AI policy is moving quickly. Here’s what regulators are focused on and what it means for trust, reputation, and the consumer experience.
The rulebooks are being written quickly, and separately.
There is no single national standard for AI in healthcare. States are moving at different speeds, regulators are focused on different issues, and federal guidance continues to evolve. For organizations operating across markets, compliance is already becoming a multi-jurisdiction challenge.
- 250+ healthcare AI bills introduced in 2025, across 47 states
- 33 already signed into law in 21 states
- ~200 more moving through legislatures right now
What the state rulebooks have in common.
Each state has different approaches, but four themes are prevailing:
- A human still makes the decisions. When AI influences a coverage, utilization management, or denial decision, regulators increasingly expect meaningful human oversight.
- People should know when they’re talking to AI. Patient-facing chatbots and virtual assistants are being asked to clearly identify themselves as AI.
- AI can’t pose as a clinician. Emerging rules restrict AI from presenting itself as a licensed healthcare professional or implying credentials it doesn’t have.
- Be transparent. Disclosure requirements are expanding around where and how AI is used in decisions, workflows, and patient communications.
We asked people about AI.
Our research followed AI across the patient experience. Its influence appears at every stage, but it grows significantly outside the clinical setting.
- 55% turn to AI for medical advice before they visit a doctor.
- 57% use AI to self-manage instead of seeing a doctor. 1 in 4 say they do it often or always.
- 71% still trust their provider more.
Source: BPD proprietary consumer research, November 2025 (n=1,000; AI users n=531).
Adoption of AI in the clinical setting is built inside out.
Educated employees lead to informed patients. Informed patients are more likely to trust the organization behind the technology.
- 91% of staff trust their organization.
- ~75% of patients don’t know how AI touches their care.
- 70% of patients say transparency would raise their trust.
- ~100% of consumers are more likely to recommend when they trust.
Source: NRC Health research on AI, staff trust, and patient loyalty; BPD proprietary consumer research.
This belongs on marketing’s desk.
Regulators and patients are asking for the same thing: transparency. And patients form their opinion of AI before they reach the exam room, a window marketing owns. Comfort with AI can be built weeks before a visit, on channels you control, instead of in the moment by a clinician on the spot.
Marketing’s role:
- Explain how AI is being used, in plain language
- Make clear where human judgment remains involved
- Communicate the safeguards, oversight, and governance behind it
- Introduce new AI-enabled tools before patients encounter them on their own
Three questions for your leadership table:
- The inventory. Where does AI already touch your patients: chatbots, messages, scheduling, the exam room, and do you have the complete list?
- The introduction. How are patients finding out AI is part of their care: from you, or on their own?
- The inside track. Do your own clinicians and staff understand and trust the tools, the people patients will ask first?
Where BPD comes in.
BPD Healthcare helps health systems understand how emerging AI regulations affect patient communications, disclosure requirements, and consumer trust, then translate that into practical messaging guidance. Through BPD U, we help teams build AI fluency through leadership sessions, role-specific training, and hands-on workshops tailored to real healthcare use cases, with full programs delivered for major systems nationwide. If any of the three questions above is hard to answer, that’s the conversation to have now.
