Abstract
This research explored how artificial intelligence health content creation affects patient trust toward South-West Nigerian medical establishments. The fast growth of AI-based tools creates new business opportunities, but also brings operational difficulties, which affect how doctors interact with their patients and how patients trust their healthcare providers. The research used a mixed-methods approach that began with purposive qualitative interviews with 25 patients who received care at general hospitals in Lagos, Oyo, and Ekiti States to study their experiences with AI-generated medical information. The research showed that trust develops through personal human connections. Yet people see AI content as both helpful for access and dangerous because it creates false information. The quantitative phase involved a survey administered to 150 participants to evaluate the themes and hypotheses that emerged from the initial qualitative findings. A multiple linear regression analysis was conducted, finding that the model was statistically significant (p< .001) and explained 65% of the variance in patient trust. The analysis identified three key variables significantly influencing trust: perceived AI accuracy (beta = 0.32), perceived risk of misinformation (a strong negative predictor, beta = -0.51), and digital literacy (beta = 0.40). The research concludes that a significant relationship exists, confirming that while AI offers a new channel for information, trust in healthcare remains fundamentally tied to human interaction and the ability of patients to critically evaluate digital information. Based on these insights, recommendations are provided to help institutions build digital literacy, manage misinformation risk, and strategically integrate AI to reinforce patient confidence.