Helpful but Not Trusted: Artificial Intelligence Adoption and Ethical Concerns Among Health Service Psychologists

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools are increasingly available to psychologists, yet little is knownabout how licensed health service psychologists are integrating these technologies into practiceor how they perceive their ethical implications. This descriptive survey examined AI use, ethicalperceptions, privacy and disclosure practices, barriers to adoption, and training needs among 518members of the National Register of Health Service Psychologists. Roughly 57% reported usingAI for work purposes in the past six months; among AI users, 51.4% of AI users reported weeklyor daily use. The most common professional applications were answering work-relatedquestions, generating easy-to-understand explanations, creating presentation content, and writingsession or progress notes. Roughly 55% felt that AI is helpful in practice, whereas only 20.0%agreed that they trust AI. Ethical concerns were application-specific, with the greatest concernsinvolving AI-assisted test interpretation and report writing. Privacy and disclosure findingssuggested gaps between professional expectations and practice; 73.0% believed practitionersshould routinely disclose AI use to clients, yet reported disclosure was infrequent. Most AI usersreported that they had not entered protected health information into AI tools, although relativelyfew reported using HIPAA-compliant vendors or business associate agreements. Among nonusers,the most common barriers were ethical, privacy/confidentiality, and accuracy/reliabilityconcerns. Findings suggest that AI use in psychological practice is no longer hypothetical andunderscore the need for application-specific ethical guidance, privacy-compliance training, andevidence-informed professional development.Keywords: artificial intelligence, psychological practice, ethics, technology adoption,health service psychologistsIntroductionThe Rise of Artificial Intelligence in Professional PracticeThe integration of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies into professional practice hasaccelerated dramatically in recent years. Reports from major consulting firms indicate that AIadoption is reshaping how professionals across sectors—from healthcare to education tobusiness—accomplish their work (Singla et al., 2025; Microsoft & LinkedIn, 2024). Thesetechnologies, particularly large language models capable of generating human-like text, havemade powerful AI tools accessible to professionals without specialized technical expertise. Toolssuch as ChatGPT, Claude, and similar platforms have achieved unprecedented penetration intothe professional workforce, raising critical questions about how different professions areadopting, adapting to, and ethically integrating these technologies into their practice (NationalAcademies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2024).