Journal Article

Knowledge and use, perceptions of benefits and limitations of artificial intelligence chatbots among Italian physiotherapy students: a cross-sectional national study

Palese, Alvisa, Landuzzi, Maria Gabriella, Rossettini, Giacomo, Castellini, Greta, Gianola, Silvia, Turolla, Andrea, Galeoto, Giovanni, Tortella, Fabio, Rodeghiero, Lia, Cook, Chad, Giovannico, Giuseppe, Pillastrini, Paolo

2025

Overview

Background Artificial Intelligence (AI) Chatbots (e.g., ChatGPT, Microsoft Bing, and Google Bard) can emulate human interaction and may support physiotherapy education. Despite growing interest, physiotherapy students’ perspectives remain unexplored. This study investigated Italian physiotherapy students’ knowledge, use, and perception of the benefits and limitations of AI Chatbots. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted through Survey Monkey from February to June 2024. One thousand five hundred and thirty-one physiotherapy students from 10 universities were involved. The survey consisted of 23 questions investigating: (a) respondent characteristics, (b) AI Chatbot knowledge and use, (c) perceived benefits, and (d) limitations. Multiple-choice and Likert-scale-based questions were adopted. Factors associated with knowledge, use, and perceptions of AI were explored using logistic regression models. Results Of 589 students (38%) that completed the survey, most were male ( n  = 317; 53.8%) with a mean age of 22 years (SD = 3.88). Nearly all ( n  = 561; 95.3%) had heard of AI Chatbots, but 53.7% ( n  = 316) never used these tools for academic purposes. Among users, learning support was the most common purpose ( n  = 187; 31.8%), while only 9.9% ( n  = 58) declared Chatbot use during internships. Students agreed that Chatbots have limitations in performing complex tasks and may generate inaccurate results (median = 3 out of 4). However, they neither agreed nor disagreed about Chatbots’ impact on academic performance, emotional intelligence, bias, and fairness (median = 2 out of 4). The students agreed to identify the risk of misinformation as a primary barrier (median = 3 out of 4). In contrast, they neither agreed nor disagreed on content validity, plagiarism, privacy, and impacts on critical thinking and creativity (median = 2 out of 4). Young students had 11% more odds of being familiar with Chatbots than older students (OR = 0.89; 95%CI 0.84–0.95; p  = < 0.01), whereas female students had 39% lesser odds than males to have used Chatbots for academic purposes (OR = 0.61; 95%CI 0.44–0.85; p  = < 0.01). Conclusions While most students recognize the potential of AI Chatbots, they express caution about their use in academia. Targeted training for students and faculty, supported by institutional and national guidelines, could guarantee a responsible integration of these technologies into physiotherapy education. Trial registration Not applicable.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,BioMed Central Ltd,Springer Nature B.V,BMC
• Subject: Academic achievement / Adult / Algorithms / Analysis / Artificial Intelligence / Artificial intelligence chatbots / Artificial intelligence in clinical reasoning education / Barriers / Calculators / Chatbots / Cheating / Check Lists / Clinical medicine / College Science / Colleges & universities / Communication Skills / Content Validity / Critical thinking / Cross-Sectional Studies / Data Collection / Education / Educational aspects / Educational Methods / Educational research / Educational Strategies / Epidemiology / Ethics / Familiarity / Feedback (Response) / Female / Generative Artificial Intelligence / Geographic Distribution / Group Instruction / Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice / Humans / Influence of Technology / Instructional Improvement / Internship programs / Italian / Italy / Knowledge / Learning Processes / Likert Scales / Male / Medical Education / Medical students / Multiple choice / Perceptions / Physical therapy / Physical Therapy Specialty - education / Physiotherapy / Plagiarism / Positive Attitudes / Problem solving / Professional Education / Professional ethics / Professionals / Professions / Reflection / Student / Students / Students, Health Occupations - psychology / Students, Health Occupations - statistics & numerical data / Survey / Surveys / Surveys and Questionnaires / Technology application / Theory of Medicine/Bioethics / Therapeutics, Physiological / Young Adult