Dynamic Agent Affiliation: Who Should the AI Agent Work for in the Older Adult's Care Network?

The population of older adults experiencing cognitive decline is growing faster than the number of workers who can care for them. Artificially intelligent (AI) agents could assist these older adults, keeping them in their homes longer. For this to happen, older adults must be willing to adopt and rely on agents. Would they trust an agent that might need to report their decline to others? We conducted a speed dating study exploring the impact of agent affiliation (i.e., who the agent should work for). Our healthy and declining participants reacted positively to the idea of agents supporting them. They particularly recognized how the agent would reduce the burden placed on their family caregivers. They viewed affiliation to be dynamic, shifting from the declining older adult and orienting more to their caregivers over the course of cognitive decline. They envisioned the agent modifying its decision-making process to be like their caregivers'.