Psychologist Cami Winkelspecht decided to learn about artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT and Gemini, after patients began asking her for advice on how they could use the technology responsibly.
“One of the interesting questions that kids and teens, in particular, have raised is how to use AI to help support ideas or editing processes or things like that for articles and assignments and presentations, but also to make sure that you’re not using it to write something for you, [so] that you are not violating your school’s honor code,” says Winkelspecht, a child and adolescent psychologist in private practice in Wilmington, Delaware.
“So I also started experimenting with it to see what these tools would do as well,” she says, so that she could feel “confident and comfortable” in her own understanding of these platforms and their benefits and risks.
Winkelspecht is one of the 56% of psychologists recently surveyed by the American Psychological Association who use AI tools in their practices. This is significantly higher than the 29% who said the same last year. And nearly a third of respondents said they use these tools on a monthly basis, a more than two-fold increase from last year.
Winkelspecht integrates AI into some of its office and administrative tasks, such as creating templates for letters that it must send to its collaborators – schools and pediatricians. This saves her time, but she can still write and edit the letters each time.
Most psychologists “use AI to write emails, to help develop assignments, to maybe help write reports, or to use AI scribes to help with documentation,” says the psychologist. Vaile Wrightsenior director of the Office of Healthcare Innovation at APA.
“Psychologists see potential opportunities to integrate AI into their practices, making their work more efficient, which we believe could have downstream effects on reducing burnout, reducing aspects of the workplace that people don’t particularly enjoy,” she adds. “And that would then give them more time to actually provide care to patients. So I think that’s really promising.”
As more psychologists adopt AI tools, Wright says there is also a growing awareness of artificial intelligence tools, particularly as they relate to patient safety and data privacy.
A majority of psychologists say they are concerned about the potential harms of this technology, with more than 60% saying they are concerned about possible data breaches, biased input and output, and social harms. Many have also expressed concerns about hallucinations, when platforms fabricate facts or present inaccurate information.
“What is clear to us is that we need to continue to provide both of these resources to members so that they can integrate these types of technologies effectively and responsibly,” Wright says. “And we must ensure that these technologies are regulated in a way that best ensures their capacity, safety and effectiveness.”
Copyright 2025 NPR
