The National Council on Aging (NCOA), through the ACL-funded Direct Care Workforce Strategies Center, has released a series of reports on using artificial intelligence (AI) in home care to support community living for older adult and people with disabilities. “A New Era of Care,” a series of three reports, describes how AI is already being used in home care and what is needed to ensure that it is helpful to caregivers and not burdensome.

The need for home and community-based services is growing, which means it is necessary to find innovative solutions to improve the caregiving experience for both family caregivers and direct support professionals.

The sector is already innovating with AI, the research shows. Some providers are adopting AI-powered tools to improve safety and monitoring—such as sensors, fall-detection systems, and predictive analytics. Others are using AI to streamline operations, including hiring, training, communication across care teams, reporting, and claims processing.

Yet, providers universally report that there are key risks that must be addressed. These include:

• Privacy and consent: Weak safeguards can expose or misuse sensitive client and worker data.

• Accuracy and reliability: False positives/negatives and generic outputs can waste time or cause harm.

• Bias and uneven outcomes: Tools may perform worse for disabled people, older adults, or rural communities and can treat groups differently.

• Human connection: Over-automation can erode judgment, autonomy, and relationship-based care.

• Usability and workflow: Poor design or poor integration can add tasks and increase stress.

• Compliance and liability: Errors can trigger HIPAA, Medicaid/Medicare, labor, and contractual risks if outputs are not vetted.

More information on the series of reports are available here.