Experts warn AI medical advice may miss critical clinical context

With AI chatbots becoming an increasingly popular source of health advice, fertility experts are warning that convenience may be coming at the cost of accuracy, and, in some cases, patient safety.

Dr Fotodotis Malamas, IVF Consultant at CREATE Fertility, says while AI can support clinicians behind the scenes, relying on it for personal medical decisions is a very different matter.

“It is understandable why many people are gravitating towards AI chatbots for advice. AI chatbots are remarkably swift, free to access, and speak with a level of confidence that can be very convincing. To be fair, AI has already become a valuable tool in some fertility treatments, helping specialists analyse large datasets to tailor treatments more effectively. However, there is a world of difference between a doctor using a high-tech tool and a patient relying on a chatbot to make life-altering health decisions, especially given documented concerns about inaccurate or misleading medical advice.”

Dr Malamas explains that while chatbots may feel personalised, they lack the clinical depth required for accurate medical guidance.

“The biggest trap is that these systems can feel personal without actually knowing you. A chatbot lacks access to your full medical history, your physical examination and test results, and the unique nuances that shape your individual fertility journey. Furthermore, these systems can generate incorrect or misleading information, sometimes called hallucinations, which can be incredibly misleading.”

“AI should be used as a starting point, not a substitute for clinical expertise.”

He adds that many users may not even know what information is needed to receive reliable advice.

“Moreover, most patients don’t know exactly which information is essential for a chatbot to provide an accurate answer. You end up with a cocktail of advice — some of it helpful, some of it dangerously misleading. When advice sounds logical and professional on the surface, it’s hard to know when the answer should be trusted and when it should be scrutinised.”

A key concern, he notes, is the lack of accountability compared to traditional healthcare.

“In medicine, responsibility is clear: clinicians have a duty of care — a legal and moral responsibility to the person standing in front of them. Doctors follow a strict code: do no harm. A chatbot has no accountability on it’s own; if it gives bad advice,responsibility is diffuse. . It also lacks human context, meaning it cannot weigh the emotional or physical risks unique to you. Finally, it lacks equity, as it may give biased advice based on the flawed data it was originally fed.”

Dr Malamas says the growing reliance on AI reflects wider accessibility challenges in healthcare.

“Recent research suggests that around a third of adults in the UK would consider using AI for medical or fertility-related guidance. This highlights how pervasive this trend has become. It’s understandable — long waiting times for GP appointments can make a 24/7 chatbot seem like a lifeline. While the desire to take control of one’s health is positive, this mass adoption creates a ‘wild west’ of self-diagnosis. When such a large portion of the public relies on these tools, the risk of collective misinformation grows, potentially leading to a wave of patients arriving at clinics with expectations shaped by incomplete or inaccurate advice or delayed diagnoses that could have been caught much earlier by a human professional.”

In fertility medicine, he stresses that unverified advice can have serious consequences.

“In fertility medicine, we would never introduce a new treatment without years of rigorous testing, yet people are using unproven chatbots for major health guidance. The risks are very real. You might receive false reassurance, being told everything is fine when it isn’t, or suffer from unnecessary anxiety after being panicked by a hallucinated risk. Perhaps most dangerously, it can delay proper care by encouraging people to wait too long before seeing a real clinician.”

Dr Malamas emphasises that AI should be used as a starting point, not a substitute for clinical expertise.

“AI is a brilliant assistant for finding general information. But a chatbot cannot examine your body, it cannot interpret your fertility markers in context, and it cannot replace human clinical judgment.”