Inside AI malpractice law: Could artificial intelligence redefine the standard of care?

Sara Gerke, associate professor of law at the University of Illinois, explains how artificial intelligence (AI) could eventually reshape what counts as “reasonable” medical practice under malpractice law.

“For now, the safest way to use AI is as a confirmatory tool rather than a replacement for judgment,” she says. But as accuracy and adoption improve, jurors themselves may begin to see AI use as the reasonable choice — even when it deviates from the traditional standard of care.

Gerke points to a Tobia et al. article in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine which suggests that potential jurors viewed following a correct AI recommendation as reasonable, implying that over time, “the use of AI might actually be closer to the standard of care than we might think.”

Still, she cautions that physicians remain in a “liminal zone,” where both clinical judgment and AI-assisted decisions carry evolving legal implications.