Recalibrating expectations in robotic and AI-enhanced care: trust, risk, and professional boundaries renegotiation

In contemporary health care, future imaginaries are increasingly shaped by the anticipated integration of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI). These technologies are framed both as tools to improve current clinical practices and as catalysts for profound transformations in healthcare delivery. This study explores how clinicians engage with these innovations in their daily practice, shaping sociotechnical futures through discourse, negotiation, and professional positioning. Drawing on twenty-four qualitative interviews with surgeons and radiologists in Italian hospitals and research centres, this study examines how robotics and AI affect clinical relationships, generate new trust and risk configurations, and challenge existing professional boundaries. The findings show that clinicians act as epistemic mediators who recalibrate patient expectations, negotiate uncertainties, and engage in discursive strategies to defend or reconfigure their inter- and intra- professional jurisdiction. These insights lead us to call for support for adaptive professional cultures through training that integrates technical and relational skills, the active engagement of professional associations, and opportunities for critical reflection on the evolving role of robotics and AI in healthcare.