Healthcare: More Touchpoints, Higher Stakes

Author: Layne Haaksma, Senior Research Analyst

From risk management to model adoption, a comparative look at how healthcare approaches foundational AI strategies

No industry sees more consumer contact than healthcare, according to Metrigy’s 2Q AI Consumer Experience Index research study, conducted in partnership with NiCE. In 2Q26, 59.3% of the 1,000 U.S. adults who participated in the study reported a customer service interaction with a healthcare organization in the past six months, topping retail (55.2%) and financial services (46.4%). That volume is not incidental. Healthcare weaves into people’s lives in ways that other industries simply do not. Billing questions, prescription refills, appointment scheduling, insurance navigation, clinical results—these interactions arrive with a frequency and emotional weight that puts healthcare in a category of its own.

That distinction matters for how we read the data. When a retail interaction goes wrong, the consumer often expresses frustration. When a healthcare interaction goes wrong, the consumer tends to feel more heightened emotions, like worry and anger, given the personal nature of the engagement. The inverse is also true. When a healthcare interaction goes well, consumer reactions may go beyond just satisfaction to reassurance or relief.

In the 2Q26 study, the top two emotions consumers reported feeling after healthcare interactions are contentment (20.2%) and relief (19.8%). Compared to other industries, a higher percentage of healthcare consumers selected “relieved”—signaling that patients enter these interactions carrying anxiety, and the job of healthcare CX is, in part, to resolve it.

Overall, healthcare posted a positive CX Index of 104.7 in 2Q26, up from the first-quarter baseline score of 100, with 72.4% of consumers rating their experience either good or excellent. Among all tracked industries, healthcare is second, just behind retail, in overall CX quality. But consumer sentiment on healthcare’s use of AI tells a different story. This we measure in the Healthcare AI Index, which sits at 99.5, lower than first quarter’s baseline of 100, and well below retail’s 2Q26 113.5 score. The quarter-over-quarter dip, especially when compared to the big jump for retail, signals there may be some tension in healthcare CX today. There is strong human-led service (CX Index), but not-so-strong AI-led care (AI Index).

Why does that gap exist? For one, the patient population that uses healthcare most heavily—seniors 65 and older—is also the demographic that is most resistant to AI in the entire study. Because this group generates a disproportionate share of healthcare interactions, their skepticism pulls the AI Index down in ways it doesn’t in other industries. Another reason is the nature of healthcare interactions demands strong trust. Research from this quarter shows that trust is the single-most-important factor in AI-powered customer service. We’ll dive deeper on trust and reasons for the AI Index change in the “AI’s Unmet Promise in Patient Interaction,” page 5.

Table of Contents

• More Interactions, More at Stake
• The Phone Still Rings, But the Lines Are Shifting
• AI’s Unmet Promise in Patient Interactions
  • Healthcare Consumers Mandate Trust
  • Difficulty Reaching Humans Causes Negative Experiences
• Know Your Patient: The Demographics Behind the Data
  • The AI Superstars—and Why Healthcare Should Pursue Them
  • The Human Loyalists—Healthcare’s Largest User Group
  • The Silent Multitaskers—The Patients of Tomorrow
  • The Tolerant-but-Trapped Middle—A Healthcare Equity Issue
• What Healthcare CX Leaders Should Do Next
  • 1. Make the Human Easy to Reach
  • 2. Communicate About AI Explicitly
  • 3. Segment Your Channel Strategy by Patient Population
  • 4. Close the Empathy Gap for Lower-Income Patients
• Working With Metrigy