134: AI in Home Health: Beyond the Buzz

SPEAKER_1 (0:02)

You're listening to Home Health Revealed, where the business of home health comes to life. Hosted by Hannah Vale, each episode brings real conversations with the leaders, innovators and experts shaping the future of the industry. From reimbursement and technology, to leadership and growth, this is Home Health Revealed.

Hannah Vale (0:17)

Welcome to Home Health Revealed. Welcome back. Today, we are going to be diving into one of the biggest topics that is shaping our industry right now, which is artificial intelligence. What it actually means for agencies on the ground, not just those buzzwords. My guest today is John Atkinson, CTO of AxisCare, who recently led a survey of over 400 industry leaders to find out how they're really thinking about AI.

John, thanks so much for joining me.

John Atkinson (0:50)

I'm happy to be here. It's exciting to get to chat about this with you.

Hannah Vale (0:54)

Yeah. Now, you are known for taking complex tech concepts and making them easy for anyone to understand, which is exactly what we need for a conversation like this. So you're going to walk us through what AxisCare's new AI industry survey found. And then more importantly, for our listeners, what it really means for the day-to-day operations.

John Atkinson (1:16)

Yeah, absolutely. There were some really interesting findings and we really value hearing from the folks out there in the industry that are doing the work day-to-day, understanding what kind of situations and challenges they're facing, how they're thinking about it. And then that really shapes the solutions that we provide and the approaches that we take to doing that. So we were really delighted to get such a robust response to the survey. And we learned a lot through the results of it as well.

Hannah Vale (1:46)

Yeah. What surprised you most about how people in Home Care are actually using or just thinking about AI right now?

John Atkinson (1:53)

I would say one of the key findings that really jumped out to me was this idea that a lot of people are talking about AI and only a few people, only a few agencies have actually started to really experience that transformation. And so our survey, we asked, are you experiencing transformation or where are you at? And about 15 percent of the respondents said they're experiencing transformation. Which felt a little lower than what we thought it would be initially given all of the discussion.

But what really stood out there is that 77 percent of the agencies said that they were in this state of either evaluating, adopting or piloting AI.

And so what that told me is that we're still early in this journey of people actually experiencing the transformation. But so many of us are in that place of like, let's figure it out. Let's find the spot where we think it could work. Let's understand what use cases are best and let's move the ball forward. And then there were a few folks that were not yet doing anything, but that part of the pie is really shrinking, is what we've seen.

Hannah Vale (3:13)

Yeah, I feel like I've heard some similar conversations. Definitely agree. I think if I were to categorize what I hear, just going to different conferences, having different conversations, is that curiosity is really, really high. But I don't think people know exactly what to do about it yet. I do even feel like with all of the chatter, some agencies do feel behind just because they're not sure where to implement, what they can trust, some of those different factors.

So, for agencies that feel behind on AI, where should they realistically start?

John Atkinson (3:52)

Well, and one of the things that I really have also seen in my conversations is that a lot of people feel behind. And one of the encouragements that I offer there is that if you're even asking the question and trying to do something, you're actually not behind. You're in that group with the other 77%.

And so really, what I would say is identify an area of your operation that is causing a lot of friction and pain right now, and see if there are some AI tools that can help in that area. And, you know, as I was thinking about this, one of the quotes that I've heard that I like to re-share is that really, AI enables us to expand the scope of our ambition. Things that we wouldn't have even thought were possible before are things that we can consider now. And so I almost think of AI as like a genie in the bottle to where we could say, man, I really wish dot dot dot. And before, you know, I think maybe we wouldn't have even bothered to like really consider that wish, right? I wish caregivers would just clock in on time, all the time. Right? Like, we laugh because there's like, well, yeah, that's a great wish, but it's totally not realistic. I think with AI capabilities, we can start to actually contemplate those wishes a little bit more and say, you know what, I know that wasn't possible three years ago, but is that possible today? Is there a solution out there that could help fulfill that wish? Maybe not 100%, but maybe 80%.