By Jerod Evanich, A Place At Home

Senior care is at a turning point.

More than ten thousand Americans turn 65 and qualify for Medicare every day, and families are increasingly opting to keep loved ones at home longer. Meanwhile, the caregiver workforce is shrinking, operational costs are climbing, and recruiting remains highly competitive. Care needs are rising, and every senior care franchise owner feels these pressures in staffing, scheduling, documentation, client communication, and retention.

When people talk about artificial intelligence in health care, they often picture robots or futuristic systems. In reality, AI is beginning to reshape senior care from behind the scenes. It is not replacing caregivers or removing the human touch. It is taking tasks that used to take hours and cutting them down to minutes. It creates space for caregivers to focus on what matters most. In a franchise model, that matters even more because every minute saved can be multiplied across many locations.

At A Place At Home, we have spent the past year identifying which tasks drain the most time and energy from our teams. Scheduling, documentation, recruiting, and client communication consistently rose to the top. The goal was simple. Reduce friction. Improve consistency. Make more room for care.

One of the most significant breakthroughs has come from our Encinitas franchise location in California. The team began using AI to support scheduling. By sharing caregiver availability, location and preferences with AI, they can generate, for example, a 72-hour shift schedule in just a few minutes. Before, this required manual adjustments and back-and-forth phone calls. Now the team completes scheduling about seventy percent faster and avoids unnecessary overtime. Fewer last-minute gaps mean fewer stressful calls to caregivers and better continuity for clients.

Recruiting has also improved. When the Encinitas team noticed their job ads were not attracting the right applicants, they used AI to analyze the language and rewrite the posting. After testing the new versions, they saw a clear increase in qualified applicants who met their standards for professionalism and care. Hiring remains competitive. The main difference now is that the applicants are more serious about the work.

Documentation has also become easier, not because AI replaces it, but because it supports accuracy and compliance. Caregivers still enter their notes manually, through their app. AI steps in afterward to help owners and office staff organize those notes, identify missing details, and ensure they meet the strict formatting requirements set by third-party payers, such as long-term care insurance companies, for authorizing payment. This keeps documentation clear and consistent, reduces back-and-forth with payors, and prevents reimbursement delays. Internal AI meeting tools also summarize calls and action items so nothing gets lost when cases involve multiple team members.

AI has done more than create efficiency. It has helped our teams become more creative in their care. Dementia care often requires constant imagination and planning. The Encinitas franchise began using AI tools to design custom activity plans tailored to cognitive abilities and personal interests. Instead of the same puzzles or music, AI generates new activities that stimulate different areas of the brain. One client who had become withdrawn began engaging again because the caregiver introduced new sensory activities that matched her past hobbies.

The team has applied similar thinking to daily living tasks. They use AI to create customized grocery lists and meal plans that take dietary restrictions, budget, and available items at local stores into account. These enhancements may seem small, but families feel the difference. Care becomes personal rather than routine.

Training is evolving, too. Traditional training often requires caregivers to attend long classroom sessions, which can be difficult for those balancing other jobs or caregiving responsibilities at home. We are shifting toward short, on-demand modules that caregivers can complete on their phones between shifts. Over time, AI will personalize these modules based on skills that need reinforcement. Better training improves confidence and reduces turnover, which reduces the strain on recruiting.

Rolling out new technology across a franchise system requires discipline. We start small and test new tools in locations that have strong processes and a willingness to experiment. Encinitas has been an ideal proving ground because the owners are curious, open to learning, and comfortable testing ideas before we roll them out system-wide. We evaluate readiness based on the team’s openness to change, digital infrastructure, and reliable data. Once the new process or tool proves successful, we refine it into repeatable training and share it with other franchise locations.

Our philosophy is simple. AI should support people, not replace them. We serve clients at vulnerable points in their lives. Caregiving is personal, emotional, and relational. Technology cannot replicate that. What technology can do is remove the barriers between caregivers and the people they serve.

The real business benefit is scale. Strong systems help a brand grow. When prospective franchise owners evaluate opportunities, they want to see more than mission or purpose. They want proven processes. They want to know how the brand will help them win. When they see technology driving efficiency and experience, they gain confidence in the system. Smart systems paired with strong people create a franchise model that can grow without losing quality.

In 2026, we are refining our technology stack, strengthening infrastructure, and aligning every part of our business to support growth. We are not adding tools for the sake of having more tools. We are choosing tools that make the work easier, faster, and more consistent across every location. AI will continue to help us reduce lower-level tasks, improve recruiting, personalize training, enrich care, and enhance the experience for caregivers, clients, and franchise owners.

The future of senior care will always depend on the human element. AI simply creates space for it.

Jerod Evanich is the co-founder and president of A Place At Home. For more information about IFA franchisor member A Place At Home, please visit franchise.org/franchise-opportunities/a-place-at-home-llc/.