Doctors as Supervisors: The Signal of Human Doctor Supervision Disclosure Reduces Privacy Concerns

Despite the rapid advancement of AI agents in healthcare, patients continue to exhibit substantial privacy concerns when adopting healthcare AI agent services. While prior research has examined internal AI-system strategies for alleviating privacy concerns, this research highlights the role of disclosing human doctor supervision information from an external governance perspective. Drawing on signaling theory, we examine how such disclosure acts as an informational cue that influences patients’ privacy concerns. Across three studies, we find that human doctor supervision disclosure reduces patients’ privacy concerns during interactions with AI healthcare agents. This effect is mediated by patients’ perceived personal relevance of the information requested by AI agents. Furthermore, the effect is moderated by disease severity: the effect is attenuated when perceived disease severity is high. Our findings contribute to the literature on human-AI collaboration, privacy concerns, and signaling theory in healthcare contexts, and offer practical guidance for alleviating patients’ privacy concerns.