Why the future of AI in senior living is about more than introducing new technology.
At the SMASH Senior Care Marketing & Sales Summit in Las Vegas earlier this month, I attended an opening keynote by Matthew Sweezy, SVP of AI Products & Transformation at Monks, titled Leading Organizational Change When the Future Won't Sit Still.
Of all the sessions I attended, one slide has stayed with me.
It introduced three approaches to organizational change with artificial intelligence: Adopt, Rewire and Reinvent.
It was a simple framework, but it shifted how I think about AI implementation, particularly in senior living.
It also made me reflect on a leadership forum I participated in back in 2024.
At the time, I was working in a senior leadership role with a senior living operator. I'd reserved the last 10–15 minutes of my marketing presentation to introduce ChatGPT to approximately 100 leaders.
I asked how many had heard of it and whether anyone had started experimenting with it. Only a handful of hands went up.
We talked about practical applications. One site leader shared that she'd been using it to help with scheduling. I discussed how it could assist with drafting difficult communications with families, particularly for leaders who might not feel as confident in their written communication skills.
My objective was simply to encourage curiosity and experimentation.
Looking back, that was AI adoption.
Two years later, the technology has evolved enormously. But what's becoming increasingly interesting to me isn't simply what AI tools can do. It's how organizations can use them to fundamentally improve the way they operate.
And for senior living, an industry facing persistent workforce pressures, rising costs and growing demand for services, I believe that distinction is especially important.
1. Adopt: Helping individuals work more efficiently
The first level of AI transformation is adoption.
This is where many organizations begin, and understandably so.
Employees start experimenting with tools such as ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot or Gemini to help with everyday tasks.
In senior living, this might look like:
A marketing coordinator using AI to draft social media posts or newsletters.
A sales representative preparing personalized follow-up emails after tours.
An administrator summarizing meeting notes or developing policies.
A manager using AI to analyze reports or organize information.
These applications can save time, support employees who lack confidence in particular tasks and help people develop familiarity with the technology.
But there's a limitation.
Making individual tasks faster doesn't necessarily make the organization perform better.
Consider a sales representative who uses AI to write follow-up emails in half the time.
That's a productivity improvement. But what if the community still doesn't have a consistent follow-up process? What if inquiries aren't being entered into the CRM? What if management has no visibility into lead quality, sales activity or conversion rates?
AI has helped someone complete a task faster, but it hasn't necessarily improved the sales process or increased occupancy.
Organizations can invest considerable time introducing AI tools without seeing meaningful improvements in overall performance.
Adoption is valuable, and often an essential starting point.
But it isn't the same as transformation.
2. Rewire: Redesigning how work gets done
This is where the framework became particularly interesting to me.
Rewiring moves beyond individual productivity and looks at the workflows and processes that connect people, departments and systems.
Rather than asking how AI can help an employee complete an existing task faster, we ask whether the task—or even the entire process—could work differently.
Let's return to the sales example.
In many senior living communities, the inquiry-to-move-in journey involves multiple people, systems and manual processes.
An inquiry comes through the website or by telephone. Someone records the information, hopefully in a CRM. The prospect receives a follow-up call or email. A tour is scheduled. Notes are documented. Additional follow-up takes place over weeks or months.
There are numerous opportunities for information to be lost, follow-up to be delayed or prospects to disengage.
Introducing AI into one part of that process might improve efficiency.
But what would happen if we stepped back and redesigned the entire journey?
We might consider a system where:
Inquiries are captured consistently, regardless of the channel.
AI supports timely responses and helps qualify inquiries.
Prospect information is documented accurately in the CRM.
Sales teams receive recommendations for next steps based on prospect needs and readiness.
Managers have better visibility into pipeline performance and conversion barriers.
Employees spend less time on administrative tasks and more time developing relationships with prospective residents and their families.
People would remain responsible for relationship-building, sensitive conversations and decisions requiring empathy and judgment.
The opportunity isn't simply to automate more tasks. It's to create a more effective, coordinated sales operation.
And the same thinking could apply across senior living organizations.
What might this look like for employee onboarding, scheduling, maintenance, procurement, resident engagement or quality improvement?
Each represents an opportunity to examine how work is currently performed, where inefficiencies exist and whether AI could support a better approach.
The objective shifts from individual productivity to organizational performance.
For me, this is where some of the most immediate and meaningful opportunities exist for senior living operators.
3. Reinvent: Rethinking the operating model
The third level is reinvention.
This is the most ambitious, and perhaps the most difficult to envision because it requires us to look beyond how senior living organizations operate today.
Reinvention means thinking about how an organization might be designed if AI capabilities were available from the beginning.
What services would we offer? How would teams be structured? How would information flow? How would residents, families and employees interact with the organization?
For example, could future independent living models use intelligent systems to support more personalized services without introducing the overhead traditionally associated with service-intensive communities?
Could AI-supported operating models help nonprofit organizations direct more of their limited resources toward programs and resident services?
Could organizations use information across departments to better anticipate needs, coordinate responses and improve the resident experience?
These are possibilities worth exploring, not established outcomes.
And in senior living, reinvention must be approached thoughtfully.
We work with older adults, including people with complex health needs and varying levels of cognitive and physical ability. Privacy, informed consent, accessibility, clinical oversight and human relationships are fundamental to the services we provide.
AI should strengthen those foundations, not weaken them.
To me, the most compelling opportunities are those that allow employees to spend less time navigating inefficient systems and more time doing the work that only people can do.
Where should senior living organizations start?
One of my biggest takeaways from Sweezy's presentation was that organizations need to be intentional about the kind of change they're trying to achieve.
It's tempting to begin with the technology.
A vendor demonstrates an impressive AI agent. A competitor introduces an automated inquiry platform. Someone on the leadership team starts experimenting with ChatGPT.
Suddenly, the conversation becomes about which tools the organization should purchase.
But before selecting technology, I believe leaders need to step back and understand their organizations.
Where are employees spending disproportionate amounts of time? Which processes consistently create frustration? Where is information being lost? What is preventing teams from achieving their objectives?
And importantly, what outcomes would genuinely make a difference?
For a private-pay senior living operator, that might mean improving occupancy, reducing vacant suite days or increasing sales conversion.
For a nonprofit organization, it might mean improving administrative efficiency so more resources can support programs and services.
For a long-term care operator, it could mean reducing documentation burdens, strengthening communication or supporting quality improvement, with appropriate clinical oversight and safeguards.
Different organizations will have different priorities.
The process of identifying those priorities should come before choosing the technology.
Five practical steps to get started
1. Diagnose before implementing.
Understand existing workflows, operational challenges, systems and capabilities. Identify where improvements would have the greatest impact.
2. Establish clear objectives.
Define what success looks like. Is the goal to save time, reduce costs, improve service quality, generate revenue or strengthen the resident experience?
3. Identify the right level of change.
Some opportunities require simple AI adoption. Others may justify redesigning an entire workflow. Not every challenge requires reinvention.
4. Involve the people doing the work.
Employees understand the daily frustrations and workarounds that may not be visible to senior leadership. Their involvement is essential to developing practical solutions and building confidence in change.
5. Measure outcomes and build internal capability.
Establish baseline performance, test improvements and evaluate results. Equip teams to understand and manage the technology rather than becoming entirely dependent on external providers.
Underlying all five is the need for appropriate governance, particularly when personal, resident or health information is involved.
AI transformation is an organizational strategy, not an IT project
What struck me most about Sweezy's framework was how much of the conversation was really about organizational leadership and change.
Technology is an important component, of course. But successful implementation requires an understanding of people, processes, systems, organizational culture and business objectives.
It also requires leadership to recognize that introducing new technology into an inefficient process may simply produce a faster version of that same inefficient process.
Senior living operators don't necessarily need to become technology experts to begin this journey.
They do, however, need to understand what they're trying to accomplish, where opportunities exist and how to guide their organizations through change.
And this doesn't have to happen all at once.
Adoption can help employees become comfortable with AI. Rewiring can produce meaningful improvements in targeted workflows. Reinvention can become a longer-term strategic conversation about the future of the organization.
These approaches aren't mutually exclusive, nor does every organization need to progress through them in a straight line.
The important thing is being deliberate.
I left SMASH thinking less about the individual AI products being introduced to senior living and more about the opportunity to help organizations determine where AI could create meaningful value.
Because senior living is, fundamentally, about people.
It's about care, connection, relationships and community. Yet the employees responsible for delivering those experiences are often stretched thin by administrative demands, staffing pressures and inefficient processes.
If thoughtfully implemented, AI has the potential to give some of that time and capacity back.
And perhaps that's the most important opportunity of all.
The goal shouldn't simply be to help senior living organizations do more with less. It should be to help them operate more intelligently, so their people have greater capacity to care, connect and serve.
This article was inspired by Matthew Sweezy's presentation, “Leading Organizational Change When the Future Won't Sit Still,” delivered at SMASH 2026 in Las Vegas. The Adopt–Rewire–Reinvent framework is drawn from his presentation; the senior living applications and interpretations are my own.