Perceptions of simulated artificial intelligence in medical consultations: associations with stress, memory, and perceived credibility.

The growing integration of digital technologies into healthcare requires understanding the impact of different consultation modalities on patient stress, memory and perceived credibility. This study compared different consultation modalities (human physician, in person or via video call; AI-style physician, as a chatbot or avatar) in standardized simulated medical consultations involving the delivery of bad news. For the AI-styled physician consultations, a Wizard of Oz design was used, in which participants were told they interacted with an AI physician while a human controlled the interaction. 163 healthy participants experienced either a human or an AI physician. Stress was measured through ratings and salivary cortisol, alongside memory retrieval and situation credibility. Human-based consultations led to higher stress levels than AI-styled formats. Greater perceived credibility was associated with stronger stress responses. Memory retrieval was lowest in the AI-styled chatbot condition. These findings show that different consultation modalities are associated with varying levels of stress and memory in medical settings. AI-styled physician interactions may reduce stress in routine medical communication, but their use should be carefully considered for critical medical communication.