With the baby boomer generation now in retirement, the healthcare industry is placing increasing emphasis on elderly care and how it should be handled. It is becoming more and more challenging for people during their working years to take care of elderly parents, and working people are actively seeking new solutions.
Fortunately, AI and advanced technology are making many aspects of elder care much easier. While technology cannot address all of the challenges of this situation, there are exciting new advancements that are taking a lot of the burden off of people who need to care for their parents. In this article, we will discuss some of the ways that technology is making elder care more streamlined and efficient.
Health Monitoring and Supervision
AI is making waves in health monitoring and supervision on different levels. There are now advanced monitoring systems that can be installed in elderly people’s homes which allow for remote monitoring. These systems are more than just cameras: They are specifically programmed to alert caregivers and health professionals to any anomalies in people’s routines that might indicate problems. Systems also include smart features such as the ability to turn on lights, change the temperature in a room, or unlock doors.
Wearable devices are also becoming much more sophisticated thanks to the use of AI. And the technology associated with smart implants is advancing so that seniors can have much greater control over their health conditions. Implants provide caregivers with feedback on patients’ conditions on a real-time basis so that they can act quickly when necessary and prevent problems from developing. This saves seniors a lot of time and money that would otherwise be spent on doctor’s visits.
Virtual Assistants for Efficient Care
Not all seniors can afford to have full-time caregivers. Highly sophisticated virtual assistants are now available that offer seniors many of the same types of assistance that human caregivers provide.
Virtual assistants provide both monitoring and companionship to seniors. Some of them can play games with people, provide them with the news, and keep them updated on subjects of interest. They also help seniors contact family through video chats and other communication mechanisms. And they can be set to remind seniors when to take medication or perform other routine tasks. Because they are programmable, virtual assistance can be customized to the personal preferences of individual seniors. This allows seniors to save the costs that would be spent on caregivers.
Social Engagement and Mental Well-Being
AI is becoming increasingly adept at identifying mental health challenges among seniors. As the technology becomes more sophisticated, devices are picking up on things like early warning signs of dementia faster, which helps doctors provide treatment. As a result of the speed with which these devices act, seniors are consequently able to save a great deal of money on healthcare costs.
Another exciting advancement is AI robots that are able to provide a whole range of entertainment and assistive possibilities to seniors. There are robots that can simulate voices and have whole dialogues with people. Some can sing and entertain. Others can provide physical assistance by bringing things to seniors with mobility problems. Having the “companionship” of robots available to seniors makes a big difference in their mental and emotional well-being. The best AI robots offer a variety of services and entertainment for everyone, including seniors.
Streamlining Caregiving with AI
AI is also instrumental in determining other types of diseases at an early stage. AI is able to gather large amounts of data and synthesize it quickly, and this applies both to any given individual’s personal history, as well as people with common conditions whose data could be useful for research in general.
Because AI is often more proficient at making these kinds of predictions than humans are, diagnoses are both more accurate and less costly. AI can produce in a matter of seconds what used to take teams of researchers months or years to come up with. This saves on doctor’s bills, as well as medicine as there is less experimentation involved.
The Role of AI in Simplifying Elderly Care Financing
As AI tools can be programmed to the specific needs of any individual, they can be fine-tuned to determine the precise medical needs of any given senior. By monitoring people’s health on a granular level and providing detailed information back to healthcare professionals, AI can assist teams in creating accurate, tailored medical plans for individuals.
The increased precision provided by AI ultimately helps to save costs on treatment and medications as doctors have to do less experimentation to determine the needs of any given senior. This helps with budgeting and expenditures on medical costs. With better predictions available, seniors can easily determine how much they need to spend on each aspect of their medication, treatment, etc.
Practical Applications of AI in Elderly Care Finance
New AI-driven tools are revolutionizing elderly care finance. In being able to assess people’s health with greater accuracy, smart devices can help doctors predict medicine costs and future treatments much more easily. This helps both with budget planning, as well as regular financial management.
Thanks to the development of robo-advisors and related fintech tools, seniors can gain a clearer picture of their financial status and plan more easily. Robo-advisors are customizable tools that help users manage their money remotely without having to physically visit banks. With digital wallets also available to conduct transactions, this makes life much easier for seniors.
Another advantage that seniors gain from the increased accuracy of AI tools is that they can find-tune their insurance plans better. There are AI tools designed to synthesize individuals’ conditions with the constructs of insurance companies to come up with the most accurate possible suggestions for which plans to take. This allows seniors to save costs that would otherwise be spent on unnecessary plan aspects.
Starting With AI for Elderly Care Financial Planning
To get started with AI in financial planning, seniors and their families should talk to financial advisors familiar with modern tools. Advisors can familiarize seniors with the overall landscape of AI and AI-driven tools, and explain how they can help seniors manage their personal finances and use their retirement savings most efficiently.
AI-driven digital banking tools can assist seniors with both simple and complex tasks. Digital banking can streamline the process of budgeting for monthly expenses, paying bills, and managing appointments. For seniors who want to put money into investments, they can customize their robo-advisors to make personalized recommendations for them based upon specific criteria.
As each person’s goals, means, and risk levels are different, AI is assistive in making the most appropriate suggestions possible for every individual. And because it can process such large amounts of information within a short period of time, AI-driven tools make far more accurate suggestions than humans would be able to.
Balancing AI with Human Care
Despite their capabilities, AI tools should not be seen as a full-scale substitution for human care. Human care is important because people need some contact with others on an emotional level. While robots and other AI tools can provide many forms of entertainment and companionship, seniors still need regular meetings with other people.
AI technologies also need to be monitored by real people. We should not take for granted that these tools will always produce the right suggestions. When there is so much data available to draw possible conclusions from, it is always possible that AI can err and come up with a suggestion that is wrong or harmful.
Conclusion
AI is making great advancements in many aspects of elderly care and elderly care financing. Thanks to these advancements, seniors are able to monitor their health with greater accuracy and efficiency, and they can receive assistance with many of their daily activities. These tools ultimately help seniors save a great deal of money on doctors and caregivers. While it is not advisable for seniors to use AI tools without sufficient monitoring, they are definitely making life much easier for seniors in many respects.
Image by Karlaage Isaksen from Pixabay
