Loblaw’s PC Health launches chatbot as more people turn to AI for health info. Here’s what to know

TORONTO — Loblaw Companies Limited’s PC Health launched an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot earlier this month, and the company says it processed more than 100,000 questions in its first week. Called PC Chat, the tool is trained on Canadian clinical sources, ranging from provincial vaccine guidelines to health charities such as Diabetes Canada to health professional associations. Users who get prescriptions at Shoppers Drug Mart, which is owned by Loblaw, can opt to link their pharmacy records to PC Chat to receive more tailored responses, the company says.

Many health-care professionals and medical technology experts say the chatbot fills the need for more reliable, Canada-specific health information than people get from using a general AI chatbot such as ChatGPT or searching on Google. But they also caution that it’s run by a private company with marketing interests and people should read the fine print before agreeing to link their personal data so they understand exactly how it’s going to be used, as well as how long their chats will be stored. They also note that government regulation of AI chatbots is far behind the technology itself, so the amount of protection regulations can provide is limited.

Lauren Steinberg, executive vice-president and chief digital officer, Loblaw Companies Limited, says marketing wasn’t the main motivation, although “when Canadians trust us and feel genuinely helped, they’re going to choose to do more with us.” She said the company had “all the pieces here already to do something like this,” including AI engineers and pharmacists across the county who give health advice to Canadians. WHAT DO I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PC CHAT? The chatbot, which is available at pchealth.ca or the PC Health and Shoppers Drug Mart apps, answers general questions about health and provides links to the sources it drew the information from.

“Canadians have been going online with health questions for decades. Increasingly, they’re turning to AI to answer the questions that they have,” Steinberg said. Earlier this year, the Canadian Medical Association released survey findings conducted by Abacus Data suggesting that about half of all Canadians are using AI tools to diagnose or treat their health issues.

That’s despite the fact that only 27 per cent said they trusted AI to provide accurate health informat…