Healthcare educators’ perspectives on artificial intelligence driven virtual patients for teaching communication skills

Purpose Artificial intelligence (AI) driven virtual patients (VP) are a novel learning tool that may be used to develop healthcare students’ communication skills. Despite this, lack of investigation into educators’ viewpoints of AI tools presents a critical oversight, given their crucial role in successful adoption. This study aimed to establish healthcare educators’ attitudes towards AI-driven VPs for teaching communication skills and identify educators’ preferences in terms of design and implementation features. Design/methodology/approach Participants were 15 educators representing nine healthcare disciplines. Data were collected using a brief online survey and in-depth individual interviews. Findings Five themes were established. Educators held mostly positive attitudes towards AI-driven VPs, however their willingness to adopt this technology related to concerns around workload, views of AI and controlled, proper use. Preferred design features included realistic, multimodal interactions with varied cases and objectives. Providing feedback to students and using VPs as supplementary activities were viewed as important for implementation. Originality/value This study provides a vital understanding of key factors that should be considered when preparing for use of emerging AI tools to develop healthcare students’ communication skills. It addresses the gap in research on educators’ attitudes towards using AI-driven VPs as a teaching tool. Importantly, this study reports factors that influence educators’ willingness to use AI-driven VPs and provides valuable insights for practical design and implementation.