Perceived barriers and facilitators of use of artificial intelligence in eating disorder care: a commentary on Linardon et al. (2025)

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionize mental health care, including for eating disorders, but there are still a number of concerns focused on ethics, governance, and regulation. As the authors found in their preliminary survey study involving mental health clinicians and people experiencing eating disorder symptoms, there was support and recognition of the benefits of AI tools in eating disorder care. However, participants also had concerns surrounding issues like data privacy, governance, information accuracy, and therapeutic rapport. From our own research involving the development of multiple AI tools, particularly chatbots, to assist people experiencing eating disorders and their loved ones, we suggest that these perceived barriers can be overcome with thoughtful and comprehensive codesign with multidisciplinary teams following ethical frameworks for AI and digital technologies. In this way, we can optimally mitigate the risk of using AI tools while still offering the most advanced technologies to treat eating disorders.