Senior living nonprofits have adjusted their technology spending priorities in the last year, with fewer dollars allocated to community infrastructure in 2024, for example.

That’s according to the latest Ziegler CFO Hotline report on technology spending, which is released every two years with input from LeadingAge’s Center for Aging Services Technologies (CAST).

Among the survey’s takeaways is that senior living organizations are making fewer investments in communication infrastructure, such as high speed internet connectivity. In 2024, 58% of the more than 100 respondents said infrastructure for technology was among their top five investments, down from 74% in 2022.

Part of the reason infrastructure has seen declining investments appears to be a lack of returns on the investment.

“I am beginning to struggle with continued IT investment without a return on investment,” one respondent commented in the survey. “With the expectation of higher staffing requirements, it becomes hard to find an offset to the significant cost of IT programs and services that are most often coming with a monthly fee.”

Other top areas of investment in 2024 included electronic medical and health record systems, which 51% of the respondents identified as a top-five area of investment; workforce and staffing scheduling systems (48%), electronic point of care and point of service documentation systems (47%) and access control systems (44%).

More than one-third of respondents, 40%, said they plan to invest in data analytics tools, such as dashboards, in 2024. Access control tools and electronic medical record systems were the next two highest for planned investment, at 30% and 29% respectively.

Only 13% of those responding to the survey said they used AI robotic technology, mostly for dining services and bussing tables.

One respondent wrote that they were concerned with the return on investment (ROI) of robotics.

“We have looked at robotic AI assistants for things like carrying trays to resident tables and assisting with food delivery, but it seems like staff tend to walk along with the robots and use them more like a cart than an autonomous robot,” the commenter wrote. “So, the tech wouldn’t really save on FTE or provide any ROI.”

As a whole, the average percentage of budgets have been increasing for technology spending over the past two years as well. The average capital budget dedicated to technology for 2024 has been 8.8%, up from 2022’s 8.3%. Operating budgets also saw a small increase, averaging 3.5% in 2024, up from 3.4% in 2022.

However, respondents have noted an increasing reliance on technology will demand more than 3% of an operating budget in the coming years.

“We have a long way to go, but we are moving in the right direction. Technology needs to be more than the standard practice of allocating 3% of budgets, both capital and operational,” the respondent said. “As our reliance on technology grows, we must invest more to keep our data safe and effectively utilized.”