Artificial intelligence (AI) in action: a cross-continental survey of AI adoption among field epidemiology fellows in Canada, the United States, and Europe, 2024.

Authors

Courtney R Smith, Natalie Girin, Kathleen Laberge, Seth Manthey, Pasha Marcynuk, Eric Pevzner, Adam Roth, Louis Wong

Published in

Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin. Volume 31. Issue 26.

Abstract

BACKGROUNDTechnologies available for applied public health practice are rapidly evolving. Artificial intelligence (AI) tools have become more accessible, however, their utilisation by field epidemiologists has not been described.AIMWe explored AI use among Canadian, European, and United States (US) Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) fellows.METHODSFellows in the three programmes (n = 220) were invited to an online survey available from 25 November 2024 to 5 December 2024. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected concerning the AI platforms fellows used, AI applications, comfort level when applying AI, use frequency, impact on work, barriers, ethical concerns, AI policy/guideline availability, and AI training.RESULTSThere were 105 (48%) survey respondents: 13, 56 and 36 in the Canadian, US and European FETPs respectively. The proportion of respondents who reported applying AI for work was 66% (69/105) overall, and highest among respondents of the European programme (32/36). The most adopted platform was ChatGPT (60/69; 87%), and the most common application was analytical coding assistance (63/69; 91%). Among AI users, most felt somewhat comfortable (34/69; 49%) or comfortable (24/69; 35%) with AI and reported weekly (29/69; 42%) or daily (21/69; 30%) use. Generally, AI's reported impact was positive. Challenges included technical difficulties, accuracy concerns, bias introduction, uncertainty regarding permissible uses, and data privacy issues. Among respondents, 47% (49/105) affirmed having AI policies/guidelines in their institutions and 20% (21/105) had received AI training.CONCLUSIONTo further incorporate AI use among its fellows, FETPs should monitor AI's evolving role, and provide guidance and adapt curricula accordingly.

PMID:
42394636
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 03 Jul 2026.

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