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As AI becomes more common in healthcare, podiatry might have some catching up to do. Artificial intelligence has been part of medicine for decades. What is different today is how quickly it is moving into everyday life and clinical practice.
Take, for example, ChatGPT. It launched publicly in November 2022. Fewer than four years later, it now has more than one billion weekly active users. Medicine is experiencing a similar acceleration. According to the American Medical Association (AMA), since 2023 physician use of AI has risen from 38 percent to 72 percent.
And physicians aren't just trying AI once. The average number of AI use cases reported per physician has more than doubled since 2023. The most common tasks include summarizing medical research, setting standards of care, creating care plans, progress notes, and assisting with billing codes and chart documentation. Only 17 percent reported using AI to assist with diagnoses.
So, where does podiatry fit in?
Podiatry's AI gap
The limited data available suggest that podiatrists are beginning to embrace AI but may be more comfortable using it to run their practices than to practice medicine. Nearly 41 percent of DPMs use some form of AI, according to a 2025 Verasight survey of 840 physicians. Administrative tasks were the most common application, cited by 29 percent, and just 6 percent reported using AI for clinical decision support. A JMIR Human Factors study found that podiatrists were generally fine with AI handling routine tasks, but diagnosis was another story. Accuracy and trust were top concerns. They also want to ensure clinical decisions stayed with the podiatrist.
Giving DPMs their time back
For now, documentation may be one of AI's most compelling applications. Ambient AI scribes can listen to a patient visit and draft notes, giving the provider more time to focus on the patient. In one study of ambient AI scribes, 79 providers across 23 specialties wrote more than 25,000 notes with the tool. In this three-month study, those who used it most cut their daily documentation time by 21 percent, according to JMIR Medical Informatics.
The impact outside the office may have been even more significant. Before the pilot, 31.6 percent of participating providers reported spending eight or more hours each week documenting outside the clinic. After implementation, that number fell to 7.6 percent. For a podiatrist finishing charts at night or spending part of the weekend catching up on documentation, that may be a more persuasive use case than asking AI to diagnose a patient.
Does AI speak podiatry?
Larry Kosova, DPM, has spent years talking to podiatrists about technology, and says the profession tends to be slow to adopt new tools. "Podiatrists tend to sit back," he says (although he does see younger, technologically savvy DPMs increasingly experimenting with new ways to use AI). That hesitation can have consequences. Technology companies invest where they see the greatest opportunity. Kosova says specialties including gastroenterology, urology, orthopedics, and behavioral health are at the top of the list for AI companies targeting healthcare, while podiatry is often a smaller target. "Tech companies don't look at podiatry as this big space to explore," he says.
That creates something of a chicken-and-egg problem. Podiatrists may wait for better specialty-specific technology, while vendors may wait for greater demand from podiatrists before investing. And specialty knowledge matters. An AI system used in podiatry needs to understand terminology, anatomy, laterality, procedures, wound documentation, and other details that can materially change a medical record. The question isn't simply, "Does this AI work in healthcare?"It's also, "Does it work in podiatry?"
From AI scribe to AI assistant
Documentation is only the beginning. AI tools can already summarize charts, search medical evidence, draft patient instructions, prepare referral letters, assist with coding, and help clinicians navigate large volumes of information. Kosova says things are moving fast. Every time the major AI platforms add something new, healthcare companies find new ways to use it. AI scribes are already moving beyond just taking notes and becoming more like AI assistants for the practice. But using AI to capture patient notes is fundamentally different from allowing it to make a diagnosis. Both the AMA data and podiatry-specific research suggest clinicians recognize that distinction.
The human still has the final word
None of this means podiatrists should hand their medical records, let alone their clinical judgment, to an algorithm. AI-generated documentation requires review. AI can omit information, misinterpret conversations, and generate inaccurate content. Practices also need to understand how vendors handle patient data, how they store information, and whether systems integrate securely with current technologies and processes.
The opportunity is to identify what AI can do well while keeping the podiatrist firmly in control. Kosova has already seen signs of what may be coming. At a recent international podiatry meeting in Denmark, he encountered podiatrists who weren't hearing about AI for the first time; many of them were already beginning to implement it.
Even so, AI is unlikely to replace the podiatrist. But it may increasingly handle work that keeps podiatrists from doing what patients value most: listening, evaluating, and treating.
—Ron Favali
Sidebar: What’s Really Driving AI Adoption in Healthcare?
The biggest divide in healthcare AI adoption may not be between specialties, but between physicians inside large health systems and those outside them. That puts podiatry at a potential disadvantage, according to Dr. Kosova. Hospitals can deploy AI to hundreds or thousands of physicians through a single decision, backed by the purchasing power, IT teams, and compliance resources to implement technology at scale. Many podiatrists, practicing independently or in smaller groups, must evaluate and adopt these tools on their own.
Dr. Kosova says it comes down to numbers. AI companies will spend their time and money on specialties where they see the biggest opportunity. If podiatrists adopt these tools more slowly, companies have less incentive to develop AI specifically for them. But there's an opportunity. As DPMs adopt more of these tools, vendors will pay attention and deliver more podiatry-specific solutions. Rather than waiting for AI to come to podiatry, the profession can help shape what comes next.