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Senior living operators are embracing AI. Their current and future prospects are not to nearly the same degree.
According to a Pew Research Center report from earlier this month, more than one-third of older adults age 65 and older believe AI will have a mostly negative impact on society. Approximately 39% of older adults expect worse health care outcomes as AI becomes more ingrained in health services. Only 17% of older adults think AI will benefit them.
These perceptions are worth paying attention to, as they clash with the senior living industry’s rosy attitude toward AI-supported technology. Senior living operators and their prospects use and therefore perceive AI in different ways, but that distinction might not matter to incoming residents and their loved ones, who are increasingly skeptical of services that replace human touch with a digital agent.
Residents in some communities are already pressing operators for more clarity about how they use AI. For example, residents at RoseVilla have asked the operator to define how AI fits into its values as an organization focused on sustainability.
“They have actually pushed back on us, saying, wait, before you go down that path, how does this align with us as an organization?” said RoseVilla CEO Glen Lewis earlier this year at the SHN Sales & Marketing conference.
Those kinds of questions could provide an opportunity to educate prospects “on the measurable benefits AI brings to senior living communities,” NIC Principal of Operations and AgeTech Dorice Redman told me.
Senior living operators should explain to residents how and why they are using AI and how they’re safeguarding them from harm. If older adults are already skeptical, I think building trust matters as much as adopting the technology itself.
In this week’s SHN+ Update, I examine the widening gap between AI adoption in senior living and transparency and offer the following takeaways:
- Why skepticism of AI is worth paying attention to
- How transparency in AI use at communities could improve resident satisfaction
- The case for voluntary standards in AI use in senior living
Sentiment around AI matters for operators
In a 2025 executive survey by Argentum, a little more than three-fourths of senior living technology and C-suite executives said they believe AI will have a transformative and positive effect on the senior living industry.
A little fewer than three-fourths, 70%, said they use AI in operations for predictive analytics, followed by AI for staff efficiency, chatbots for resident interactions and AI-based health monitoring technology.
As the Pew data shows, older adults hold negative views of AI, but they are not alone. People under 30 reported the highest level of AI skepticism. In 2026, an AARP Technology Trends survey found that 41% of people between 70 and 79 and 37% over the age of 80 currently use or are interested in AI.
Comparing AI usage of operators to the Pew data, I see a potential disconnect between operators, who are enthusiastically adopting AI-supported technology; and older adults, who are skeptical of it.
This is not to say that operators have not already been transparent with residents about how they are using AI and other similar platforms. Operators require consent from residents to use ambient monitoring health safety technology, and they provide other privacy disclosures related to clinical care services that are capable of spotting patterns where additional care might be necessary.
“When AI is used to enhance communications, such as website chatbots or virtual receptionists for phone inquiries, communities following best practices will disclose this on their website privacy policy,” Redman told me.
To build stronger trust with skeptical residents and families, operators should take on an educational role, reinforcing that AI functions are not a replacement for human decision making, but rather an enhancement, Redman added.
Currently there is no comprehensive federal law that mandates AI disclosures to patients in health care. CMS and the FDA created guidance on AI in clinical decision-making in January 2025, something I think is important to note for senior living providers. This puts senior living at an important crossroads, as the industry adopts AI at a pace closer to that of health care, while being regulated more similarly to the hospitality industry.
Multiple states have enacted or are in the process of ratifying AI-specific consumer protection laws.
Colorado was the first to create a risk-based AI statute, mandating developers of AI systems prevent algorithmic discrimination. In California, lawmakers targeted AI transparency around how generative AI is used with consumer protections in mind. In Illinois, lawmakers approved a bill that focuses on regulation of how AI algorithms process consumer data and on avoiding bias.
“Vendors should disclose that they are using AI. They walk a delicate line as they don’t want to give too much detail on what they view to be competitively advantageous,” ATI Advisory Managing Director Will Sellheim told me.
While I don’t think the senior living industry will face AI-specific regulation any time soon, I do feel that the trajectory bends toward transparency and the best decision for the sector is to take steps now to be transparent rather than being compelled to.
Potential pathways to reduce AI skepticism
We often hear about how senior living providers are ingraining AI-supported technology, from dashboards residents can access to lifestyle and wellness platforms that curate personalized events and appointments.
Sellheim believes skepticism will diminish among older adults if senior living providers can demonstrate how these systems can make their daily lives easier. For example, if a resident can access, change or customize a meal choice through a digital platform or can interact with a voice-assisted virtual assistant, they will see the value compared to making a phone call or making a pre-selection days in advance.
“There’s real promise that many services can get better with this technology,” Sellheim added.
To be fair, there are many business system use cases for AI in senior living, some of which directly impact the bottom line without a resident-facing component. For example, Bickford Senior Living adopted an AI system that helped create $1 million in net new revenue annually through AI-supported billing reconciliation.
Health safety technology is also helping senior living providers protect their residents and respond more quickly when health needs arise. For example, Solera Senior Living deployed AI sensor technology in rooms that ambiently monitors residents and can detect falls at a community in Las Vegas. What followed was 48% fewer falls, an 87% reduction in falls among high-risk residents and 54% fewer emergency room visits.
How AI transparency in senior living would look
I think a tiered approach to transparency in AI use across senior living communities is possible, and potentially easier than providers may realize.
The first focuses on disclosure, a baseline for transparency, meaning that providers should inform residents and families about how AI tools are used in their communities. This would require operators to share which elements of operations use AI-supported technology. Then operators should clarify the role of human oversight where AI is used in operations.
“There is a constant shift in the underlying AI being used in many products,” Sellheim told me. “There is a great need to form consensus on what disclosure should look like and how frequently to update that information.”
If residents and families are able to ask questions about AI use and get answers, they will feel more supported and like a part of the process of transitioning a loved one into a community. Taking small steps toward transparency does not mean that providers need to abandon AI or for developers to share their trade secrets.
“Disclosures should include how data is collected, used, shared, and stored. They should have the opportunity to ‘opt out’ if available, and if not, why, is also a very important disclosure to build trust,” Redman told me.
This simply requires treating residents like informed partners in their own care journey. Operators who establish voluntary transparency standards around how technology and AI are used in their communities will be best positioned to gain the trust of older adults and their families.
Innovation and technological advancement without transparency is inherently lacking and creates a space in which a disconnect will remain between their companies and the older adults that they are trying to reach.