Tech-Ignored: How AI Innovation Is Widening The Digital Health Divide

InnovationHealthcareTech-Ignored: How AI Innovation Is Widening The Digital Health DivideByLisa Fitzpatrick,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about public health and health innovation for the underserved Follow AuthorMay 15, 2026, 01:05pm EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.Asian Chinese senior woman using smart phone reading text message in living room of her apartment in citygetty Earlier this year, OpenAI released ChatGPT Health, offering digitally-savvy consumers a tool to aggregate health data scattered across disparate sites and portals. Chronic disease burden and costs in the US is most often disproportionately centered in underserved communities where people are less likely to use or benefit from this innovation. Health technology isn’t designed and marketed with these communities in mind, so, who is this for? In a recent post, Sergei Polevikov, tech expert and founder of AI Health Uncut, describes uploading his health records to the new OpenAI health platform and offers a cautionary tale. The analysis hallucinated parts of his health history and he encountered administrative hurdles in the process. Polevikov says, “Automation helps me with efficiency and saves me time, but I don’t need AI to explain what is happening to me healthwise. The distribution of [these tools] is one-sided and people like me need them least.”If someone like Polevikov encounters navigation roadblocks with AI-driven tools, what does this signal for those with low digital literacy and whose health and tech concerns are not included in the design and marketing of these tools? Tech-Ignored, Not Tech-AverseMy recent street interviews about AI in Mobile, Alabama offer context for the disconnect between the surge in AI tools and tech support needs for those with low digital literacy. Leevonis Fisher, a community leader and founder of the Bay Area Wome...