At the second day of the SilverEco International Festival 2025, an early-morning panel titled “Residences of tomorrow: AI, staff support, and digital pathways to wellbeing” brought together three voices working at the intersection of ageing, care, and technology. Moderated by Stela Shiroka, a Vienna-based researcher and project lead at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Digital Health and Patient Safety, the discussion explored how senior living facilities and care homes are being reshaped by digitalisation—and what it will take to ensure this transformation remains human-centred.
Stela Shiroka opened by framing a sector under pressure: severe staff shortages, rising workloads for caregivers, and increasing risks of isolation and cognitive decline among older adults. Against this backdrop, AI-powered assistance tools, smart sensors, and digital pathways for health monitoring appear as promising allies—but also raise new challenges.
Balancing Autonomy and Technology
Representing the design and operational perspective was Carlo Cavandoli, partner at Italy’s Specht Group, which develops and maintains senior residences in Italy and Germany. For Carlo Cavandoli, any technological deployment begins with a simple principle: “guaranteeing autonomy for our guests.”
He stressed that successful implementation depends as much on staff training as on the devices themselves. “If you introduce a technology and the people who are going to use it don’t know how to use it, it has a very short lifespan,” he noted.
Specht Group has recently partnered with Amazon to integrate personalised Alexa devices in its residences, equipped with motion and depth sensors capable of detecting falls, temperature changes, or unusual movements. Beyond safety, Carlo Cavandoli highlighted the potential for AI companions to support everyday independence, enabling residents to interact through simple voice commands.
But technology, he argued, must also strengthen community rather than isolate individuals. In shared activity rooms—where games, sports, music and social gatherings take place—digital tools are being used to encourage interaction and participation. Despite these advances, he acknowledged a persistent barrier: many current residents remain wary of unfamiliar interfaces. “They see this big thing and complicated menus… for them it’s a shock,” he said, though he expects future generations of seniors to arrive with higher digital confidence.
[Replay] Residences of tomorrow: AI, staff support, and digital pathways to wellbeing
AI : Reducing Administrative Burdens to Restore Human Time
From the German side, Frank Leyhausen, Director General of Reifegrad4 and a long-time observer of the silver economy, pointed to one of the most immediate opportunities: cutting down administrative load.
“In Germany, one third of caregivers’ working time goes into documentation,” he said. New AI-driven tools—such as speech-recognition documentation apps—are already helping staff dictate notes directly into their phones, with the system generating digital health records automatically. The time saved, Frank Leyhausen stressed, can be redirected toward direct care.
He sees similar potential in fall sensors, autonomous service robots, and AI systems that monitor overnight activity or temperature changes, enabling targeted interventions instead of broad, intrusive checks. But implementation remains the challenge: “People say they buy digital technology, they drop it down, and think they’ll enjoy. They won’t,” he cautioned.
Frank Leyhausen highlighted two products gaining momentum in German-speaking countries:
- Voice, the AI-enabled documentation tool that recently secured significant international funding and has shown positive staff feedback in Austria.
- An AI-powered “Alexa-like” companion combined with radar-based detection technology—one of the first tools approved for reimbursement within Germany’s long-term care insurance system.
However, he emphasised that policymakers and insurers themselves are still learning how to assess digital tools, which slows broader adoption.
Interoperability and the Future of Health Monitoring
Stela Shiroka added insights from Austria, where a proliferation of digital nursing documentation systems is underway. Many now feature AI components and interoperability with national electronic health records, enabling more coordinated and continuous care across institutions.
Looking ahead, she pointed to the rise of precision and personalised medicine, alongside health-monitoring apps that may soon automate tasks such as routine blood-pressure checks. This trend, she argued, could improve both wellbeing for residents and efficiency for nursing staff.
Human’s touch vs AI’s : Towards a Hybrid Future
A recurring theme in the discussion was the need to avoid replacing human care with automation, or vice versa. Frank Leyhausen described emerging “tandem” models in which tech-fluent younger nurses collaborate with more experienced colleagues who bring deep social and interpersonal skills. Cavandoli echoed this balance, insisting that the future will require both “the human touch and the technological touch.”
As care systems across Europe grapple with demographic change, all three speakers agreed that digital tools can ease pressures and expand autonomy—but only if introduced thoughtfully, with training, user involvement, and sensitivity to the fears and needs of today’s residents.
The residences of tomorrow, the panel concluded, must not only be more efficient. They must also remain more human, more connected, and more attuned to the lived experiences of those who call them home.
Published by the Editorial Staff on