Artificial intelligence-based empathy and compassion training in medical education: impact on patient-centered communication skill development

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into medical education has opened innovative possibilities for fostering empathy and compassion among medical students. Empathy and compassion constitute foundational competencies for effective patient-centered communication, directly influencing patient satisfaction, clinical outcomes, and the overall quality of care. This comprehensive review explores the recent developments and specific applications of AI-based educational approaches, including virtual reality-based empathy simulations, augmented realityguided patient interaction scenarios, chatbot-driven communication training, and emotion recognition technologies for real-time feedback. Unlike traditional instructional methods, AI-driven approaches offer interactive, scalable, and personalized training experiences, addressing the existing limitations in conventional empathy and compassion education. The findings highlighted significant improvements in medical students’ empathetic responsiveness, communication confidence, and emotional interaction management, ultimately leading to enhanced patient satisfaction. Furthermore, this study provides practical recommendations for integrating AI-based empathy and compassion training into medical curricula and discusses strategies for overcoming potential barriers to implementation. Finally, future research directions are suggested, emphasizing the need for longitudinal studies to assess long-term effectiveness and address the ethical considerations of AI use in medical education.