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Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming an increasingly common tool for consumers and businesses, primarily in reference to chatbots that can dynamically mimic human conversation and gather information. It could also have applications for aging in place, according to the leader of a senior care company.
Jeff Salter, founder and CEO of Caring Senior Service, which provides in-home care services, will speak about the potential applications of AI for aging in place at an upcoming event hosted by the National Aging in Place Council (NAIPC) this October in Orlando.
“While AI is still a relatively new and emerging technology, it is already being used to assist humans with so many functions,” Salter said in a statement. “For example, at Caring, we started using AI to assist with client-facing phone calls and to enhance our internal processes.”
Those uses evolved to include an AI platform to assist with client care after regular business hours. Salter described it as an “AI-powered audio technology” that “gathers relevant data when it detects anomalies and alerts us with recommended actions.”
There are likely other home-based care applications of the technology and the sector has “just begun to scrape the surface on the possibilities AI can provide,” Salter added.
NAIPC’s event, “Age of Innovation,” is the first conference the organization has held in more than 10 years. AI and the application of digital technologies for aging in place will be front-and-center over the course of the programming, and Salter will present specifically on implementation of AI platforms without a dedicated technology team.
The potential for AI in the senior and homecare spaces, particularly on smaller scales, could have the biggest benefit. The technology could be deployed to assist with medication reminders, appointment scheduling and automated billing procedures.
“Don’t look at it as some sort of wholesale change; rather, see it for what it is — a tool to supplement and improve at-home care services,” Salter said. “Tech companies see the home-care industry as the next frontier for AI solutions. It’s my hope that events like the NAIPC conference provide a forum where we can educate more home-care professionals about how AI can improve the services offered to their clients.”
In addition to Caring Senior Service being present, top five reverse mortgage lender and servicer Longbridge Financial will also be presenting at the event. Its COO, Bill Packer, will speak during a session called “Finding ROI in AI: How to Drive and Measure It.”
In an interview with HousingWire’s Reverse Mortgage Daily (RMD) last year, Packer spoke about the potential for deploying AI in the reverse mortgage business and its best potential use cases, while emphasizing the company’s focus on data security.
“The critical thing for us is that wherever we take this technology, it is going to be private,” Packer said in Sept. 2023. “Because we don’t want our customers’ information out in the public domain. [The technology] I’ll be demonstrating live in environments that we either have direct control over, because they’re there in our tenancy, or we’ve partnered with a third party, and they’ve segregated our environment from other environments.”
