Caregiver AI Challenge Definitions, FAQs, and Resources | ACL Administration for Community Living

Definitions

Caregiving

This challenge uses the definition of caregiving from the National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers. “Caregiving” includes a wide variety of tasks to meet the individual needs of the person receiving support. Level of effort can vary significantly — from assistance with one (or a few) specific tasks to live-in assistance that includes medical tasks. It most often describes the support provided to help people live in their own homes and communities, rather than in nursing homes and other institutions. The level of support can vary based on the care recipient’s needs and preferences. Examples include assistance with personal care and hygiene, medication and symptom management, housekeeping, transportation, recreational and social activities, and coordination of care across multiple health and social providers.

Family caregivers

This challenge uses the definition of family caregivers from the National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers. “Family caregivers” include people of all ages, from youth to grandparents; people with and without disabilities; people providing care from a distance; and people meeting a wide variety of needs, such as supporting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) across the lifespan, caring for people with serious or progressive illnesses like dementia and cancer, and assisting with daily tasks that can be challenging for older adults and people with disabilities. The term also recognizes that a single person may receive care from multiple family caregivers. Some family caregivers are part of the “sandwich generation,” raising their own children while also caring for aging parents.

Family caregivers often assist with daily tasks such as bathing, feeding, errands, medication reminders, transportation, and companionship. Many are also providing care that goes beyond basic help and involves ongoing medical tasks and health-related decision-making and monitoring at home. While family caregivers typically do not receive formal training, they assume caregiving responsibilities to support their loved one’s preferences to stay in the home environment and in the community.

Direct care workers

Direct care workers are paid professionals with various job titles and roles, including personal care attendants, home health aides, nursing assistants, direct support professionals, job coaches, and more. Their services can range from assisting with personal care and activities of daily living to providing support that is essential to someone’s ability to live, work, socialize, volunteer, and participate in their community.

The American Network of Community Options and Resources (ANCOR) State of America’s Direct Support Workforce Crisis 2025report shows that severe staffing shortages among community-based disability service providers persist nationwide. These are hindering service access, forcing referral refusals, delaying or cutting programs, and undermining quality of care. Despite slight improvements from 2024, there is still a need for stronger recruitment, retention, and policy action to stabilize the direct support workforce.

Artificial intelligence

For this prize competition, artificial intelligence(AI) is defined as a machine-based system that can, for a given set of human-defined objectives, make predictions, recommendations, or decisions influencing real or virtual environments. AI systems use machine and human-based inputs to perceive real and virtual environments, abstract such perceptions into models through analysis in an automated manner, and use model inference to formulate options for information or action.

Frequently Asked Questions

What additional regulations are applicable if the proposed AI solution is a medical device?
Depending on the intended use of the AI-driven tools developed through the ACL competition, some tools may be subject to FDA regulation as medical devices while others may not. There are several existing resources and programs offered by the FDA to aid in the determination of whether a tool meets the definition of a medical device and to obtain expert feedback on device regulatory requirements that may apply. Challenge participants are encouraged to contact the FDA with any questions about potential regulation of their tools as medical devices.

Do home and community environments include nursing homes and other institutional settings?
No, this challenge does not include institutional care settings in its scope.

Resources

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