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August 2025

Senior care acuity level rises -- so must the adoption of technology

We are selling a product that people don’t want to buy. This Senior Housing News article, The New Skilled Nursing: Assisted Living Operators Adapt to Changing Place in the Care Continuum does not hide a trend that is significantly changing their business but also the future for older adults. So they delay their move until it becomes urgent – Mom cannot live at home any longer. Translate – Mom is too frail, her dementia is worse, her mobility has declined, etc. She will need multiple types of support.  Recent statistics about assisted living demographics are harsh: Consumer Affairs asserts that 70% of residents have some level of dementia, with the majority of residents women in their 80’s.

How do caregivers learn about tech they could use?

Clearly many caregivers are missing out on useful technology.  According to the new AARP Caregiving in the US report, utilization of useful technologies, detailed in a brief report attached here, that could help with care of either children or older adults is below 50% other than smart home tech. Maybe that is the smart doorbell?  Smart TV? --which is just about all you can buy.  Only 10% of caregivers say they own home health safety devices, which probably include a pendant with fall detection or an in-home fall detection device. If these caregivers are living with the older adult, perhaps that makes sense.  If not, perhaps they do not know what they don’t know. Only a third say they use smart home technology (for lighting? Temperature control? Other?). Perhaps the AARP site for caregivers would be of benefit.  Lots of information there.

AI and Older Adults Survey – Surprise, surprise -- it is accepted and useful

The University of Michigan polled older adult responders – and the results are in. In a recent survey of more than 1000 adults aged 50+, the University of Michigan poll, fielded inside Michigan and nationwide, demonstrates that Artificial Intelligence technology is useful to older adults – and that they are not intimidated by it.  As with other studies, those with less education had somewhat less trust in AI-enabled information, and those with health disabilities also were somewhat less trusting of the information they found. (Source: July, 2025 University of Michigan AI Poll).

The Future of AI and Older Adults – A Look Back and Ahead

In 2023, twenty-five interviewees agreed that AI was going to matter to older adults. This report was an early entrant connecting AI to their needs. By then, advances in AI had received the full attention of the technology industry, which was undergoing its first major disruption since the arrival of smart speakers and voice in 2014. In fact, some thought it was going to change the interaction with and care of older adults in a dramatic way.  Many predictions have been realized as of today, including the widespread use of conversational AI in the home, use of AI in healthcare – particularly in clinical documentation, hearing assistance technology, 24x7 remote monitoring, chatbots for everything, including senior living. In fact, today many experts believe that AI is the most transformative technology since the introduction of the Internet.

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