Health misinformation may be straining public confidence in many parts of the world, but the UAE is moving in a different direction, with a majority of residents already weaving artificial intelligence into how they look after their wellbeing.
A newly released global study, the 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report: Trust and Health, places the country among the top adopters of AI for personal health worldwide. In the UAE, 59 per cent of respondents use AI to manage their health, much higher than the global average of 35 per cent. Researchers behind the report described this as a sign that AI has moved past the experimental stage and is now built into routine health decisions.
That use spans a range of everyday tasks. Residents are drawing on AI tools to check symptoms, gather information about illnesses, make sense of diagnoses, and weigh possible treatments, rather than treating the technology as a novelty.
What sets the UAE apart, according to the report, is that this rapid uptake has not come at the expense of medical professionals. Confidence in doctors remains high: nearly nine in ten UAE respondents, or 89 per cent, trust their doctor to tell them the truth about health issues and how to protect public health. The authors framed technology and human expertise as complementary forces, with people consulting AI for additional information while still turning to physicians for diagnosis and care.
Confidence extends beyond individual clinicians to the wider system. Roughly nine in ten residents said they trust local and national health authorities, well above the global average of around seven in ten. The report argued that this unusually high baseline of trust gives the country fertile ground for introducing new medical technologies and innovations.
UAE residents also stood out for self-assurance in handling their own care. The report identified them as the most confident among the 16 countries surveyed in making informed health decisions, with about seven in ten saying they feel capable of locating reliable health information and acting on it. That confidence runs against a wider global trend the same study flagged, in which people’s certainty about navigating health choices has been slipping.
The research was carried out through online interviews conducted between late February and mid-March 2026, covering more than 16,000 people across 16 countries. Edelman’s analysts suggested the UAE could serve as an early model of where healthcare is heading elsewhere, pointing to a future in which better-informed patients, trusted doctors, and AI-assisted decision-making operate side by side.
