The short answer
In 2026 more than half of home care agencies are using, testing or evaluating AI, and most of it works in the back office: filling open shifts, writing and summarizing visit notes, answering phones and spotting changes in client records. The best AI tools for most agencies are the AI inside the management software they already run, plus a specialist tool or two where they have a gap, such as Senecta for keeping watch over clients between visits, or an AI agent for after-hours calls.
What the 2026 surveys found
Two software companies surveyed the industry this year, and their numbers point the same way:
- HHAeXchange surveyed 465 home- and community-based care providers among its customers and found 57.1% actively using, testing or evaluating AI tools. Today AI is used most for documentation (22.4%) and administrative tasks (17.9%); providers were most interested in using it next for scheduling and shift filling (37.8%), caregiver compliance tracking (34.5%) and claims processing (27.1%) (HHAeXchange, August 2026).
- AxisCare published an independent survey of more than 400 home care leaders: 91% were already using or planning to use AI for operations management, and agencies already using it most often reported lower costs through efficiency (64%), better strategic decisions (59%) and more time for caregivers and staff to focus on care (48%) (AxisCare, June 2026).
The same AxisCare research found that 76% of leaders face barriers slowing adoption, including vendor confusion, ethics concerns, employee resistance and privacy worries, and that 57% worry AI will erode the human connection with clients (Home Care Association of America). Both surveys come from software vendors, so read them as direction rather than exact rates.
Where agencies use AI, job by job
| Job | What the AI does | Examples, as their makers describe them |
|---|---|---|
| Keeping watch in the home | Interprets in-home sensors between visits and raises alerts | Senecta's thermal and sound pods, Sensi.AI's audio pods, Pontosense's radar |
| Scheduling and open shifts | Suggests caregivers for open visits and handles call-offs | AxisCare's open visit recommendations match caregivers “based on availability, skills, and client compatibility” (AxisCare); AlayaCare's Visit Optimizer and AlayaFlow agents (AlayaCare); Sensi.AI's operations agent (Sensi.AI) |
| Documentation | Turns speech into notes and forms, and summarizes records | WellSky's Ambient Documentation “uses AI technology to convert verbal client conversations into structured care documentation” (WellSky); AlayaCare's AI Form Assistant and Smart Summaries (AlayaCare); AxisCare's AI transcription (AxisCare) |
| Spotting changes in a client | Reads notes and records for trends and risk | AxisCare's Care Analytics “reviews care and ADL notes to detect trends” (AxisCare); WellSky CareInsights estimates “a person's risk for hospitalization” (WellSky); AlayaCare's Client Intelligence Suite (AlayaCare) |
| Phones, intake and sales | Answers calls and texts, collects the details, follows up leads | HeyHomeCare's AI phone and text agent (HeyHomeCare); Sensi.AI's growth agent for new leads (Sensi.AI) |
| Questions about your own data | A chat assistant over client, visit and staff records | AxisCare's Axi (AxisCare); AlayaCare's Layla (AlayaCare) |
Each feature as its maker describes it on its own website, read on October 24, 2026; we have not tested them.
How to choose an AI tool
- Start inside the software you run. Management systems now ship AI for scheduling, notes and summaries; using it adds no new vendor and keeps client data where it already is.
- Pick one job and measure it. Unfilled shifts, hours spent scheduling, time to finish notes, or calls missed after hours, before and after.
- Check where client data goes. Who hosts it, who can see it, whether it trains the vendor's models, and whether there is a business associate agreement where HIPAA applies (HHS).
- Keep a person accountable. Someone reviews AI-written notes and summaries before they enter the record, and no summary replaces a caregiver's own report.
- Tell clients and families. Especially for anything that listens or watches in the home: what it does, what it keeps, and who sees it.
Guardrails and rules
HIPAA. If your agency is a covered entity, an AI vendor that creates, receives, keeps or transmits protected health information for you is a business associate, and the information can be shared only under a business associate agreement (HHS). Whether your agency is covered depends on whether it sends standard transactions, such as claims, electronically (HHS).
Nondiscrimination. The federal rule under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act bars covered entities from discriminating through “patient care decision support tools”, and requires reasonable efforts to identify tools that use race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability as inputs and to reduce the risk (45 CFR 92.210). Ask counsel whether it applies to your agency.
Your clients' comfort. AI use among adults 50 and older rose from 18% in 2024 to 30% in 2025, yet 59% expressed no interest in AI platforms such as ChatGPT or Copilot (AARP). Explain the tools that touch clients rather than assume they are welcome.
Where Senecta fits
Senecta uses AI for one job: keeping watch over clients between visits. It makes plug-in pods that home care agencies offer under their own name. Each pod pairs a low-resolution thermal sensor, which sees a person as a warm shape rather than a face, with a microphone, and uses AI to notice a possible fall in the room. The pod then asks the client “Are you okay?” and, if the answer is not a clear yes, calls the people in the home's response plan: your agency, the family, or both, in the order you choose. Sound and heat are checked as they happen and not stored, except the moments around a possible fall. Our research publishes how well the AI behind it does, with its limits.
Further reading
Questions agency owners ask
What is the best AI tool for a home care agency?
For keeping watch over clients between visits, Senecta. For scheduling, notes and summaries, the AI built into the management software the agency already uses, since AxisCare, WellSky, AlayaCare and others now include it; and a specialist tool where there is a gap, such as after-hours phones.
Is it safe to use AI with client information?
Only with the checks you would apply to any vendor that handles client data: where it is stored, who can see it, whether it trains the vendor's models, and a business associate agreement where HIPAA applies.
Will AI replace caregivers?
None of the tools described here gives hands-on care. In AxisCare's survey, agencies already using AI most often said it cut costs and freed caregivers and staff to focus on care.
How is AI used to keep clients safe at home?
Through in-home sensors whose readings AI interprets between visits: Senecta's pods, which pair thermal sensing and sound, notice a possible fall and ask the client before anyone is called; audio pods such as Sensi.AI's; and radar such as Pontosense's.
Next step
See AI keep watch between visits.
Thirty minutes: what the pod notices, what it keeps, and how alerts reach your team and families.
Book your agency demoSenecta makes an AI monitoring product mentioned here, so read this with that in mind. Survey figures are from their publishers, and other products are described from their makers' own pages; we have not tested them. Figures are from the sources linked, checked on October 24, 2026. Senecta is not an emergency service, does not replace in-person care, and no system detects every fall.