“It cannot do all of my work”: Community Health Worker Perceptions of AI-Enabled Mobile Health Applications in Rural India

Recent advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) suggest that AI applications could transform healthcare delivery in the Global South. However, as researchers and technology companies rush to develop AI applications that aid the health of marginalized communities, it is critical to consider the needs and perceptions of the community health workers (CHWs) who will have to integrate these AI applications into the essential healthcare services they provide to rural communities. We describe a qualitative study examining CHWs’ perceptions of an AI application for automated disease diagnosis. Drawing on data from 21 interviews with CHWs in rural India, we characterize (1) CHWs’ knowledge, perceptions, and understandings of AI; and (2) the benefits and challenges that CHWs anticipate as AI applications are integrated into their workflows, including their opinions on automation of their work, possible misdiagnosis and errors, data access and surveillance issues, security and privacy challenges, and questions concerning trust. We conclude by discussing the implications of our work for HCI and AI research in low-resource environments.