Telehealth-RPM-Virtual Visits-Voice Health

AI hype, fear and loathing are on the agenda.  Today marks the 10^th month since the near hysteria surrounding the arrival and rapid adoption of ChatGPT.  It struck fear into the hearts of many, redirecting programmers (see arrival of Google Bard).  Forrester’s CEO George Colony just predicted the death of search and the web as we know it – his American Airlines flight experience is instructive (see the GenAI Imperative). The Gartner hype cycle on AI is now published – and predicts, of course, a future plateau in generative AI.  And finally, to cap things off, today the big guns of the tech industry, will spend seven hours behind closed doors discussing how to regulate AI.  

The halfway point -- research about Future of Care Work. Each interviewee was asked for thoughts in the context of the categories suggested by ChatGPT and any other categories that will improve the work processes for those in the care-related industries – home care, home healthcare, senior living care (including nursing homes), and hospital discharge processes to any of those. Few conversations focused on ChatGPT – instead it became apparent that innovation, including AI, is underway to optimize care work, focus on the workforce, and help keep care recipients at home:

Monitoring the AgeTech market, one major trend at a time.  One of the key roles of an industry analyst is to detect and predict new trends that will make a difference in the lives of older adults. Consider the five year sequence of reports below, from oldest to most recent, from the introduction of voice tech to the Covid-driven rise of telehealth to smart homes to wearables to sensors to the current research underway (stay tuned!) about The Future of AI and Older Adults. The uptake of ‘voice first’ (versus ‘screen and keyboard first’) technologies in 2018 was a very big deal. It now seems obvious that people expect multiple modalities interaction with a technology. Now 100 million Americans own at least one smart speaker – now AI technology will enable the next generation of user interactions. Here are those reports:

It’s possible to participate in CES – and not be a startup.  While startups were MANY that sought a presence in the older adult technology marketplace, now known as AgeTech, many firms were there who had been at CES before. They went back because of the business benefits of being at the show, post-pandemic, with a chance to interact with some of the 115,000 attendees.  Observers can also watch the whole thing after the fact, like many from around the world will do. Here are six prior attendees in the older adult, wellbeing category that serves older adults. All information is from press releases or the company websites.

Amazon's Alexa Together was introduced at the very end of 2021 (just over one year ago!)  for remote monitoring of older family members. The product name choice was outstanding, even inspired, suggesting that using Alexa – a popular voice interface, made it possible to connect family members and to be aware of issues they might have when home alone. This was one of a series of ‘ambient’ offerings in the market (Vayyar Care, KamiCare, and Origin Wireless, among others).  This ambient technology (‘immersed in your surroundings, ready to help without any prompting’) was in contrast with wearables that required the user to do something – press a button to call for help.