How technology and artificial intelligence are shaping the future of social care

Caroline Green, Director of Research at the Institute for Ethics in AI at the University of Oxford, discusses technology and artificial intelligence (AI) in social care.

Over the past two years, I’ve been co-hosting the ‘Oxford Project on the responsible use of generative AI in adult social care’, together with Katie Thorn from Digital Care Hub and Daniel Casson, a digital transformation consultant. This is a very collaborative project, based on principles of co-production and involving many people from the care community. The project began with a public statement signed by over 30 care organisations (including Skills for Care) in 2024 and has led to a co-produced definition of ‘responsible AI’ in adult social care and AI guidance.

As a group, we recognise the great potential that technology and AI offers to improve the lives of people who need care and support, to caregivers and the sector. But we also believe in a future, in which it is not AI and technology that shapes social care. Rather it should be people in social care who decide the role for technology and AI led by the vision in which the use of AI systems in the care or related to the care of people, supports and does not undermine, harm or unfairly breach fundamental values of care, including human rights, independence, choice and control, dignity, equality and wellbeing.

So, are technology and AI already helping to improve people’s lives?

There are many examples of this being the case.

Home monitoring and voice activated devices are supporting people to live at home for longer, by reminding them of appointments, medications or by alarming friends and families if someone may be in trouble. Smart monitoring devices, like smart beds, can help caregivers to track people’s vitals, prevent falls or detect pain. Generative AI, is already proving useful to address the administrative workloads of caregivers. These systems can, for example, offer drafts for emails, letters, activity plans or meeting notes when previously all had to be written from scratch. New products for social care are flooding the market, so we are certainly keeping up the pace.

Of course, there are ethical and legal issues to consider in relation to these systems, that is why the ‘Oxford project on responsible AI’ came into being. But in principle the advancements in technology and AI is certainly a major opportunity for social care.

What do I think the future of tech enabled social care looks like? Is it one in which robot carers take over from humans, monitoring people’s health, supporting them with tasks of daily living as well as chatting with them? Will we still need human caregivers at all?

Well, ‘carebots’ are certainly under development and are being tested in care settings in countries like Japan and Germany. Certainly, there will be more technology in use across all aspects of social care provision, and I can well imagine seeing carerobot in care settings in the not-too-distant future (when they become affordable!).

But while carebots and other tech may be really useful and appropriate for some tasks and some people in social care, I do not believe that technology alone will be able to help us meet the vision for good social care for everybody.

The term ‘social care’ after all means so much more than administration and support with tasks of daily living. It is about preserving people’s dignity, health, choice, autonomy and independence and it is about human connection.

I am worried about ‘tech solutionism’ that embraces technology in social care without the necessary evidence that it actually benefits people and without them having any choice in how tech is being used in their care or their work. That’s why I want to finish by repeating this: It should not be technology that shapes the future of social care, but it should be people in the care community who shape the future of social care with technology.

Find out more about digital technology can be used in social care with our #DigitalEmpoweredCare spotlight.

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