From Efficiency to Meaning: Adolescents’ Envisioned Role of AI in Health Management

While prior research has focused on providers, caregivers, and adult patients, little is known about adolescents’ perceptions of AI in health learning and management. Utilizing design fiction and co-design methods, we conducted seven workshops with 23 adolescents (aged 14-17) to understand how they anticipate using health AI in the context of a family celiac diagnosis. Our findings reveal that adolescents have four main envisioned roles of health AI: enhancing health understanding and help-seeking, reducing cognitive burden, supporting family health management, and providing guidance while respecting their autonomy. We also identified nuanced trust and a divided view toward emotional support from health AI. These findings suggest that adolescents perceive AI’s value as a tool that moves them from efficiency to meaning–one that creates time for valued activities. We discuss opportunities for future health AI systems to be designed to encourage adolescent autonomy and reflection, while also supporting meaningful, dialectical activities.