January 15, 2025 • 20 mins
In this episode, Adrian Schauer, CEO and co-founder of AlayaCare, shares his top predictions for 2025 and discusses the major trends and developments that will shape the future of home-based care. Chief among these predictions is the rise of agentic AI and how this transformative technology will empower caregivers to deliver smarter, more proactive care. Adrian explains how AI agents will go beyond simple automation to serve as decision-making partners providing real-time insights, personalized care plans, and streamlined workflows that alleviate administrative burdens and improve patient outcomes.
Additionally, Adrian discusses other key predictions, including how small, continuous improvements across workflows will act as a flywheel that generates exponential impacts for both operational efficiency and care quality. Adrian also emphasizes the importance of employee experience as a cornerstone for agency success and how prioritizing caregiver well-being and overall satisfaction will be a distinct competitive advantage in a challenging labor market.
Related resources:
- Blog: The future of home-based care: Adrian’s predictions for 2025 and beyond
- Webinar: 4 revolutionary use cases for AI in home-based care
- Meet Layla, AlayaCare's new AI assistant built from home-based care
- Webinar: Live Platform Tour – See Layla in action
- Podcast: Using AI to automate key processes in home-based care with Jeff Salter
- How AlayaCare is Revolutionizing Home Care with AI-Based Solutions to Address Industry’s Most Challenging Problems
If you liked this episode and want to learn more about all things home-based care, you can explore all our episodes at alayacare.com/homehealth360.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Adrian Schauer (00:00):
This is a step change in technology on the
order of mobility or the cloud,or social networks.
This is really going to changeeverything.
Now the hype cycle, like I said, it thinks things that are
going to happen within the nextthree months are probably going
to take a year to happen, but wecannot sleep on this trend.
(00:23):
A year to happen, but we cannotsleep on this trend.
The providers that figure outhow to run their business better
with AI are going to take thisgame.
As they say, AI is not comingfor your job, but the person
using AI is coming for your job.
So I feel the same way aboutrunning a home care agency.
Erin Vallier (00:50):
Welcome to another episode of the Home Health 360
podcast, where we speak to homebased care professionals from
around the globe.
I'm your host, , and today I amjoined by the founder and CEO
of AlayaCare himself, AdrianSchauer.
Welcome to the show.
Adrian Schauer (01:08):
Great to be here .
Thank you very much.
Erin Vallier (01:11):
I know I'm super excited to be the one having
this conversation with you thisyear because your predictions
podcasts for the upcoming yearhave always been the most viewed
and most downloaded episodes ofour podcast, so I know that
people really do appreciate whatyou have to say and they're
super excited to hear whatyou're thinking about in the new
(01:33):
year.
Adrian Schauer (01:34):
Great.
One of my highlights of theyear is sitting down and
figuring out where I think theindustry is going, where
technology is going, and so Ilike to do the new predictions.
I also enjoy looking back atlast year's predictions and
seeing just where I got it right, and so I like to do the new
predictions.
I also enjoy looking back atlast year's predictions and
seeing just where I got it rightand where I got it wrong.
Erin Vallier (01:50):
Ooh, do you have any thoughts about that before
we get into the next year?
Adrian Schauer (01:54):
There's a general trend where I think I'm
right, but often too early, andin the predictions game, being
too early is prettyindistinguishable from being
wrong.
I always think things are goingto move faster than they end up
moving.
Erin Vallier (02:07):
Yeah, fair enough, we overestimate what we could
do in a year and underestimatewhat we can do in a decade,
right?
So I know I got to take a quickpeek of your predictions for
the new year.
I know we're going to betalking about some AI, some
streamlining of workflows,caregiver well-being, optimizing
your workforce, combiningtechnology with empathy and not
(02:31):
losing that human touch, andgetting prepared.
So we've got a lot of stuff tocover.
I'm just going to dive in withsome really pointed questions.
If you're good with that,perfect, let's do it In 2025,.
You have said that agentic AIis going to revolutionize home
care by proactively identifyingand acting on care opportunities
(02:51):
.
Before I ask the question, Iknow that some of our listeners
don't really know what agenticAI is.
Can you define that term for us?
And then I'd love to know whatyou envision these advancements,
how they're going to transformthe caregiver and client
relationship and overall carequality.
Adrian Schauer (03:09):
Yeah, 100%, All right.
Probably the best way to answerthe question what is an agentic
workflow?
Is to compare it to.
How is it different than aregular workflow automation?
We're at this cusp of historywhere AI is absolutely changing
the way work is done, and thekey aspect of that is that the
(03:30):
AI can now make decisions andcommunicate more like a human
would.
A workflow automation in thetraditional sense was any stream
of things that need to be donethat can be expressed in some
flavor of an if-then statementis a candidate for automation.
Now, why is so much of the backoffice within a home care
(03:53):
agency not automated?
Well, it's mostly because, inthe attempt to automate
something like taking an intakeor handling a call off, you hit
points where it's not astraightforward if then else
type decision, and sometimes youhit points where I actually
(04:14):
need to interact with somestakeholder in this workflow
with natural language to be ableto fully accomplish the
workflow.
And so, because traditionallywe had those obstacles, the
things that were a candidate forautomation was maybe 5, 10, 15%
of the work that's done at thehome care agency.
Now, the reason 2025, I think,is going to be different is
(04:38):
because of this unbelievableadvent of large language models,
the chat GPTs of the worldright and the tools we have at
our disposal as softwareproviders to get over some of
those instances.
And so I'm going to take a veryspecific example.
Right, let's say a caregivercalls in sick.
They're not going to be at workfor the next week, so what is
(05:02):
triggered on that basis?
So typically a coordinatortakes the request.
Then they have to go in.
All of the visits that thatcare worker was going to do this
week have to be set to vacant.
And now the real work starts.
How do I meet those care needs?
How do I find the right careworkers who could pick up those
(05:22):
visits?
Oh and, by the way, maybe I'mgoing to need to make a few
shifts of the existing schedule,or maybe I'm going to have to
shift someone else's schedule tobe able to insert those visits
into a different care worker'sday.
And so you look at how onecould actually execute that and
you can imagine an almostimpossible task to do with the
(05:43):
traditional automation.
An almost impossible task to dowith the traditional automation.
But if you have a workflowengine that can make some fuzzy
decisions, oh, if I saw Mr Smithat 9am, I can slip this one in
at 10.
And then by 11, I can still beacross town to see Mrs Lopez.
Okay, that's the first decisionthat can be made, but then you
might actually need tocommunicate to Mr Smith and Mrs
(06:04):
Lopez.
The care worker will still bethere, but then you might
actually need to communicate toMr Smith and Mrs Lopez that your
care worker will still be there, but maybe an hour later, etc.
Etc.
This is what I'm really excitedabout is we now at AlayaCare are
building tools within oursoftware that can talk to all of
the API endpoints within thesoftware and then can also
communicate out via securemessaging to the care worker, to
(06:27):
the family or the client andmake all these type of shifts.
And so you can see that in thescheduling use case I talked
about, but you can imagine itjust as well in handling an
intake and even in revenue cycle, whether it's approving visits
or doing that kind of back andforth negotiation that might
have to happen if I need an authto be extended for whatever
(06:49):
reason.
So a lot of potential.
Erin Vallier (06:53):
So really leveraging AI as your own
personal assistant to get thework done.
I love it.
So let's move on to thisconcept of the flywheel.
So in your predictions youintroduced the home care
flywheel that emphasizes small,continuous improvements across
workflows.
Can you share some specificexamples of how this approach
(07:14):
might deliver compoundedbenefits to agencies over time?
Adrian Schauer (07:19):
Yeah, 100%.
And one thing I'd emphasize isthat these benefits stack up
across domains.
So every home care agency orowner is interested in
controlling back office costs,but they're also interested in
having a great experience fortheir care workers and they're
also interested in having greatoutcomes from the care that's
(07:41):
delivered, and so that's why wetalk about a flywheel.
If you can be incrementallymore efficient in how you
schedule, for example, you canget your care workers all the
hours they want in routes thatmake sense within their day,
that respect their preferences,so you have happier care workers
.
If you do that, you have lessturnover means you can have
(08:03):
better continuity of care forthe patients you're serving or
the clients you're serving, andthen you can have better patient
outcomes.
And these little improvementscompound exactly as you say, and
1% better every day, it can addup.
It can definitely add up.
Erin Vallier (08:19):
I love that concept, something that I've
adopted myself just 1% better.
It's something that I'veadopted myself just 1% better.
So imagine, over the course ofa year or a decade, what that
really means for your businessand your person if you adopt
that for yourself.
Now let's talk about workforceoptimization and caregiver
well-being, because, as we know,there's a caregiver shortage.
(08:40):
I think Home Health Care Newssaid something we're going to
need a million care workers by2040, and we're already almost a
half a million in a deficit.
That's not going to change.
So what steps can the agencytake to prioritize employees,
their experience with thecompany, so that their
organizations become moreattractive to good workers and
(09:02):
keep them at?
Adrian Schauer (09:03):
the company.
There are two aspects I want toemphasize there.
The first is around caregiverempowerment, and I'll use a very
specific example where Laylathat's AlayaCare’s in-app
chatbot can make a massivedifference.
When you show up at a client'shome maybe it's a new client,
maybe it's someone you haven'tseen in a week and it's a highly
(09:24):
volatile situation with thehealth of this patient.
To be fully empowered, I wantto know, in a summary,
everything that's changed withthis patient since I was last
there.
I want to know what are themain risks for me to be aware of
, and I want to be able to dothat as I'm on the doorstep,
ringing the doorbell, withouthaving to read through a week of
(09:46):
visit history and pull out theimportant facts.
This is the type of task thatAI is extremely good at, and so
I can just message Layla, askher what's going on with this
client and get an immediatesummary and then follow up.
Maybe there's a condition I'mnot too familiar with and I need
some advice on how to deal withit.
So, caregiver empowermentthat's number one.
(10:08):
Number two, when we talk aboutmaking the back office more
efficient, yeah, there can besome financial benefits to that,
but there can also be realbenefits in terms of how human
an organization you can run andhow value added the time of your
support staff can be.
Again, if I go back to myinitial example, if I'm spending
(10:28):
four hours trying to fill aweek's schedule because
somebody's called off, you knowwhat I'm not doing as a
supervisor or coordinator.
I'm not checking in with mycare worker who just finished a
visit at a tough client.
I'm not asking them how it went.
I'm not offering emotionalsupport.
I'm not extending them how itwent.
I'm not offering emotionalsupport.
I'm not extending my brand outto the front line where the care
(10:49):
is delivered.
Between the operationalefficiency of AI agents, freeing
up people to do the more humanpart of their work, and the
support that the AI itself cangive the care workers at the
point of care, I think we're ina great position to help
caregiver well-being into 2025and beyond.
Erin Vallier (11:07):
So what I'm hearing you say is you need to
give your employees the tools tomake their jobs a lot easier
and help them be more effective,and that will make your
organization a good place towork.
Let's move on.
We've got another topic herethat we've talked a lot about
technology AI and I think somepeople are kind of cautious
(11:29):
around that.
It's like we're going to giveall the work to robots and we
work in an industry that is veryhuman touch.
You've got to have that humanconnection right.
So, while technology like Laylaoffers this efficiency, how can
agencies ensure that thoseinnovations just complement
rather than replace the humanconnection?
I guess that's my question.
Adrian Schauer (11:50):
So this is going back a couple of years, but
people have been talking aboutoh, is AI going to come for your
job?
This has been in the mainstreamfor a little while now, and I
don't remember the publication,but someone put out a list of
the jobs in our economy that areat least risk of disruption
from AI, and at the top of thelist was home care worker.
(12:14):
This is a human profession thatrequires empathy that the
robots and the AIs are notcoming for anytime soon.
The only aspect they are comingfor are the low-value-add parts
of the process that your peopledon't want to be doing anyway.
(12:35):
Okay, the more we can take awaythose repetitive, low-value
tasks and free people up toeither deliver care or enable
the delivery of that care, thehappier everyone is going to be
in the ecosystem.
Erin Vallier (12:48):
Yeah, the stuff that makes their employees eye
roll.
Right?
I don't want to do this.
I'd like to double click onthis, too, because I think, if
we're looking at the predictionsof needing all these care
workers, and we're already at adeficit, ai is not going to
replace people.
It's going to enable us toprovide more care with less
bodies.
Right, we're going to automatethose pieces that might take an
(13:09):
extra full-time employee or 10and allow the machine to do that
, so that the agency can be moreefficient, provide more care to
the people that need it withouthaving to add 10 extra
full-time employees.
Right?
Is that what you're getting at?
Adrian Schauer (13:25):
Right and Aaron, how many home care nurses have
approached you and said you knowwhat I like taking care of
patients, but what I really likeis filling out paperwork.
Erin Vallier (13:33):
Oh my gosh, adrian .
I used to be in qualitymanagement and I love my nurses,
but they do not lovedocumentation.
Physical therapists they'regreat, they're like, very
objective, they'll check all theboxes.
Nurses they just love, theyprovide the care and they forget
that the chart even exists.
Adrian Schauer (13:51):
And that is the spec for a product.
That's what an EHR should seekto be is out of the way of the
care and get everythingdocumented with the least effort
.
Erin Vallier (14:04):
Yeah, because if it's not documented, it's not
done.
That's for my nurses out there.
Let's talk about preparing forthis transformation, right?
So, as agencies look to embraceall of these trends that you
have shared with us today, whatpractical steps should they take
to integrate agentic AI, adoptincremental improvement
(14:26):
strategies and foster thisworkforce-centric culture?
Adrian Schauer (14:31):
I'm on the same journey as the CEO of AlayaCare.
I also look across the 60employees or whatever we have
here today and I try and figureout how we can be better at what
we do with the tools that areavailable today that weren't
available a year ago or fiveyears ago.
I've got two pieces of advicethe first is about mindset and
(14:52):
the second is about having theinfrastructure to realize the
benefits.
So, on the topic of mindset, Ihave shifted from thinking about
jobs to thinking about theworkloads that need to be done
in my business.
Okay, and I look at somethinglike a marketing function.
(15:13):
Here we are, you and I, aaron,we're doing some marketing for
AlayaCare right now, and thereare workloads within marketing
that can be done by AI.
When I create a piece ofcontent and I need the 100-word
version, and I need the 500-wordversion, and I need a picture
to go with a thousand word, thatis something that can be
(15:36):
augmented with a large languagemodel.
But when I look at who's goingto creatively come up with the
brand that's going to resonatewith people and communicate
accurately what it is we do,that's a human.
So there are various workloadsthat make up the jobs that exist
within marketing, and the moreI start thinking about our
(15:56):
business in terms of theworkloads that need to get done,
the more I'm able to not gettoo stuck in job definitions of
the past and look to the futureand say these workloads, those
are candidates for AI andautomation, and therefore here
are the jobs that need to existto realize the business value.
And so I think that samemindset needs to creep into how
(16:21):
we look at the operations of ahome care provider.
Okay, so that's number one.
Number two is having theinfrastructure in place to be
able to realize these benefits.
This might sound self-serving,but it's only self-serving
because we've invested in theAlayaCare offering to be the
baseline system of record onwhich you can implement systems
(16:43):
of intelligence and systems ofaction to get maximum business
value.
And so I would say, first ofall, you have to be on a modern
cloud-based piece of software.
The various tools you use to doyour job have to have open APIs
so that you can integrateworkflows that might cross
different productivity tools youuse within your agency.
(17:06):
And the third is we're in an eraof an explosion of possibility
and way more proofs of conceptthan realized business value in
AI.
You even look at the Fortune500 companies.
They all have a bunch of trialsgoing and very few of them have
(17:27):
totally transformed theirbusinesses yet around these new
tools.
Pick your partners, be in atrial mindset, understand you're
going to have to iterate a fewtimes because large language
models are good at certainthings and on other things they
just hallucinate too much andthey're just wrong when you can
only tolerate so much of that indifferent parts of your
business.
(17:47):
So find a partner, have moderntools, experiment, but then
really try and get yourtransformation done in
production.
Erin Vallier (17:56):
Gotcha.
So for success, in case thelisteners lost you there, what I
heard you say is take a momentto figure out what really
requires a human touch and whatcan be automated.
Step one, step two if you'renot on a technology, you don't
have technology.
That's step one.
Get technology in place rightStep zero.
But if you have a stack, itmight be time to look at
(18:20):
upgrading, leveraging some ofthese newer tools and just enter
into it with a mindset ofexperimentation, because life is
one big experiment.
You got to apply that in yourbusiness.
Try something new.
If it doesn't work, trysomething different and keep
working with your partners sothat you can get the outcomes
that you want.
That's what I heard you say.
Adrian Schauer (18:40):
Well summarized.
Erin Vallier (18:41):
Yeah, that's really all I had for you in
terms of your predictions.
I'm just wondering if you haveany parting wisdom for the
listeners before we send you offto your next meeting or to the
plane.
Adrian Schauer (18:52):
I hope everybody is as excited as I am about the
potential here.
This is a step change intechnology on the order of
mobility or the cloud or socialnetworks.
This is really going to changeeverything.
Now the hype cycle.
Like I said, it thinks thingsthat are going to happen within
(19:14):
the next three months.
They're probably going to takea year to happen, but we cannot
sleep on this trend.
The providers that figure outhow to run their business better
with AI are going to take thisgame.
As they say, AI is not comingfor your job, but the person
using AI is coming for your job.
So I feel the same way aboutrunning a home care agency.
Erin Vallier (19:38):
Be an early adopter.
In other words, you got it Allright.
Thank you so much for hoppingon the show today, adrian.
I've really enjoyed theconversation and I'm sure that
listeners have enjoyed thewisdom that you have imparted
upon them.
Adrian Schauer (19:52):
Thanks, erin, good to be here Home.
Erin Vallier (19:54):
Health 360 is presented by AlayaCare and
hosted by Erin Vallier.
First, we want to thank ouramazing guests and listeners.
Second, new episodes air everymonth, so be sure to subscribe
today so you don't miss anepisode.
And, last but not least, if youlike this episode and want to
learn more about all thingshome-based care, you can explore
(20:16):
all of our episodes atalayacare.
com/ homehealth360 or visit uson your favorite podcast
platform.
This is a step change in technology on the
order of mobility or the cloud,or social networks.
This is really going to changeeverything.
Now the hype cycle, like I said, it thinks things that are
going to happen within the nextthree months are probably going
to take a year to happen, but wecannot sleep on this trend.
(00:23):
A year to happen, but we cannotsleep on this trend.
The providers that figure outhow to run their business better
with AI are going to take thisgame.
As they say, AI is not comingfor your job, but the person
using AI is coming for your job.
So I feel the same way aboutrunning a home care agency.
Erin Vallier (00:50):
Welcome to another episode of the Home Health 360
podcast, where we speak to homebased care professionals from
around the globe.
I'm your host, , and today I amjoined by the founder and CEO
of AlayaCare himself, AdrianSchauer.
Welcome to the show.
Adrian Schauer (01:08):
Great to be here .
Thank you very much.
Erin Vallier (01:11):
I know I'm super excited to be the one having
this conversation with you thisyear because your predictions
podcasts for the upcoming yearhave always been the most viewed
and most downloaded episodes ofour podcast, so I know that
people really do appreciate whatyou have to say and they're
super excited to hear whatyou're thinking about in the new
(01:33):
year.
Adrian Schauer (01:34):
Great.
One of my highlights of theyear is sitting down and
figuring out where I think theindustry is going, where
technology is going, and so Ilike to do the new predictions.
I also enjoy looking back atlast year's predictions and
seeing just where I got it right, and so I like to do the new
predictions.
I also enjoy looking back atlast year's predictions and
seeing just where I got it rightand where I got it wrong.
Erin Vallier (01:50):
Ooh, do you have any thoughts about that before
we get into the next year?
Adrian Schauer (01:54):
There's a general trend where I think I'm
right, but often too early, andin the predictions game, being
too early is prettyindistinguishable from being
wrong.
I always think things are goingto move faster than they end up
moving.
Erin Vallier (02:07):
Yeah, fair enough, we overestimate what we could
do in a year and underestimatewhat we can do in a decade,
right?
So I know I got to take a quickpeek of your predictions for
the new year.
I know we're going to betalking about some AI, some
streamlining of workflows,caregiver well-being, optimizing
your workforce, combiningtechnology with empathy and not
(02:31):
losing that human touch, andgetting prepared.
So we've got a lot of stuff tocover.
I'm just going to dive in withsome really pointed questions.
If you're good with that,perfect, let's do it In 2025,.
You have said that agentic AIis going to revolutionize home
care by proactively identifyingand acting on care opportunities
(02:51):
.
Before I ask the question, Iknow that some of our listeners
don't really know what agenticAI is.
Can you define that term for us?
And then I'd love to know whatyou envision these advancements,
how they're going to transformthe caregiver and client
relationship and overall carequality.
Adrian Schauer (03:09):
Yeah, 100%, All right.
Probably the best way to answerthe question what is an agentic
workflow?
Is to compare it to.
How is it different than aregular workflow automation?
We're at this cusp of historywhere AI is absolutely changing
the way work is done, and thekey aspect of that is that the
(03:30):
AI can now make decisions andcommunicate more like a human
would.
A workflow automation in thetraditional sense was any stream
of things that need to be donethat can be expressed in some
flavor of an if-then statementis a candidate for automation.
Now, why is so much of the backoffice within a home care
(03:53):
agency not automated?
Well, it's mostly because, inthe attempt to automate
something like taking an intakeor handling a call off, you hit
points where it's not astraightforward if then else
type decision, and sometimes youhit points where I actually
(04:14):
need to interact with somestakeholder in this workflow
with natural language to be ableto fully accomplish the
workflow.
And so, because traditionallywe had those obstacles, the
things that were a candidate forautomation was maybe 5, 10, 15%
of the work that's done at thehome care agency.
Now, the reason 2025, I think,is going to be different is
(04:38):
because of this unbelievableadvent of large language models,
the chat GPTs of the worldright and the tools we have at
our disposal as softwareproviders to get over some of
those instances.
And so I'm going to take a veryspecific example.
Right, let's say a caregivercalls in sick.
They're not going to be at workfor the next week, so what is
(05:02):
triggered on that basis?
So typically a coordinatortakes the request.
Then they have to go in.
All of the visits that thatcare worker was going to do this
week have to be set to vacant.
And now the real work starts.
How do I meet those care needs?
How do I find the right careworkers who could pick up those
(05:22):
visits?
Oh and, by the way, maybe I'mgoing to need to make a few
shifts of the existing schedule,or maybe I'm going to have to
shift someone else's schedule tobe able to insert those visits
into a different care worker'sday.
And so you look at how onecould actually execute that and
you can imagine an almostimpossible task to do with the
(05:43):
traditional automation.
An almost impossible task to dowith the traditional automation.
But if you have a workflowengine that can make some fuzzy
decisions, oh, if I saw Mr Smithat 9am, I can slip this one in
at 10.
And then by 11, I can still beacross town to see Mrs Lopez.
Okay, that's the first decisionthat can be made, but then you
might actually need tocommunicate to Mr Smith and Mrs
(06:04):
Lopez.
The care worker will still bethere, but then you might
actually need to communicate toMr Smith and Mrs Lopez that your
care worker will still be there, but maybe an hour later, etc.
Etc.
This is what I'm really excitedabout is we now at AlayaCare are
building tools within oursoftware that can talk to all of
the API endpoints within thesoftware and then can also
communicate out via securemessaging to the care worker, to
(06:27):
the family or the client andmake all these type of shifts.
And so you can see that in thescheduling use case I talked
about, but you can imagine itjust as well in handling an
intake and even in revenue cycle, whether it's approving visits
or doing that kind of back andforth negotiation that might
have to happen if I need an authto be extended for whatever
(06:49):
reason.
So a lot of potential.
Erin Vallier (06:53):
So really leveraging AI as your own
personal assistant to get thework done.
I love it.
So let's move on to thisconcept of the flywheel.
So in your predictions youintroduced the home care
flywheel that emphasizes small,continuous improvements across
workflows.
Can you share some specificexamples of how this approach
(07:14):
might deliver compoundedbenefits to agencies over time?
Adrian Schauer (07:19):
Yeah, 100%.
And one thing I'd emphasize isthat these benefits stack up
across domains.
So every home care agency orowner is interested in
controlling back office costs,but they're also interested in
having a great experience fortheir care workers and they're
also interested in having greatoutcomes from the care that's
(07:41):
delivered, and so that's why wetalk about a flywheel.
If you can be incrementallymore efficient in how you
schedule, for example, you canget your care workers all the
hours they want in routes thatmake sense within their day,
that respect their preferences,so you have happier care workers
.
If you do that, you have lessturnover means you can have
(08:03):
better continuity of care forthe patients you're serving or
the clients you're serving, andthen you can have better patient
outcomes.
And these little improvementscompound exactly as you say, and
1% better every day, it can addup.
It can definitely add up.
Erin Vallier (08:19):
I love that concept, something that I've
adopted myself just 1% better.
It's something that I'veadopted myself just 1% better.
So imagine, over the course ofa year or a decade, what that
really means for your businessand your person if you adopt
that for yourself.
Now let's talk about workforceoptimization and caregiver
well-being, because, as we know,there's a caregiver shortage.
(08:40):
I think Home Health Care Newssaid something we're going to
need a million care workers by2040, and we're already almost a
half a million in a deficit.
That's not going to change.
So what steps can the agencytake to prioritize employees,
their experience with thecompany, so that their
organizations become moreattractive to good workers and
(09:02):
keep them at?
Adrian Schauer (09:03):
the company.
There are two aspects I want toemphasize there.
The first is around caregiverempowerment, and I'll use a very
specific example where Laylathat's AlayaCare’s in-app
chatbot can make a massivedifference.
When you show up at a client'shome maybe it's a new client,
maybe it's someone you haven'tseen in a week and it's a highly
(09:24):
volatile situation with thehealth of this patient.
To be fully empowered, I wantto know, in a summary,
everything that's changed withthis patient since I was last
there.
I want to know what are themain risks for me to be aware of
, and I want to be able to dothat as I'm on the doorstep,
ringing the doorbell, withouthaving to read through a week of
(09:46):
visit history and pull out theimportant facts.
This is the type of task thatAI is extremely good at, and so
I can just message Layla, askher what's going on with this
client and get an immediatesummary and then follow up.
Maybe there's a condition I'mnot too familiar with and I need
some advice on how to deal withit.
So, caregiver empowermentthat's number one.
(10:08):
Number two, when we talk aboutmaking the back office more
efficient, yeah, there can besome financial benefits to that,
but there can also be realbenefits in terms of how human
an organization you can run andhow value added the time of your
support staff can be.
Again, if I go back to myinitial example, if I'm spending
(10:28):
four hours trying to fill aweek's schedule because
somebody's called off, you knowwhat I'm not doing as a
supervisor or coordinator.
I'm not checking in with mycare worker who just finished a
visit at a tough client.
I'm not asking them how it went.
I'm not offering emotionalsupport.
I'm not extending them how itwent.
I'm not offering emotionalsupport.
I'm not extending my brand outto the front line where the care
(10:49):
is delivered.
Between the operationalefficiency of AI agents, freeing
up people to do the more humanpart of their work, and the
support that the AI itself cangive the care workers at the
point of care, I think we're ina great position to help
caregiver well-being into 2025and beyond.
Erin Vallier (11:07):
So what I'm hearing you say is you need to
give your employees the tools tomake their jobs a lot easier
and help them be more effective,and that will make your
organization a good place towork.
Let's move on.
We've got another topic herethat we've talked a lot about
technology AI and I think somepeople are kind of cautious
(11:29):
around that.
It's like we're going to giveall the work to robots and we
work in an industry that is veryhuman touch.
You've got to have that humanconnection right.
So, while technology like Laylaoffers this efficiency, how can
agencies ensure that thoseinnovations just complement
rather than replace the humanconnection?
I guess that's my question.
Adrian Schauer (11:50):
So this is going back a couple of years, but
people have been talking aboutoh, is AI going to come for your
job?
This has been in the mainstreamfor a little while now, and I
don't remember the publication,but someone put out a list of
the jobs in our economy that areat least risk of disruption
from AI, and at the top of thelist was home care worker.
(12:14):
This is a human profession thatrequires empathy that the
robots and the AIs are notcoming for anytime soon.
The only aspect they are comingfor are the low-value-add parts
of the process that your peopledon't want to be doing anyway.
(12:35):
Okay, the more we can take awaythose repetitive, low-value
tasks and free people up toeither deliver care or enable
the delivery of that care, thehappier everyone is going to be
in the ecosystem.
Erin Vallier (12:48):
Yeah, the stuff that makes their employees eye
roll.
Right?
I don't want to do this.
I'd like to double click onthis, too, because I think, if
we're looking at the predictionsof needing all these care
workers, and we're already at adeficit, ai is not going to
replace people.
It's going to enable us toprovide more care with less
bodies.
Right, we're going to automatethose pieces that might take an
(13:09):
extra full-time employee or 10and allow the machine to do that
, so that the agency can be moreefficient, provide more care to
the people that need it withouthaving to add 10 extra
full-time employees.
Right?
Is that what you're getting at?
Adrian Schauer (13:25):
Right and Aaron, how many home care nurses have
approached you and said you knowwhat I like taking care of
patients, but what I really likeis filling out paperwork.
Erin Vallier (13:33):
Oh my gosh, adrian .
I used to be in qualitymanagement and I love my nurses,
but they do not lovedocumentation.
Physical therapists they'regreat, they're like, very
objective, they'll check all theboxes.
Nurses they just love, theyprovide the care and they forget
that the chart even exists.
Adrian Schauer (13:51):
And that is the spec for a product.
That's what an EHR should seekto be is out of the way of the
care and get everythingdocumented with the least effort
.
Erin Vallier (14:04):
Yeah, because if it's not documented, it's not
done.
That's for my nurses out there.
Let's talk about preparing forthis transformation, right?
So, as agencies look to embraceall of these trends that you
have shared with us today, whatpractical steps should they take
to integrate agentic AI, adoptincremental improvement
(14:26):
strategies and foster thisworkforce-centric culture?
Adrian Schauer (14:31):
I'm on the same journey as the CEO of AlayaCare.
I also look across the 60employees or whatever we have
here today and I try and figureout how we can be better at what
we do with the tools that areavailable today that weren't
available a year ago or fiveyears ago.
I've got two pieces of advicethe first is about mindset and
(14:52):
the second is about having theinfrastructure to realize the
benefits.
So, on the topic of mindset, Ihave shifted from thinking about
jobs to thinking about theworkloads that need to be done
in my business.
Okay, and I look at somethinglike a marketing function.
(15:13):
Here we are, you and I, aaron,we're doing some marketing for
AlayaCare right now, and thereare workloads within marketing
that can be done by AI.
When I create a piece ofcontent and I need the 100-word
version, and I need the 500-wordversion, and I need a picture
to go with a thousand word, thatis something that can be
(15:36):
augmented with a large languagemodel.
But when I look at who's goingto creatively come up with the
brand that's going to resonatewith people and communicate
accurately what it is we do,that's a human.
So there are various workloadsthat make up the jobs that exist
within marketing, and the moreI start thinking about our
(15:56):
business in terms of theworkloads that need to get done,
the more I'm able to not gettoo stuck in job definitions of
the past and look to the futureand say these workloads, those
are candidates for AI andautomation, and therefore here
are the jobs that need to existto realize the business value.
And so I think that samemindset needs to creep into how
(16:21):
we look at the operations of ahome care provider.
Okay, so that's number one.
Number two is having theinfrastructure in place to be
able to realize these benefits.
This might sound self-serving,but it's only self-serving
because we've invested in theAlayaCare offering to be the
baseline system of record onwhich you can implement systems
(16:43):
of intelligence and systems ofaction to get maximum business
value.
And so I would say, first ofall, you have to be on a modern
cloud-based piece of software.
The various tools you use to doyour job have to have open APIs
so that you can integrateworkflows that might cross
different productivity tools youuse within your agency.
(17:06):
And the third is we're in an eraof an explosion of possibility
and way more proofs of conceptthan realized business value in
AI.
You even look at the Fortune500 companies.
They all have a bunch of trialsgoing and very few of them have
(17:27):
totally transformed theirbusinesses yet around these new
tools.
Pick your partners, be in atrial mindset, understand you're
going to have to iterate a fewtimes because large language
models are good at certainthings and on other things they
just hallucinate too much andthey're just wrong when you can
only tolerate so much of that indifferent parts of your
business.
(17:47):
So find a partner, have moderntools, experiment, but then
really try and get yourtransformation done in
production.
Erin Vallier (17:56):
Gotcha.
So for success, in case thelisteners lost you there, what I
heard you say is take a momentto figure out what really
requires a human touch and whatcan be automated.
Step one, step two if you'renot on a technology, you don't
have technology.
That's step one.
Get technology in place rightStep zero.
But if you have a stack, itmight be time to look at
(18:20):
upgrading, leveraging some ofthese newer tools and just enter
into it with a mindset ofexperimentation, because life is
one big experiment.
You got to apply that in yourbusiness.
Try something new.
If it doesn't work, trysomething different and keep
working with your partners sothat you can get the outcomes
that you want.
That's what I heard you say.
Adrian Schauer (18:40):
Well summarized.
Erin Vallier (18:41):
Yeah, that's really all I had for you in
terms of your predictions.
I'm just wondering if you haveany parting wisdom for the
listeners before we send you offto your next meeting or to the
plane.
Adrian Schauer (18:52):
I hope everybody is as excited as I am about the
potential here.
This is a step change intechnology on the order of
mobility or the cloud or socialnetworks.
This is really going to changeeverything.
Now the hype cycle.
Like I said, it thinks thingsthat are going to happen within
(19:14):
the next three months.
They're probably going to takea year to happen, but we cannot
sleep on this trend.
The providers that figure outhow to run their business better
with AI are going to take thisgame.
As they say, AI is not comingfor your job, but the person
using AI is coming for your job.
So I feel the same way aboutrunning a home care agency.
Erin Vallier (19:38):
Be an early adopter.
In other words, you got it Allright.
Thank you so much for hoppingon the show today, adrian.
I've really enjoyed theconversation and I'm sure that
listeners have enjoyed thewisdom that you have imparted
upon them.
Adrian Schauer (19:52):
Thanks, erin, good to be here Home.
Erin Vallier (19:54):
Health 360 is presented by AlayaCare and
hosted by Erin Vallier.
First, we want to thank ouramazing guests and listeners.
Second, new episodes air everymonth, so be sure to subscribe
today so you don't miss anepisode.
And, last but not least, if youlike this episode and want to
learn more about all thingshome-based care, you can explore
(20:16):
all of our episodes atalayacare.
com/ homehealth360 or visit uson your favorite podcast
platform.
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