HLTH 2024 wrapped up last week in Las Vegas – where else? AI was a big topic – transformational, embedded in health tech, capitalizing on the buzz. Or growing caution, concern about regulation, data quality issues, depending on the perspective. Others fretted about the state of healthcare in the US (not good), physician burnout (not good) and the health status of Americans, especially the mental health of young people (not good). All these despite the promise of AI-enablement of laborious processes, hospital at home, conversational AI, new drugs, and many tech innovations. Looking through the exhibitor list, fifty-eight companies self-identified as AgeTech at HLTH.
Concerns about AI are all around, but its future role is inevitable. There it is, one consumer well-publicized survey after another, whether it is the WSJ, Pew Research or AARP, even as adoption in business, healthcare and other industries grows. Consumers continue to express worry – but in the meantime…82% of companies are either using or exploring use of AI today. That parallels the senior living and care organizations interviewed for this new report – there is a combination of evaluating, limited use, and actually in use with benefit. Interviewees contributed ideas, actual projects and concerns, helping to shape the new report, The Future of AI in Senior Living and Care.
Senior living and nursing home executives weigh in on the role that AI may currently offer and will likely play in the future. They see the potential to optimize their workforce and obtain better insights about their residents' needs. Within a few years, AI will no longer be described as a separate category -- but its features of machine learning, customized vocabulary and conversational responses will be expected and provided.
No surprise – AI tools are already part of senior living operations and planning. The research phase is nearly complete for the report on AI in Senior Living and Care. It is increasingly apparent that AI is not a future for many. it is already solving vexing problems that proprietary or existing apps could not effectively tackle, whether in senior living or skilled nursing home environments. Although a few interviewees felt that AI tools were 'not quite ready for prime time' all saw that the future benefit, particularly in terms of more effective use of data, optimizing workloads of staff, and proactive monitoring of the wellbeing of residents. The report will quote specific executives about their experiences, but here are insights from the 20 conversations held to date:
Unlimited Robotics, which aims to solve critical staffing shortages in healthcare through the deployment of autonomous robotic solutions, has closed a $5 million Seed round led by lool ventures, an early-stage Israeli venture capital firm. Additional investors include Avishai Abrahami, CEO and Co-founder of Wix, and Micha Kauffman, CEO and Co-founder of Fiverr.
Publicly available up-to-date stats about the older adult population is weak or non-existent. The most recent version of ChatGPT admits it cannot state the current population in the US that is aged 75+. Nor can Google. This is somewhat surprising, given the angst in business and market predictions about the aging of the US population and the potential doom that it portends. But anyway, the answer is buried in Census tables. Would you be surprised to learn that there are 25.7 million people aged 75+ today? That 14.8 million are women and 10.8 million are men? Would it surprise that 42% of the 65+ population (60.5 million) is aged 75+?