{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,28]],"date-time":"2026-08-28T11:04:14Z","timestamp":1787915054545,"version":"build-2784847793"},"reference-count":52,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,1]],"date-time":"2025-11-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1761955200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Informatics"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly significant in healthcare around the world, especially in China, where rapid population ageing coincides with rising expectations for quality of life and a shrinking care workforce. This study explores Chinese health practitioners\u2019 perspectives on using AI assistants in integrated geriatric and palliative care. Drawing on Actor\u2013Network Theory, care is viewed as a network of interconnected human and non-human actors, including practitioners, technologies, patients and policies. Based in Northeast China, a region with structurally marginalised healthcare infrastructure, this article analyses qualitative interviews with 14 practitioners. Our findings reveal three key themes: (1) tensions between AI\u2019s rule-based logic and practitioners\u2019 human-centred approach; (2) ethical discomfort with AI performing intimate or emotionally sensitive care, especially in end-of-life contexts; (3) structural inequalities, with weak policy and infrastructure limiting effective AI integration. The study highlights that AI offers clearer benefits for routine geriatric care, such as monitoring and basic symptom management, but its utility is far more limited in the complex, relational and ethically sensitive domain of palliative care. Proposing a model of human\u2013AI complementarity, the article argues that technology should support rather than replace the emotional and relational aspects of care and identifies policy considerations for ethically grounded integration in resource-limited contexts.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/informatics12040120","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,3]],"date-time":"2025-11-03T13:22:36Z","timestamp":1762176156000},"page":"120","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Negotiating Human\u2013AI Complementarity in Geriatric and Palliative Care: A Qualitative Study of Healthcare Practitioners\u2019 Perspectives in Northeast China"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0003-3791-1326","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Chenyang","family":"Guo","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"HeXie Management Research Centre, College of Industry-Entrepreneurs, Xi\u2019an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou 215000, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7072-6072","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Chao","family":"Fang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for Ageing and the Life Course, Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZX, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Wenbo","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZX, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9144-0615","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"John","family":"Troyer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Social and Policy Sciences, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e422","DOI":"10.1016\/S2214-109X(24)00476-5","article-title":"The evolution of serious health-related suffering from 1990 to 2021: An update to The Lancet Commission on global access to palliative care and pain relief","volume":"13","author":"Knaul","year":"2025","journal-title":"Lancet Glob. 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