An artificial intelligence receptionist system for general practices, which responds poorly to regional accents and speech impediments, could put patients at risk of digital exclusion, a health watchdog has warned.
Healthwatch Rotherham said that many patients had experienced frustrations with “Emma,” a new AI receptionist that is being rolled out across general practices in the area.
Its report warned that general practices had a legal duty to make reasonable adjustments for patients and said that such systems risked creating further barriers for the most vulnerable patients.
One patient told the organisation, “I could never get it to understand me, I ended up just hanging up and not bothering to try and book an appointment.”
Kym Gleeson, manager at Healthwatch Rotherham, said that the problem was an example of how AI systems risked creating further barriers for certain patients.
She said that this included digitally excluded, disabled, and neurodivergent patients, and she emphasised that practices considering AI receptionists should “carefully assess what patients gain.”
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Source: BMJ, 1 September 2026
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