The adoption of artificial intelligence has accelerated in recent years, growing widespread throughout society, culture and business. Senior living is among the industries experiencing transformative change in many aspects of the way it operates because of sophisticated AI tools and the capabilities that they bring. The future is full.
“When it comes to technology in the senior living industry, AI is just getting started,” said Dylan Conley, chief technology officer for Lifeloop, which offers senior care software solutions. “Naturally, we are going to see varied levels of AI adoption across senior living as operators and leaders become more comfortable with this latest wave of innovation. But the capability of AI to make lives better, to enhance resident experiences and drive operational efficiency is ultimately why it is not only gaining traction, but why it is going to have staying power.”
Still, that change comes with risks. Amid the excitement and occasional confusion brought on by these AI solutions, seven senior living experts stepped back to consider the opportunities and risks that senior living faces today and in the future. Here are their thoughts.
Don Breneman, chief operating officer and vice president of risk management and business operations, Juniper Communities.
What are the biggest opportunities associated with AI for senior living?
While the potential of AI in senior living is vast, the three key areas of focus are sales and marketing, enhancing customer engagement and experience, and improving wellness outcomes. At Juniper, our emphasis is on leveraging AI to create highly personalized and supportive wellness programs through our Catalyst initiative, aimed at enhancing residents’ overall well-being.
Juniper has been very deliberate in targeting AI tools towards delivering a tailored resident experience — focused on engagement, well-being and personalized services — [and] AI plays a pivotal role in improving outcomes. This approach positions senior living as a proactive lifestyle choice rather than a necessity. The benefits of AI extend beyond wellness, positively impacting sales and marketing efforts while driving better health outcomes across the board. Most importantly, through the use of AI in our space, facilitating our impact on the overall health and well-being of seniors we can provide direct teaching to AI models related to experiences in senior living to reduce ageist bias to improve the perception of senior living.
Early adoption for very low-hanging fruit of AI could provide some immediate ROI regarding task automation and systems monitoring. Some of these tools already available don’t take a tremendous amount of workload to initiate, and they may already be integrated to currently used software as well. Another advantage is getting your team comfortable with AI as a tool for their workspace. Like any technology, this can be intimidating, and there have been some strong characterizations of AI taking over jobs. Allowing key team members to become champions in the use of AI even in a minor way can reduce the fear of change and improve later transitions.
And what are the biggest risks?
It’s imperative to provide security policies regarding use of data particularly related to data ingestion in AI environments and permissible use for your team members. Believe it or not, they’re already experimenting, and you may not even know it and not providing guidelines for the use in your company can set up an immediate risk. We at Juniper have used successful test groups to identify use case scenarios as well as gaps that we need to address both internally and externally in IT management. All of these AI models are just that – they are models and are extremely new and it’s constantly developing so being a test case isn’t always advantageous without fully understanding where your data might land.
Andrew Carle, president, Carle Consulting
What are the biggest opportunities associated with AI for senior living?
I think the largest opportunities will be represented in two areas:
- Potential for exponential increase in applications of predictive analytics. On the health care side, examples could include the ability to more accurately and far more in advance assess fall or infection risk, incontinence management and medications management, including the risks associated with polypharmacy. On the operations side, the ability to nearly instantly determine exact staffing levels and labor distribution based on both resident need and the physical layout of the community — as well as to more efficient community design.
- Applications to greatly advance utilization of robotics. We have for some time had the ability to design robots capable of completing numerous physical tasks, but which still require constant human interface. AI will allow more robots to “self-direct,” whether in assisting with lifts, wheelchair transport, meal delivery, housekeeping/maintenance or driving – which will decrease our reliance on scarce labor resources and maximize efficiency of available human resources.
And what are the biggest risks?
As with any area of health care, the greatest risk is deployment of the technology prior to it evolving to a level of acceptable safety. It’s one thing to make funny images and memes – it’s another to miscalculate health risk. We are seeing that with self-driving cars. Senior living will need to constantly understand the difference between “potential” and “reality” and balance accordingly.
Dylan Conley, chief technology officer, Lifeloop
What are the biggest opportunities associated with AI for senior living?
AI should serve as a connector, not a disruptor. With that in mind, the opportunities for senior living are endless. What we continue to hear from our customers is that AI technology should be felt across a broad landscape, delivering value to multiple parts of the business, and benefitting in equal measure residents, staff, and families. By contrast, isolated AI technology misses the point – and the possibilities – of what can be achieved.
AI brings with it increased speed and accuracy. It can enhance staff operations, driving efficiency where it’s needed most. It can enhance efforts to deliver personalized experiences for residents. And it can allow operators to seamlessly connect various parts of their business.
For those who want to take advantage of AI technology, a thoughtful AI adoption strategy that aligns to broader business goals is critical. Moreover, identifying internal AI champions and users will ensure strong and sustained adoption. We know there may be apprehension surrounding the use of AI in senior living communities, so we cannot overemphasize the need to partner with on-the-ground users, as well as clearly outline business priorities, to ensure your community realizes the full potential of AI.
And what are the biggest risks?
While AI has a certain mystique, it’s important to remember that what is currently being introduced in the market is not so much a giant leap toward science fiction as a progressive step in innovation. We’ve been headed in this direction for a long time.
Where the risk in AI lies for senior living is in deploying untested or unproven solutions that can potentially disrupt – not enhance – the lives of your residents, staff, or families. We routinely hear from our customers that when they do implement AI their top priority is safety and compliance. It’s critical to ensure that internal standards of care are not compromised, and resident well-being is safeguarded. Additionally, AI technology that delivers limited value to just one part of the business runs the risk of adding complexity to a tech stack while failing to offer real, continuous value to a community. And operators are not looking for the added challenge of managing multiple, distinct AI solutions.
Risk mitigation begins with a strong and purposeful AI adoption strategy that transcends the notion of bringing in technology just for the sake of it, and rather aligns the adoption and deployment of AI to your business goals and objectives. A thoughtful beginning will set the stage for a safe and impactful AI rollout, resulting in what will feel less like a giant leap, and more like a natural step forward.
Stephanie Harris, CEO, Arrow Senior Living
What are the biggest opportunities associated with AI in senior living?
Raising rents is not a sustainable strategy for building margins. Our industry must focus on more efficient operating practices to remain a viable alternative to home-based care. As a people-centric business, our best approach to maintaining affordability is to optimize human engagement processes.
In recent years, the rapid acceleration of technology has created a significant reporting burden. Many standard operating procedures have not been reimagined for technological integration, resulting in clunky and sometimes redundant processes. This inefficiency detracts from direct care and leads to delays in care coordination.
AI presents solutions to streamline former manual processes. The key is to begin by integrating all systems and examining workflows more closely, starting with small applications of AI.
At Arrow, by consolidating our systems into a single business intelligence platform, we are discovering ways to incorporate AI into our workflows. This integration is allowing us to save valuable minutes per resident in reporting, thereby enhancing both team and resident engagement.
And what are the biggest risks?
The greatest risk in using AI lies in the accuracy of your data and the consistency of your reporting practices. If the data is flawed, the technology may misinterpret the information. Many vendors are offering shortcuts and placing heavy reliance on insights from large language models, but this can cause misinterpretations. It’s important to remember that your business and residents are unique.
We’ve found it most effective to approach our efforts as a building blocks initiative, completed one step at a time. This method has compelled us to understand our processes in a more practical way, beyond just theoretical concepts. Some of our best insights have been discovered inadvertently along the way.
Steve H. Martin, chief operating officer, MorningStar Senior Living
What are the biggest opportunities associated with AI in senior living?
We are a labor-intensive industry. Consequently, one easy lift when considering how best to leverage AI is centered on our workforce – the recruiting, hiring and onboarding of our workforce.
Our business success and customer service could not be more anchored in the quality of our people, those specially called to the tender ministry of helping others navigate advanced age. So a natural direction in which to apply AI is recruiting, helping us find those with the right set of attributes – the characteristics that underpin the ability and desire to work well with seniors.
Beyond that, I can see opportunities for AI in the methodical, but no less essential, aspect of training. At MorningStar we immerse new team members in far more than the mechanics of their role; we want to imbue them with the hallmarks of our brand, without which we can’t expect them to align and represent us well. AI tools could add another dimension to a solid training process.
We might also find efficiencies through AI in how we manage our workforce, that is, how we schedule staff, how we allocate the time and movement of team members when delivering the residents’ individualized service plans.
And what are the biggest risks?
Caution is the watchword. Senior living is inherently a high-touch service industry. We must closely guard against it becoming anything less. The greatest need of residents — the sharpest pain point for any of us at any age — is that of being seen as significant and valued as individuals. Anything that reduces the humanity would be a grave mistake.
Residents are seeking companionship and connection by moving to a senior community. The deep and nuanced relationships we build with residents are critical. If we get too analytic, too myopically data-driven, we could lose the personalized touch that residents crave.
To access these potential benefits requires being strategic about gathering data. AI is going to need big data to drive all we intend for its use. Naturally then, we must be purposeful in collecting meaningful data which, in turn, involves investing in resources toward that end.
Charley Sankovich, vice president of information technology, and Samia Amamoo, vice president of risk management, Mather
What are the biggest opportunities associated with AI in senior living?
Sankovich: AI is creating several significant opportunities for senior living, aimed at improving the quality of life, enhancing care, and optimizing operational efficiency.
For the future of AI, we’re looking at operational uses, including looking at all our data sources and how they connect and intersect. Over time, we will connect sales, marketing, and operational data such as building services and accounting data (and more) to AI to generate reports and ask questions.
The keys to taking advantage of these opportunities in the future include gaining alignment on your organization’s path forward. There are many areas AI can support teams within your organization and starting small or with one area as a pilot is a good start.
Amamoo: Offloading some of this to AI may result in efficiencies, so that team members can spend more time with residents and guests. There is also more and more integration of AI with systems, in the area of predicting or anticipating an ailment in a resident. It’s already being used to predict and prevent falls. Studies have been conducted in the UK which show that AI has the potential to prevent UTIs in older adults with dementia.
And what are the biggest risks?
Sankovich: AI in senior living or anywhere comes with risks. Those risks need to be carefully managed through education and training to ensure the resource is properly used and leveraged. Some risks include data privacy and security, and an important one is reliability and accuracy. We know that AI will answer your question and will make up sources and citations to do so. We have to mitigate risks by double-checking all answers including those sources. AI does not replace human intelligence and experience.
Amamoo: Also, AI is a tool where the data (assuming a public AI tool like Chat GPT), and that person’s biases and opinions are baked into that data. We have to watch for bias and fairness. There have been examples of unintended biases in hiring and in health care, as an example. In fact, there are companies now that can help you assess your AI data for bias, for a reasonable fee.
Sankovich: Don’t get overly dependent on AI. I’m concerned that people may stop thinking critically about issues that they turn over to AI.
Amamoo: It’s a good starter, like yeast.
