2024 Senior Living Technology Trends: Enhancing Engagement and Streamlining Operations

The senior living industry is experiencing a technological renaissance, with digital solutions playing an increasingly vital role in enhancing the lives of residents, staff, and families. The 2024 Technology Report revealed key trends and opportunities for communities to leverage technology to address challenges, improve experiences, and drive growth. Spoiler: The report was written by LifeLoop and was skewed to their goals/ambitions, but at Welbi we never throw the baby out with the bathwater! While some information is biased, there were some great nuggets for all of us to learn from!

Key Challenges and Opportunities

Staffing shortages and retention remain top concerns for senior living leaders, impacting the ability to deliver optimal experiences. Eighty-four percent of respondents cited staffing as their primary concern, and 87% felt that shortages were impacting their ability to deliver high-quality experiences. Other notable concerns included occupancy, with 30% of respondents worried about it, and increased competition, which 26% of respondents noted as a concern.

Data collection and analysis are also gaining traction, with communities recognizing the power of data-driven decision-making. However, the transition from manual to automated processes is still underway. Embracing advanced analytics can unlock valuable insights to optimize operations and personalize experiences.

Technology is emerging as a critical tool to address these challenges by automating tasks, improving communication, and providing valuable insights. Technology enables us to do more with less but make no mistake, it is no replacement for human interaction.

The challenges around staffing, occupancy, increased competition, and the need for data in senior living culminate in the opportunities technology brings. Welbi customers are already using data to improve programming, increase resident engagement, and maintain high occupancy rates (we wrote this ebook on it!). It allows your team to do more with less, a key ingredient in providing high-quality experiences in senior living.

Emerging Technologies: AI and Beyond

Artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to revolutionize senior living, offering potential benefits in content creation, activity planning, and resident onboarding. While adoption is currently low, AI is trending, and its uses could be infinite.

Subtle uses of AI can include parsing data collected from residents to find trends and optimize programming to support those trends. For instance, consider all the residents in your community who speak Polish. How would you (1) know they speak that language and (2) be able to bring an experience into the programming that celebrates that language? (Spoiler #2, Welbi does this for you!)

The Future of Senior Living Technology

The future of senior living technology is bright, with advancements in data analytics, AI, and integrated solutions promising to transform the industry. However, it's crucial to understand that technology is only one way to optimize teams and empower people. Being aware of trends is important, but so is making a case for implementing change. Senior living is run by people for people, and only when changes are designed to support those people will operators be truly successful. Communities can create more engaging, efficient, and personalized experiences for residents, staff, and families by supporting their teams in doing so.

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