatbot a medical question because they couldn’t afford to see a doctor. This share drops to 41.2% among those aged 25 to 34 and 38.2% among 35- to 44-year-olds, before falling to 16.1% among those aged 55 to 64 and just 6.8% among seniors.

This steady decline shows that younger Americans aren’t only more comfortable with AI, but that for many, it may also be becoming an affordable first source of medical advice, while older generations remain far more likely to rely on traditional healthcare.

“Our findings show that this shift goes beyond simply asking chatbots medical questions, as many younger adults are taking this a step further and actually acting on chatbot advice without checking with a medical professional first. Overall, 15.2% of respondents have made a treatment decision based on AI advice, including 26% of adults aged 25 to 34 and 18.6% of those aged 35 to 44,” said Max Coupland, CEO at Insuranceopedia.

Nearly Half of Gen Zers Would Choose ChatGPT for Medical and Health Insurance Questions

The survey also looked at which chatbot Americans would be most likely to use for health insurance questions. Around 65% of respondents already had a preferred chatbot, with 28% choosing ChatGPT and 21% choosing Google Gemini. Far behind, Microsoft Copilot ranked third at 6.4%, followed by Meta AI at 4%, Claude at 2.3%, and Grok at 1.6%. Perplexity was the least popular choice, selected by just 0.5% of respondents.

And while ChatGPT ranked ahead of Google Gemini and other chatbots across all age groups, it was significantly more popular among younger Americans. Nearly half of Gen Z adults, or 46.9%, said they would choose ChatGPT for a health insurance question, while only 22.4% said they wouldn’t use AI at all. Even among adults aged 65 and older, the most AI-skeptical age group, ChatGPT remained the most popular choice at 17.3%, although 55.6% said they wouldn’t use any AI chatbot for this purpose.

Methodology

Insuranceopedia surveyed 1,250 U.S. adults who currently have health insurance using the Pollfish online panel in July 2026. Respondents included people with employer-sponsored, marketplace (ACA), Medicaid, Medicare, and private health insurance. The sample was balanced by age and gender to reflect the U.S. adult population. The margin of error for the full sample is ±2.8 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. Results for smaller groups, such as specific age or income brackets, should be treated as directional. Percentages are rounded, so totals may not always add up to 100%.