Home-based care’s staffing crisis has no easy fix, but the largest public providers are increasingly betting that technology can move the needle where wages alone can’t.

Across earnings calls this quarter, leadership teams at Aveanna Healthcare Holdings (Nasdaq: AVAH), BrightSpring Health Services (Nasdaq: BTSG), The Pennant Group (Nasdaq: PNTG) and Addus HomeCare Corporation (Nasdaq: ADUS) described a similar strategy: use digital tools and AI not just to streamline back-office operations, but to make caregivers’ and clinicians’ day-to-day jobs easier.

The pitch goes like this — reduce the administrative burden, and you become a more attractive place to work; become a more attractive place to work, and hiring and retention improve; improve hiring and retention, and you can finally serve more of the demand that’s already there.

But how each company is actually executing on that thesis varies quite a bit, from AI-assisted documentation to caregiver-facing scheduling apps. And as at least one of these companies has learned, rolling out new technology company-wide doesn’t always translate into consistent adoption.

In this week’s exclusive, members-only HHCN+ Update, I dig into the technology moves at four publicly traded home-based care companies, offering analysis and key takeaways, including:

— Breaking down the tech investments

— The caregiver and clinician payoff that leaders are hoping for

Large companies, large strides toward AI

For years, home-based care providers have described technology as a way to streamline operations, improve documentation and support care coordination. This earnings season, the largest public companies framed those investments in more immediate terms: Technology as a workforce strategy.

Aveanna mentioned its technology initiatives relatively briefly, but company leadership did specify that technology, including tools that help front-line workers with notes, makes the company a more attractive employer to potential new hires, even as company leadership acknowledged that wages continue to be the “main driver” with regard to recruitment and retention.

“But our entire infrastructure and our entire technological stack out there also makes it more beneficial for caregivers to be on our service as well, or provide services for us,” said CFO Matt Buckhalter.  

Buckhalter also noted that the company’s size and scale, training and onboarding speed make it a preferred employer.

BrightSpring’s leadership also attributed positive retention rates to technology. CEO Jon Rousseau said that retention involves three key levers: compensation and benefits, technology and training.

On the technology side, Rousseau said jobs need to be as efficient as possible to avoid unnecessary headaches.

“We’ve tried to be really innovative with our approaches there and lean in to give them every ability to focus on the patient as much as they can versus some of the headaches administratively and with paperwork that you might face,” Rousseau said.

Beyond moving the needle on retention, BrightSpring leadership said automation and technology investments directly improved year-over-year profitability. Its investments include a variety of processes and programs designed to improve procurement efficiencies, streamline operations and standardize best practices, said CFO Jennifer Phipps..

Most recently, BrightSpring invested in AI and automation tools for hiring, onboarding, intake, documentation, medication reviews and patient care plans. The company’s Q2 investments in AI and automation will likely benefit the company later in 2026 or early 2027, she added.

Aveanna and BrightSpring both framed technology within a multi-pronged approach to staffing, and both organizations called out compensation as a key factor. My take is that this blended approach, keeping compensation as the key driver, lends credibility to their comments on technology. These executive teams aren’t presenting tech as a silver bullet that enables them to avoid or reduce key labor costs such as wages, but rather as one segment of a larger strategy.

Pennant’s leadership is also looking to improve workers’ job experiences through technology, in addition to making care delivery more efficient and effective. CEO Brent Guerisoli, said AI tools would be critical to care delivery in the future, and that the company has spent a significant amount of money to drive technological performance.

“We’re really focused on coming up with solutions and piloting different solutions that will allow our clinicians to be more efficient and effective in the care that they provide,” Guerisoli said. “Frankly, just provide a better experience for them in general, because we know if they can do that, they will be more productive, we’ll be able to increase the number of patients that we can care for. It should also ensure that the care that the patients are getting is increasing and improving.”

Strong start, uneven adoption

Addus has launched its own caregiver-focused tech tool: a caregiver app called Addus Connect. The app, which allows caregivers to view work information like upcoming shifts and completed hours, has slightly reduced turnover, CEO Dirk Allison said.

Still, the app’s rollout has not been totally consistent across the company’s footprint. In Illinois, over 90% of caregivers have downloaded and are using the app, said Brian Poff, executive vice president and chief financial officer. In other states, such as Texas and New Mexico, adoption has not yet reached such high levels, but Poff said leadership hopes to see similar rates to Illinois.

While leadership still anticipates high adoption levels across its footprint, Addus’ update reminds us that investing in technology is just the first step, and that efficiency gains are only made after the hard work of driving implementation and adoption . And that process often occurs in iterative stages as barriers to use are identified and addressed, and as the technology’s benefits become palpable across the workforce.

As large home-based care organizations continue to invest in new technologies, I’ll be watching how companies measure ROI, — and how they manage and measure utilization. I can’t be the only person who has downloaded various to-do list apps and calendar widgets, only to return to my usual system of tracking tasks after a few weeks. The risk for home-based care companies is that their investments may not be met with the necessary enthusiasm for uptake.

Still, the trend across publicly traded provider organizations is that technology, especially AI, is essential to battling one of the greatest challenges facing the home-based care landscape: staffing.

One last note: next week’s HHCN+ Update will be a little different than normal, as I’ll be on the ground at our FUTURE event in Austin. I’ll share some initial thoughts from the event, but I highly encourage you to join us in person so you don’t miss a thing — from the expert panels to the networking to our first-ever FUTURE After Dark event. Remember that you can use your HHCN+ membership for a discount on your ticket.