Artificial intelligence and patient education

Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots are increasingly used as a source of information. Our objective was to review the literature on their use for patient education in urology.

There are many published studies examining the quality of AI chatbots, most commonly ChatGPT. In many studies, responses from chatbots had acceptable accuracy but were written at a difficult reading level without specific prompts to enhance readability. A few studies have examined AI chatbots for other types of patient education, such as creating lay summaries of research publications or generating handouts.

Artificial intelligence chatbots may provide an adjunctive source of patient education in the future, particularly if prompted to provide results with better readability. In addition, they may be used to rapidly generate lay research summaries, leaflets or other patient education materials for final review by experts.