AI chatbots versus human healthcare professionals: a systematic review and meta-analysis of empathy in patient care
This study addresses the inconsistent and fragmented findings in current literature regarding the empathic performance of AI chatbots compared to human healthcare professionals. For the first time, it employs a systematic review and random-effects meta-analysis to quantitatively compare empathy in medical text-based interactions between large language model–based AI systems (e.g., ChatGPT-3.5/4) and humans. The analysis synthesizes data from 15 empirical studies published in 2023–2024, with risk of bias assessed using the ROBINS-I tool. Results demonstrate that AI significantly outperforms humans in empathy ratings (standardized mean difference = 0.87, 95% CI: 0.54–1.20, P < 0.00001), corresponding to an approximate two-point increase on a 10-point scale. This reveals a novel phenomenon wherein AI is perceived as more empathetic than human clinicians in specific healthcare communication contexts.