The use of artificial intelligence within senior living and care has exploded over the past few years.
But although patients acknowledge its growing ubiquity, they are not yet willing to cede the role of primary care and therapy completely to AI, a new study shows.
In particular, older adults showed much higher skepticism of the technology. Less than a quarter of those aged 65 or more years would even be “somewhat comfortable” with AI-led primary care, compared wit 40% of those aged 18 to 34, researchers found.
The number was even lower — just 18% — for older adults accepting AI-led therapy.
The research was spearheaded by Outbreaks Near Me, a team of epidemiologists from Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
Similar results were found in a Pew Research poll released earlier this year, which showed that 60% of respondents would be “uncomfortable” with their healthcare providers using AI to diagnose diseases or recommend treatments.
Despite these findings, AI continues to grow as a way to detect and diagnose a large number of diseases and conditions, including heart disease and dementia.
Among healthcare professionals, 65% believe AI creates positive outcomes, or at least will be neutral, for the sector, the study found.
And for staff and administrators of nursing facilities, the application of AI is even more enticing, particularly in the form of robots that perform functions like serving in the dining room or offering dance lessons. (See the case of the two robots at The Estates at Roseville in Minnesota who lead the Macarena.)
