Artificial intelligence (AI) is seemingly proliferating everywhere, and so are discussions about its advantages and pitfalls. The senior living industry finds itself at this technology crossroads as it tries to figure out if—and how—to incorporate AI into its operations.
Occupancy goals are one area that holds great potential for AI to give senior living communities a nice boost. However, it’s not as easy as just flipping a switch and letting AI take over. To realize the real advantages AI can bring to reaching and maintaining occupancy goals, communities must follow some best practices when implementing this new technology. After that, the possibilities are almost endless.
Common Mistakes When Implementing AI—and How to Avoid Them
Before understanding how AI can be leveraged to meet occupancy goals, communities must know the common mistakes that many organizations make so they can avoid making the same errors. Many organizations rely on multiple systems to run their operations. They likely use one customer relationship management (CRM) platform to manage marketing automation, another to store resident data, and yet another to handle their website. This is highly inefficient.
To be effective, AI requires a complete picture of all of a community’s data, which it can get only with one interconnected system. This ensures all data—from marketing and sales to resident services and support—is housed in one place, enabling communities to better use AI for forecasting, analysis, and creative work that supports their goals.
Even if you choose not to use AI, adopting a comprehensive CRM connects all the dots that drive smarter operational decisions. Having all your data in one place leads to more informed decisions, streamlined communication, and a better understanding of resident needs and behaviors.
Another mistake senior living communities make with AI is not using it to the fullest extent. For example, if AI is only being used as a content assistant, communities miss out on many of AI’s capabilities, including researching prospective residents, coming up with different personalized variations of creative, and understanding forecasting trends over time.
How to Leverage AI to Meet Occupancy Goals
Think of AI as a PhD-level intern that helps communities be more effective, efficient, creative, and better informed. Here are some ways it can be leveraged to help meet—and exceed—those all-important occupancy goals:
Carefully Crafted Communications
Every message that goes out is an opportunity to engage with a prospective resident or important decision makers, such as adult children. AI is useful for helping senior living communities come up with new angles and positioning in their messaging that can be used across email copy, landing pages, websites, and other sales and marketing collateral.
By efficiently generating multiple variations on these messages—in a fraction of the time it might take a busy marketing specialist—communities can test what might garner the most responses and book the most meetings.
Agents of Efficiency
AI agents are software programs that work in the background and can collect and use data to perform tasks to meet predetermined goals. Agents help communities be more efficient with contacting prospective residents.
For example, an agent can research prospective residents and write personalized messages based on the available data gathered from that research. This enables communities to get more personalized messages out at a higher volume than if they were to craft individual emails to each person. Agent-created messages can either be sent out immediately or be queued up and revised as needed, enabling communities to ensure their brand voice is maintained throughout all messages.
Proactive Retention and Churn Management
AI can play a vital role in retaining your residents. By analyzing resident behavior, engagement levels, and feedback, AI can identify early warning signs of dissatisfaction or the risk of a resident moving out. For instance, sudden changes in activity participation, reduced engagement with staff, or frequent mentions of specific concerns in feedback surveys can be flagged by AI for follow-up. Armed with these insights, communities can take proactive measures, such as offering tailored services, adjusting care plans, or addressing concerns before they escalate.
By preventing avoidable move-outs, AI helps maintain higher occupancy rates and ensures a more stable resident population, which is just as crucial as attracting new prospects.
Creation of Creative
AI can perform creative tasks that communities may not have the resources to handle on their own. It can come up with new formats and materials and variations on existing collateral to cast a wider net and reach prospective residents and key decision makers across different channels.
The Best Information
Communities can use AI to pull data and statistics that reveal if they’re on or off track to meet their goals. This is why an interconnected system is so important—AI can only forecast and perform tasks based on what it has access to.
Besides examining internal data, AI can perform market analysis, helping communities understand occupancy trends and where they should be devoting advertising spend. These forecasting and analysis features are critical to meeting occupancy goals and understanding campaigns and creative formats that did and didn’t work.
AI’s capabilities also offer a powerful tool for understanding the competitive landscape and broader market trends. By monitoring competitor activities, pricing changes, and occupancy rates in nearby communities, AI can identify shifts that may impact your own occupancy strategies.
It can also analyze broader market trends, such as demographic shifts or changes in demand for different types of senior living services, allowing you to proactively adjust your marketing, pricing, and service offerings. This level of insight ensures that your community remains competitive and responsive to market conditions, giving you an edge in attracting new residents.
AI’s Future Is Already Here
Like it or not, AI is here to stay. It won’t replace the human factors in senior living, but it can help community leaders achieve greater success by better reaching potential residents and their families. With a little assistance from AI, occupancy goals become less daunting, and you can devote more time to connecting with prospects on a personal level.
About Ryan Malone
Ryan Malone is SmartBug Media‘s founder and global CEO. He created the company to provide its clients with outstanding results while offering his team a challenging career and the headspace to make a lifetime of memories. Ryan has led SmartBug to eight consecutive Inc. 5000 awards and three acquisitions.