As our global population ages, the demand for quality senior care continues to rise while the supply of qualified caregivers is not keeping pace. In many ways, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is emerging as a powerful tool to not only enhance personal care services but also to help fill for the caregiver labor gap, with the ultimate goal of enabling more seniors to age comfortably and safely. For this reason, AI is an important consideration for home care agency owners and operators.  While it would be impossible to be exhaustive in discussing the role of AI in home care in one article, this article will first define what AI is and cover the main ways AI is transforming the landscape of senior personal care.  We conclude with where things are likely to be headed for in the future before offering our perspective on the place AI has in senior care.

What is Artificial Intelligence?

According to one definition, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is technology that enables computers and machines to simulate human learning, comprehension, problem solving, decision making, creativity and autonomy.  It is not hard to see that this technology will have a critical role in senior care, especially given the millions of people who are either seniors or caring for a senior with everyday activities who can use the help.  Below, we briefly cover key ways AI is impacting the way seniors are aging in place and caregivers care for them before offering a broad perspective on how AI needs to be incorporated into how we aid seniors and caregivers.

Enhancing Safety and Monitoring

AI-powered systems are helping monitor and ensure the safety of seniors aging in place.  For many of us with aging parents living independently, this tends to be the first thing to implement, in the form of cameras, sensors or wearables.  This gives us a peace of mind that they are physically alright and safe, even if we know that this does not address other aspects of the holistic ‘well-being’ of our loved ones.

Cognitive Assistance and Companionship

As decline in cognitive acuity becomes a concern for older adults, AI is also playing a role in helping seniors maintain mental sharpness and providing companionship and social interaction.  Studies consistently show that chronic social isolation is associated with cognitive decline and isolation precedes decline by several years.

AI-based systems like virtual memory assistants or AI-powered digital companions can support seniors who experience memory loss or confusion. These systems can remind seniors of important appointments and tasks, provide mental exercises and offer conversational companionship to reduce loneliness. Many solutions can also adapt to a senior’s cognitive condition, and over time, learn to better communicate with the senior.

AI is also attempting to help reduce social isolation, a growing concern for many seniors. AI-driven robots and virtual assistants can engage in conversations, play games, or provide news updates to keep seniors mentally stimulated. These interactions not only help maintain cognitive function but also provide valuable social interaction, which is crucial for emotional well-being.

Supporting Daily Living

One of the key aspects of senior personal care is helping seniors with activities of daily living (ADLs), which include tasks like cooking, bathing, dressing, and cleaning—things many seniors may struggle with as they age. AI technology is making these everyday tasks easier and safer for seniors to perform independently.

As already mentioned, AI-powered virtual assistants can make it easier for seniors to manage daily activities, such as keeping track of appointments, tasks and events. These assistants can also help with medication reminders, grocery list and shopping, and controlling home environments (e.g., temperature, lighting) and learn with time senior’s preferences.

Increasingly, while too early to determine whether we will see wide adoption, robots are reshaping the way we think about aging in place and are offering direct assistance with Activities of Daily Living, such as dressing, bathing, walking, grooming and meal preparation and feeding.  Cost and complexity, in addition to acceptance by seniors, are key challenges, but the future of robotic senior assistance promises to bring us a way for seniors to remain in their homes longer with grace and dignity.

Streamlining Operations

Like it is doing for many other industries, AI is also helping home care agencies automate many administrative tasks, perform repetitive tasks at scale, and rely less on human intervention for decision making.  One notable example is better matching caregivers to clients based on client needs, past history of the caregiver, and experience of the caregiver, which historically has mostly been done manually by a scheduler at a homecare agency.  This is only the beginning for agencies that are looking to make its processes more efficient.

Improving Care Quality 

AI will not likely ever completely replace human caregivers but is showing promising abilities to augment their capabilities to provide better, more personalized care.  Beyond alerting caregivers or families of an accident or a fall and offering seniors a way to engage better with reduced loneliness, solutions like Mariposa offer the ability to synthesize and curate the right information about the needs of the senior at the right time to ensure better, personalized care.  

Caregivers are equipped with better, personalized information at the right time to make sure that the senior is cared for in the way he/she would like and/or optimal for his/her well-being.  This can range from knowing what and how the senior prefers his/her breakfast to informing the caregiver recommended diet for those with a chronic heart condition.  

Looking Forward: Our Perspective 

The field of AI is still developing and we’ve only  just  begun to see how it can help to positively transform the lives of seniors  as they age in place.  As AI technology continues to advance, we can expect even more innovative solutions that will impact every corner of the senior personal care space as well as the way home care agencies coordinate and deliver care.  

By any measure, the future of AI in home care is bright.  But it is worthwhile to take a step back and consider the role of the home care agencies in bringing the power of the AI technology to their clients and operations. While at Mariposa, we see an increasingly important role for AI to play in homecare agencies’ care delivery and operations, we believe it is important for agencies to continue to always put the needs of their clients, their families and caregivers first and ask how AI can enable their lives to be easier, better organized and more meaningful.  This is where  home care agencies have an opportunity to drive increasing value to their clients and families.  We look forward to continuing to work closely with home care agencies to leverage the capabilities AI can provide to better serve their clients and families.  More to come!  

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