As of September 2024, only 29% of psychologists had used artificial intelligence (AI) tools in their practice within the previous 12 months, with 11% using AI monthly or more often. For psychologists who used AI tools in their practice, the most common uses were writing assistance (58%), content generation such as generating text or images (36%), and article summarization (29%).
When asked to identify the top benefits of using AI tools in psychology, psychologists reported that AI improves operational efficiencies (33%), helps psychologists consume published scientific data (21%), and improves patient education (20%). As for top concerns, psychologists noted that AI can lead to potential breaches of sensitive data (59%) and cause unanticipated social harms (54%), and biased input can lead to biased outputs (54%). More than half (52%) reported that they did not know of any benefits of using AI, while only 23% reported that they did not know of any concerns. Similarly, more psychologists identified concerns with AI than identified benefits. These findings emphasize the importance of bringing ethical rigor—especially protecting the privacy and confidentiality of sensitive information—to the development of AI tools. AI tools that do not address ethical obligations will face challenges in adoption by behavioral health practitioners.
