How Uniting is using AI to redesign frontline aged care work

In this CIO Edge interview, Uniting Chief Digital Information Officer Andrew Dome explains how introducing a Gemini powered AI assistant has transformed frontline documentation, ethical governance, and care delivery.

According to Andrew, the idea for Buddy, a Gemini‑powered digital assistant, emerged from an incubation lab with Microsoft, where 50 ideas reduce to ten and then three practical use cases.

Buddy now helps staff retrieve policies, access internal systems and create progress notes quickly and accurately.

A thousand frontline workers use it today, and the rollout expands to all 12,000 employees over the next year.

He describes how Buddy transforms daily workflows. After each home‑care visit, workers no longer drive to an office to type progress notes.

Instead, they sit in their car, speak into their phone and complete documentation in under a minute.

Buddy supports 50 languages, translating speech into English and directly updating clinical systems.

Staff gain one to two hours back each day, which allows more time with clients and improves care quality.

Andrew also details the ethical work underpinning deployment.

Uniting sets clear boundaries early, deciding what AI should and should not do, and runs sessions with the Ethics Centre and the board.

Over time, confidence grows, and the board becomes open to more advanced use cases such as AI‑assisted care‑plan creation.

Other aged‑care providers now express interest in buying Buddy as a software‑as‑a‑service product.

Looking ahead, Uniting trials fall‑detection and fall‑prevention technologies, aiming to predict risks before incidents occur.

Throughout, the message to staff stays consistent: AI augments care, strengthens safety and frees time, but never replaces human connection.

Key takeaways:

• Buddy delivers major productivity gains, giving frontline aged‑care workers 1–2 hours back each day through instant, multilingual voice‑to‑text progress notes and rapid access to policies and systems.
• Strong ethics and governance shape deployment, with Uniting involving its board and the Ethics Centre early to define what AI should and should not do, ensuring safe, human‑centred use.
• Buddy is becoming a scalable industry solution, with other aged‑care providers now adopting the platform, while Uniting expands into advanced use cases like fall detection and fall prediction.