Chatbots in Clinics: How AI Is Changing Medicine?

In hospitals, clinics, and living rooms around the world, a quiet race is taking shape. Two leading names in artificial intelligence the OpenAI and Anthropic are struggling for control of one of the largest and most delicate markets: healthcare. The ChatGPT Health from Open AI and Claude for Healthcare are already ready to roll.

The financial impact in the end is significant. Healthcare already consumes more than a tenth of the economies of wealthy nations, and in the United States alone, it amounts to nearly $5 trillion annually. However, the system faces pressure from aging populations, doctor and nurse shortages, and excessive paperwork. Artificial intelligence, supporters say, could help ease the burden.
But how, and for whom?

Two AI Product With Different Parths

The two companies have chosen sharply different routes.

OpenAI, best known for its wildly popular chatbot ChatGPT, is targeting patients directly. Its new product, ChatGPT Health, acts as a personal health assistant. On this platform, users can upload test results, review doctors’ instructions, and even interpret data from fitness trackers and smartwatches.

Anthropic, by contrast, is focusing on the professionals behind the scenes. Its offering, Claude for Healthcare, is designed to help doctors, nurses, and administrators navigate medical databases, insurance forms, and electronic health records more quickly and with less frustration.

In other words, OpenAI wants to sit next to you on the couch. Anthropic wants to sit next to your doctor’s desk.

What ChatGPT Health Promises?
ChatGPT Health exists within ChatGPT, but in a carefully protected area. Users can ask straightforward questions about lab results, create lists of topics to discuss with their doctor, or summarize care instructions that are often written in complex medical jargon.

OpenAI states the system was developed over two years with input from 260 doctors across 60 countries. It can also sync with popular health apps like Apple Health and MyFitnessPal, enabling users to track patterns in sleep, exercise, or nutrition.

Privacy, a constant concern, remains at the core of OpenAI’s message, aiming to reassure healthcare professionals and policymakers that health data is securely stored, encrypted, and not used to train future AI models, fostering confidence in AI's safe use.

Still, important questions remain unanswered. OpenAI has not disclosed which AI models power the system or how they were adapted explicitly for health conversations — details that matter when accuracy can have real-world consequences.

Claude Facilitates Doctors
Anthropic’s Claude for Healthcare adopts a different approach. Instead of engaging directly with patients, it assists professionals in managing the systems of modern medicine.

Claude can access authoritative databases, such as ICD-10 diagnosis codes and U.S. government coverage systems. It helps with tasks such as ‘prior authorizations,” the often-frustrating process of convincing insurers to cover treatments, and with  Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR), the technical standard that enables health records to transfer between systems.

Despite the promise of AI tools like Claude for Healthcare to save hours on documentation, integrating these systems into existing healthcare workflows faces challenges such as staff training, system compatibility, and resistance to change, which are critical for successful adoption.

The appeal of AI in healthcare is clear, with administrative costs alone amounting to about $1 trillion annually in the United States. If machines can handle even part of that workload, healthcare providers and policymakers could feel hopeful about more efficient, patient-focused care.

But the risks are still clear. Consumer-facing health tools have already failed. Last year, Google removed AI-generated health summaries after they were found to contain dangerous inaccuracies. Several U.S. states are now considering laws to regulate chatbots that come too close to giving medical advice.

Beyond privacy laws like General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679), abbreviated GDPR, the adoption of AI health tools is also influenced by evolving regulatory frameworks and legal considerations, which can delay or restrict deployment, making it important for stakeholders to understand these barriers and plan accordingly.

A divided future
What emerges is a picture of a divided AI healthcare landscape. OpenAI is betting that empowered patients will adopt digital guides to help navigate an intimidating system. Anthropic is betting that overworked professionals will pay for tools that streamline bureaucracy.

Both could be correct. Or both might find out that medicine, unlike many other industries, resists quick disruption.

In healthcare, trust is the real currency. As these AI giants chase billions of dollars, they will also need to earn something much more challenging to win — the confidence of patients, doctors, and regulators alike.