The current status and future potential are discussed in the new report The Future of AI and Older Adults from Aging and Health Technology Watch. The report is based on interviews with experts from 26 organizations across healthcare, senior living, and technology. AI technologies have exploded onto the market in multiple categories. As an aging population faces a dwindling care workforce, it is also emerging that can assist organizations that provide care and help older adults to maintain independence.
Over the next five years and beyond, the care industries will make more effective use of AI technologies. We will see expansion of Wi-Fi access in senior care, customer service, and remote monitoring. And increasingly, insurers and care providers will include the role of AI in the standard of home healthcare.
Researchers at multiple universities have also been ramping up AI and Aging initiatives funded by the National Institute on Aging and the National Science Foundation. Multiple grants and awards totaling over $70 million are fueling projects in wearables, remote monitoring, health apps, voice biomarkers and more. Payment for AI-enabled services has also been tackled in 2022, targeting work done by machines.
More sensor-based applications for detecting motion and change have been emerging. Predictive analytics are now becoming meaningful in health and senior care for questions like how a community is performing or whether more care workers may be needed in specific circumstances. In the future, AI in the home is likely to become part of a ‘wellbeing’ infrastructure that is incorporated into new home design and home remodeling.
