How useful is AI for older adults? It may come down to the design.
Technology designed to help older adults live independently doesn’t always make aging in place easier. In a new report, AARP found that some “Agetech” products and services can fall short because of complicated setup, unclear instructions, incompatible homes and designs that aren’t intuitive for older users.
The report, “The Desire and Reality of Aging in Place: Applied Agetech in Real Life,” found that a technology’s success often depends on how it is designed and how easy it is to use for older adults and their caregivers.
Artificial intelligence may help improve those experiences, AARP found, but it also can introduce new challenges.
Designing AI with users in mind
The generative nature of AI makes it relatively easy for companies to add the technology to products, said Andy Miller, senior vice president of AARP Innovation Labs’ AgeTech Collaborative.
“While it’s great that we are having these advancements and it’s happening at such a phenomenal pace, the challenge, I think, becomes that it’s really easy for almost anyone to create an AI — call it — product,” he said.
But for technology to support aging in place, Miller said AI needs to be considered as part of a home’s overall technology ecosystem. Incorporating AI’s conversational capabilities during the development process can help make that possible.
User-centered design is another key component. That can include co-creating products with the people who will use them, particularly older adults and their caregivers.
“You have to make sure the product you’re building is really built for the caregiver, but it’s also built for the care recipient,” Miller said.
Adoption and scaling
Adoption and scaling are two different challenges, Miller said, particularly when it comes to AI. While AI can make products easier to use and create polished interfaces that attract early users, expanding those products can be more difficult if companies haven’t considered factors such as the user’s environment and overall experience.
“A lot of these startups will run to build things for pilots without any sort of clear understanding of ‘If we’re successful, what happens?’” he said. “As quickly as we’re seeing the startups adopt the AI and embed it and get some level of traction, we’re seeing them struggle on the other end.”
Trust is another critical factor when introducing AI-driven technology to older adults, Miller said. A product may be technically effective, but people may be reluctant to use it if they don’t trust the company or organization behind it.
“You could build the best tool in the world, but aren’t a trusted source, then you’re probably going to have a hard time getting adoption and getting the traction you want,” he said.
Extending the labor pool
In Atlanta, AI and other agetech developments are increasingly being explored as tools to supplement the caregiving workforce, said Jeff Gray, founder and CEO of AgeTech Atlanta.
A shrinking labor pool is contributing to the need for new technology in caregiving, Gray said.
“We see senior living, assisted living, memory care, home care, home health and post-acute care all really scrambling and competing for a worker who’s not highly paid and doing a very difficult job,” he said. “We’re all looking and hopeful that AI and robotics will extend that smaller work labor pool.”
Gray said he’s seeing several companies with Atlanta ties use AI to address caregiving and aging-related needs. Hello Robot uses AI-powered robots to provide in-home assistance, including help with prescribed exercise programs. Catalyst Health uses AI to help nursing home operators automate time-consuming tasks and analyze electronic health records, including identifying care that may not be delivered or billed for.
Although AI is increasingly being used to support the caregiving workforce, Gray said senior living and post-acute care providers remain cautious about allowing the technology to interact directly with patients.
“There’s still this tremendous feeling of caution around being in a situation where artificial intelligence is somehow interacting with a human that’s receiving care because there’s still so much evidence that these artificial intelligence personas are capable of leaps of imagination,” he said.
A ‘fine-grained’ approach
Gray’s view of AI in the development process is similar to Miller’s. Companies that stand out, he said, take a “fine-grained” approach, identifying a specific need and determining whether there is a real demand before launching a product. Establishing a viable business model early, he said, also makes a difference.
“The reality of it is that the companies that are doing it right — not only is the software brilliant, but they have a payer. There’s someone buying the product,” he said.
As AI becomes more common in agetech, Gray expects Atlanta to remain an important part of that growth. Existing companies are beginning to “supercharge” their products with AI, he said, but the technology’s success will depend on more than what it can do. It also will depend on whether it solves a real problem, works for the people using it and earns their trust.