Saturday Night Live with Simon Owens
Oct 14, 2026 · 10 min · 5 segments
From the Summary Podcast - While more than a third of Australians still turn to traditional search engines first for medical information, growing numbers are leaning on artificial intelligence and…
Nick CoatsworthGuestAndy Papa-AdamsGuest
Josh BryantHostWe found that about 18% of Australians, uh, are looking to AI before consulting a health professional, and when you're looking at millennials and Gen Z, that actually rises to 30%.
It is quite a significant difference from millennial t-right to, to baby boomers in terms of who's willing to trust online advice.
Only about half of baby boomers said that they would consult a healthcare professional before any, um, online source.
I guess, um, that kind of fits in with the fact that the generations that have grown up with the Internet and being able to have information at their fingertips, they're the ones going to the online sources first.
Although, uh, the figures show that, that millennials slightly higher than Gen Z in, in some of those online fronts, so that younger generation who are even more digital natives may be a little bit more apprehensive.
Yeah, and look, we didn't kind of dig in any deeper, uh, as to why that might be, but I guess we are getting our information from different sources now, and obviously, you know, social media is, is having a massive impact on where people get their health information and, and that could be one of those reasons.
And so there is still a, a growing number of people who are turning to artificial intelligence, asking a chatbot, "Hey, this is what's wrong with me, you know, what do you reckon?"
I- if you're going to use AI to kind of get more information about your symptoms, uh, you want to prep some questions for your doctor, or you've just been given a diagnosis and you kind of want to find out a little bit more about it, it is a good place to start.
But obviously there are even better places, which are the kind of peak bodies, the websites from those groups, and obviously your GP and specialist are, are great places to get that information.
But i- if it's used just for information and not for diagnosis, then, you know, it can be a very powerful tool.
What's wrong with me?" There's a lot of different ways that people are using these tools that aren't just, "Diagnose me now so I don't have to go to the doctor."
What we're kind of seeing is that they are doing it before going to see the doctor, but they're then, they're still going to see the doctor, um, because a significant proportion, greater than 70%, still feel that going to see their GP is the necessary step that they need to take to kind of manage their healthcare.
But, uh, certainly they're seeing, um, seemingly a role in, in getting extra information prior to going.
We found that about 18% of Australians, uh, are looking to AI before consulting a health professional, and when you're looking at millennials and Gen Z, that actually rises to 30%.
It is quite a significant difference from millennial t-right to, to baby boomers in terms of who's willing to trust online advice.
Only about half of baby boomers said that they would consult a healthcare professional before any, um, online source.
I guess, um, that kind of fits in with the fact that the generations that have grown up with the Internet and being able to have information at their fingertips, they're the ones going to the online sources first.
Although, uh, the figures show that, that millennials slightly higher than Gen Z in, in some of those online fronts, so that younger generation who are even more digital natives may be a little bit more apprehensive.
Yeah, and look, we didn't kind of dig in any deeper, uh, as to why that might be, but I guess we are getting our information from different sources now, and obviously, you know, social media is, is having a massive impact on where people get their health information and, and that could be one of those reasons.
And so there is still a, a growing number of people who are turning to artificial intelligence, asking a chatbot, "Hey, this is what's wrong with me, you know, what do you reckon?"
I- if you're going to use AI to kind of get more information about your symptoms, uh, you want to prep some questions for your doctor, or you've just been given a diagnosis and you kind of want to find out a little bit more about it, it is a good place to start.
But obviously there are even better places, which are the kind of peak bodies, the websites from those groups, and obviously your GP and specialist are, are great places to get that information.
But i- if it's used just for information and not for diagnosis, then, you know, it can be a very powerful tool.
What's wrong with me?" There's a lot of different ways that people are using these tools that aren't just, "Diagnose me now so I don't have to go to the doctor."
What we're kind of seeing is that they are doing it before going to see the doctor, but they're then, they're still going to see the doctor, um, because a significant proportion, greater than 70%, still feel that going to see their GP is the necessary step that they need to take to kind of manage their healthcare.
But, uh, certainly they're seeing, um, seemingly a role in, in getting extra information prior to going.
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