Aflac President: why AI shouldn't drive your healthcare
Fortune Virgil Miller
Opinion — commentary, not a factual news event.
More Americans are asking AI about health before seeing a doctor. The risky bit: it can explain symptoms, but it can’t book the screening or replace a physician.
Based on reporting by Fortune, Virgil Miller — read the original for the full story.
Summary, retelling and take written by AI under human oversight; images are AI-generated illustrations. How we work · Report an error
Every fall, cancer gets louder in the national conversation. Awareness campaigns stack up, survivor stories surface, and people get nudged to check in on their health. This year, that familiar seasonal push is running into something new: Americans are increasingly using AI as a first stop for health answers.
That shift sounds convenient, and sometimes it is. AI can quickly translate medical terms, sort through symptoms, and help people think through risks. But Virgil Miller, president of Aflac Incorporated and Aflac U.S., argues that there’s a sharp line between understanding information and knowing what to do with it. For cancer especially, he says regular care with a physician can catch patterns that a chatbot can’t see.
The numbers in his argument are hard to ignore. A recent study found that 76% of Gen Z adults and 63% of millennials now turn to AI first for primary healthcare questions, before seeing a doctor. At the same time, nearly two-thirds of Americans still delay recommended screenings. That gap is the whole story: people know screenings matter, but they get busy, get nervous, or convince themselves that feeling fine means they can skip it.
Miller’s point isn’t that AI should be thrown out. It should help someone compare screening options or come up with questions before an appointment. But it can’t take anyone to the appointment, perform a mammogram or colonoscopy, or look at a whole health history and connect the dots. And it can’t be the person in your life who says, “Did you get that checked?”
That last part matters more than the tech crowd likes to admit. Separate research on cancer-screening behavior found that people see urging a loved one to get screened as an act of love, and that encouragement changes their own behavior. Miller ties that to Aflac’s own claims data and to a simple business truth: when a screening is missed and a diagnosis comes late, families need help that basic health insurance doesn’t always cover. AI may be useful. It still doesn’t drive the car.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
The whole AI-for-health craze has a familiar Silicon Valley smell: useful shortcut, overconfident user. In medicine, the missing ingredient is not more summaries from a screen; it’s a human who actually follows through. The industry keeps selling autonomy, but the real breakthrough is still a nudge from somebody who knows your name.
Read more about this at: Fortune
