How Patients Use AI to Find Providers and How Your Practice Can Show Up in AI Search

A patient who once typed “therapist near me” into Google might now ask ChatGPT or Google’s AI Mode, “Who is a good psychiatrist in Walnut Creek that takes Aetna?” The answer often arrives as a short list with no page of links to scroll through. If your practice isn’t part of that answer, you may never know a patient was looking. Here is how patients are using AI and what you can do about it.

How Patients Are Using AI

According to a KFF tracking poll released in March 2026, about a third (32%) of adults say they turned to AI chatbots for health information in the past year. The poll also found that 41% of AI users wanted to look up information before deciding whether to see a provider, and that younger adults, particularly for mental health, are more likely to rely on AI. In other words, AI is often the first stop before a patient ever calls a practice. 

Local discovery is shifting too. BrightLocal’s 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey found that use of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools for local recommendations rose from 6% to 45%, making it the third most popular source. That is a vendor survey of about 1,000 U.S. adults, so treat the exact figure as a signal rather than a precise count. 

There is a second effect. A Pew Research Center analysis found that users who saw an AI summary clicked a traditional search result in 8% of visits, compared with 15% when no summary appeared. Being cited in the answer matters more, because fewer people scroll past it. 

What AI Search Looks At

The good news is that there is no secret formula. Google’s own guidance on AI features and your website says that a page must be indexed and eligible to appear in Search with a snippet to be a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and that existing SEO fundamentals remain worthwhile. It also explains that these features may run multiple related searches across subtopics to build a response, so a practice with clear, well-organized pages for each service has more chances to be pulled in. 

Other AI tools have their own rules. OpenAI’s crawler documentation says sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, and it notes that this is separate from the GPTBot setting that controls training. Microsoft’s new AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools shows when your site is cited in Copilot, AI summaries in Bing, and select partner integrations. 

A Practical Checklist for Your Practice

1. Don’t accidentally block AI search. Ask your web developer to check your robots.txt file. Allowing OAI-SearchBot lets ChatGPT search find you, and you can handle the training question separately.

2. Make your website easy to understand. Give each service, specialty, and location its own page. Spell out who you treat, what insurance you accept, and how to book. Our post on what should be on a private practice website covers the essentials.

3. Publish helpful content with real expertise. Google’s guidance on helpful, reliable, people-first content says its systems give even more weight to strong E-E-A-T for topics affecting health, which it calls “Your Money or Your Life” topics. For a medical or mental health practice, that means clinician bylines, credentials, and accurate, clearly dated information. 

4. Keep your business listings complete. Google’s healthcare Business Profile guidance explains that a “Check insurance info” link can show your accepted networks and that booking links let patients reach your appointment site. Bing recommends Bing Places for Business to keep your address, hours, and contact information current. Wrong hours or an outdated insurance list can end up repeated in AI answers. 

5. Keep earning reviews. Reviews remain a core local signal, so keep asking patients and keep replying within HIPAA rules. Our HIPAA marketing post explains where the lines are.

6. Measure and test. Google includes AI feature traffic in Search Console’s overall reporting, and Bing’s AI Performance report shows citations. Every month or so, ask the major AI tools the questions a patient would ask, such as “best dermatologist in [your city],” and note whether you appear and whether the information is correct. BrightLocal advises keeping your website current and monitoring listings for inaccuracies, and it’s good advice.

A Word on Privacy

The same KFF poll found that 41% of AI users uploaded personal medical information, and about 77% of adults are concerned about the privacy of medical information shared with AI tools. Trust matters. Don’t enter patient information into consumer AI tools, and have your privacy officer or counsel review any AI tools used with patient data.

You can read more on this in our 2026 marketing strategies post. 

The Bottom Line

You don’t need a separate strategy for AI. You need the same fundamentals done well: a clear website, accurate listings, trustworthy content, and real reviews, all easy for both patients and AI to find.

MG Media Creative’s Local SEO and Google Business Profile Optimization service keeps your listings accurate and complete across the platforms AI draws from, while our Content Marketing and Blogging service builds the expert, patient-focused content that earns citations. Our Reputation Management and Review Generation service helps you collect and respond to patient reviews compliantly, so when someone asks AI who to see, your practice is part of the answer.