The news: Quest Diagnostics unveiled an AI-powered chat feature designed to help people better understand their lab test results. Powered by Google’s Gemini, Quest’s AI companion analyzes up to five years of a patient’s lab results to identify trends that may signal health risks. Available in Quest’s app and portal, it also generates questions for patients to ask their doctor.

Why it matters: Quest joins a small, but growing crop of companies launching healthcare-specific AI tools aimed at steering consumers away from general-purpose AI platforms that aren’t built for medical use.

• In January, One Medical rolled out an AI health assistant for its primary care members designed to answer patients’ health questions, book appointments, and manage medications based on their medical data.
• Tech-based health insurance company Oscar recently launched a genAI agent that answers members’ questions, such as the cost of a medical service or help refilling a prescription.
• Quest, One Medical, and Oscar emphasized that, as healthcare companies, their AI tools can better interpret patients’ medical histories, while also arguing they’re better positioned than Big Tech firms to safeguard sensitive health data.

Many consumers are open to using AI for healthcare use cases—tools developed by healthcare companies will make the process simpler and results more consistent.

• 40% say they are interested in using AI chatbots for appointment scheduling, according to a November 2025 Sacred Heart University survey of 1,500 US adults who have used AI.
• About 36% are willing to use AI to help explain and analyze test results.
• For context, leading AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude now offer some of these features—but they require users to upload medical data, whereas healthcare companies’ consumer AI tools likely already have that information.

Implications for healthcare and AI companies: While major platforms like ChatGPT are too entrenched to displace, specialized AI tools could become useful for some patients, handling tasks like analyzing medical records and labs or booking appointments.

Interestingly, while AI players like OpenAI and Anthropic have leaned into health features, Google is avoiding a direct "Gemini Health" tool, likely to steer clear of the risks of giving medical advice. It’s a reminder that major AI players must clearly define their models’ capabilities and limits internally, avoid overhyping them for medical advice, and maintain user trust through transparent patient data protections.