128. Empathy at the Center of AI-Powered Care with Nobi

Amber Bardon talks with Andrew Gall from Nobi about how AI-powered technology is changing the way senior living communities approach falls prevention. Andrew shares his journey from senior living operator to tech leader and explains why keeping caregivers and residents at the center of innovation matters so much. 

The conversation covers how Nobi’s smart lamps work, using AI to detect falls, identify risky behaviors, and even help prevent incidents before they happen. Amber and Andrew also discuss Nobi’s new nurse call capabilities, how predictive insights can support better care decisions, and why falls technology is becoming a much bigger operational conversation for senior living providers. 

A big theme throughout the episode is empathy, both in how technology is designed and how it supports staff, residents, and families. Andrew shares how the right technology can reduce caregiver stress, improve resident safety, and help communities deliver more proactive, personalized care.

Connect with Andrew on LinkedIn. 

Learn more about Nobi on their website.

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Transcript

Amber Bardon: [00:00:00] welcome to Raising Tech Podcast. I'm your host, Amber Bardon, and today we have a repeat guest. Uh, we have Nobi on the show. It's not the same person, it's a different person on the show. I'm excited to welcome Andrew Gall, who is the director of customer growth.

And just to describe what Nobi is, Nobi is the AI-powered smart lamp that's becoming the gold standard in fall detection and prevention for senior living operators. Nobi captures every fall, reduces fall rates significantly, and delivers real-time insights that help teams intervene earlier and personalize care.

So if you know anything about falls prevention, you know that Nobi is the company that has the lamps. That's what ... That's how you- That's how people know you is just Nobi. Yeah. So Andrew, welcome to the show. 

Andrew Gall: Thanks. I'm super excited to be here. Good to see you again, and yeah, looking forward to a good conversation.

Amber Bardon: So I know that you're somewhat new to Nobi, so tell me a little bit about [00:01:00] your journey. How did you end up here? Have you... Were you in senior living before? What drew you to working for Nobi? 

Andrew Gall: Yeah, absolutely. I, um, I was. I grew up in senior living. Um, I was an operator for just a little over 15 years. I'm based out in Florida, and worked in Florida exclusively.

But had the opportunity to join some really great organizations early in my career. I, uh, got started with Legend Senior Living, Holiday Retirement very early and learned a lot of great stuff. And then really got to experience, you know, everything that this industry has to offer. I worked with American House Senior Living for, uh, a long time, really opening up the state of Florida.

I got to do a bunch of new construction projects. Went through the throes of COVID in a standalone memory care building. Um, and have been able to see the operations side, the sales and marketing side, more from, like, a regional level. So, senior living has really been my heartbeat [00:02:00] for, for a long time.

I was finishing up a project at the end of 2023, and had had the opportunity to work with PointClickCare, um, as a customer of theirs. And a- as a result of that, was able to start some conversation and found an opportunity to move over to the tech and vendor side and, and bring a lot of those kind of lessons learned with me.

I was at PCC for two years and met some really amazing people. That's how I got to know you and Matt and, you know, so many other great people in the vendor space on this side of the industry. And really got to work with some amazing- National enterprise customers. I've known Shelley Esden, our CEO, for almost 20 years, and Nobi had some really exciting things happening from a growth standpoint here in the US, and we started a conversation middle of last year and, and I joined the team in December.

[00:03:00] So, yeah, it's been fun to continue to find amazing people to work with in senior living and people that have that same kind of passion and priorities for resident care. And, um, I think what I love most about our business is how often you run into people that are aligned that way. 

Amber Bardon: Yeah. Wow, that's, uh, that's quite an adventure you've had in senior living.

And you came over to the dark side of the vendor side. So, yeah, I used to be on that side too. 

Andrew Gall: It's so funny because I feel like people on both sides say that. Like, operators say that all the time. They're like, "We're the dark side." And then vendors will say, "No, we're the dark side." Um, I think it's all light side, truly.

Yeah. Um, I 

Amber Bardon: think there's so many good people. Yeah. It's just the other side. The other side. And I, I was on the operator side as well, so I'm curious, like, what's been you know, what's been the differences for you? Or, like, where do you feel like you've been... Like, how do you feel you're effective in, um, you know, in the different, different categories of vendor or operator?

Yeah. 

Andrew Gall: Um, I think probably the most annoying thing about me for anybody that works with [00:04:00] me is how often I go back and reference my experience as an executive director, like, in the community. And I think, you know, from a tech standpoint as we're building out solutions, the industry is changing so much and so fast, and we're seeing the impact of things like AI.

And in all of that speed, I think it can be easy to disconnect a little bit from the impact to that frontline caregiver team member, that health and wellness director who's just trying to keep her schedule full through the weekend, the executive director who's just trying to make sure that their P&L is balanced at the end of the month, right?

Like, and so I do try really hard and to keep myself very honest of, like, as we're building product, as we're talking through innovation, are we constantly keeping an eye on how it's gonna [00:05:00] impact care delivery at the community and, and the people who actually have to use the tool? And if we're not building tools that are functional for, for caregivers and executive directors and, and nurses, then I think we're missing.

So, all that to say, I think, like, that experience I lean on really heavy and I'm grateful for it. Yeah. Grateful for it. Um, I'm grateful for having to, you know, go through that lived experience and understand the impact, good and bad, of software technology tools, those kinds of things. 

Amber Bardon: Yeah, I definitely feel like my experience having been on the operator side just gives me so much more insight, and you can tell when vendors, uh, don't have that.

So I think that's- Yeah ... that's great. So let's kind of tie that back to Nobi. So, first of all, I know this has been explained to me before, but just for our, our listeners and to remind me- Yeah ... how do the lamps work? Like, how do, how do they, how do they detect falls? 

Andrew Gall: So, um, I love our tech because it integrates so [00:06:00] seamlessly into that resident home, right?

It's a light. It's a light that's built into the ceiling just like your lights would be at home. We've got some really cool tech around the light itself. They're LCD lights, so we can, um, tie them into circadian rhythm lighting. We can warm them up or cool them off based on behavioral needs or environmental preferences for our residents.

There's a nightlight integrated, so when that resident gets up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom or get a glass of water, that uplight turns on automatically to keep them safe. Within the light itself, there's a sensor driven by AI learning technology that keeps an eye on what the resident is doing.

Our AI learning model is really driven around the different poses that a resident would have as part of their activities of daily life. Laying down on the bed, laying down on the floor if there's a fall. Um, and then even as advanced as sitting on the edge of the bed or a chair, um, movement [00:07:00] around pieces of furniture or different things in their environment, using that walker.

As the AI learns, we, um, recognize when a fall has happened, obviously, and can alert the team members. We do have 100% detection of the fall events themselves. But I think where we get really excited is, uh, all of that activity from a resident before a fall, right? And being able to identify how that resident is actually engaging in their environment allows us to inform and alert team members when there's risk behaviors happening.

So again, Mrs. Gall is sitting on the edge of the bed for an extended period of time. She's made multiple trips back and forth to the bathroom in the last hour. Um, she's having trouble negotiating an easy chair in her living room. Those kind of things can be tied into clinical alerts that are gonna remind our caregivers that it might be a good idea to go and check on Mrs.

Gall and then we start to get into that [00:08:00] prevention space. 

Amber Bardon: Yeah, it's such an interesting- idea to do it through the lamps. You know, there's, there's, the falls management technology space is getting very crowded, and it's all very different you know, with- Yeah ... with wearables or sensors or pendants or lamps or AI cameras, you know.

So I think Nobi has such an interesting concept. So one of the thing I want, one of the things I wanted to ask you about on today's episode, one of the reasons we wanted to bring you back on the pod, is I heard that Nobi is developing a nurse call system, and I'm really curious to learn more about that.

So what can you tell us about that new system? 

Andrew Gall: Yeah. I think one of the exciting things about our lights is that as we install them around a community, we're building a communication network designed around resident safety, right? These are smil- smart lights that are designed to talk to our caregivers on the floor.

One of the things I don't think I've mentioned yet is that each of our lights is, uh, includes a two-way voice [00:09:00] feature. So there's a conversational component to this. And when those alerts are triggered for a possible resident safety need, our caregivers have the opportunity to kind of talk directly into that apartment and say like, "Hey, Mrs.

Call, are you okay?" Like, "It looks like you might need some help." And our residents are able to maintain their own kind of, uh, autonomy to say like, "Yes, I do need help," or, "No, I'm fine, and I appreciate you checking on me." You know, "I'm good." Um, taking that a step further was just kind of a natural progression here, right?

To say, like, we already have that insight into the resident apartments, not only visually, but also from a voice standpoint. So adding a couple of communication repeaters through our common areas, adding a pull cord into our resident apartments to help meet the requirements for nurse call system from a regulatory standpoint, that was very low-hanging fruit.

The [00:10:00] structure of the lights and how they work doesn't change at all. So we're not having to completely come in and rewire an entire community that has used a traditional nurse call system before. In many cases, Amber, we're already partnering with an existing nurse call system. And so a lot of our customers are saying, "Hey, there's duplicative cost here.

Why not just pay, you know, one, one partner?" And then all of that's already integrated into the app that our team members are using and have been trained on. Um, there's not a big technology component from a replacement standpoint. And we're really excited about it. We've already seen some really compelling evidence and, um, and use case.

I think the, uh, the, the two-way voice is a little bit of a game changer for us and, and it continues to keep that nurse call component right in line with the fall prevention workflows that we're already building out with these communities. 

Amber Bardon: So [00:11:00] to use the nurse call system through Nobi, does it use the lamps and pull cords?

Do you need to have both, or can you... Yeah, t- just talk to me a little bit. D- do you have the lamps in the common areas as well, or? 

Andrew Gall: Yeah. We don't have lamps in the common areas, um, and we don't need them for nurse call to work. We would add the pull cords in those common areas where they're required from a nurse call standpoint.

So think public restrooms, if we've got them in maybe some smaller dining areas in a memory care neighborhood, situations like that. But the structure that supports the communication are the lights themselves, and that's what keeps the entire community connected. 

Amber Bardon: Interesting. 

Andrew Gall: Yeah. 

Amber Bardon: Wow. So it seems like Nobi is not just a product, but something that is changing the way that senior living operators do business.

So tell me more about that. 

Andrew Gall: Love the way you put that. And that's really what we're focused on as we come into 2026. Falls themselves are such a [00:12:00] big part of the conversation when it comes to the care continuum, right? And you've been an operator, as an executive director, like, that's the worst day is the phone call that says, "You know, Mrs.

Gall, we've been worried," or, "The family was worried, and then the fall finally happened." And how many times did we sit after the fact and think like, "What did I miss?" Like, "What could I have seen? What could I have done differently that would've changed the way that this day happened?" The detection of the fall is great, but the identification of the behaviors that lead up to it is really where we are trying to partner with our communities and say, how do we integrate what we're seeing and what we're learning about our residents' behaviors into a bigger care conversation?

So as we identify those kind of dangerous poses or those dangerous dangerous is the wrong word, those risk [00:13:00] forward activities that our residents might be displaying, especially as they age in place and their care continues to change. We're partnering directly with our communities to identify those kinds of behavior trends so that we can make recommendations around level of care assessments, around, uh, a need for a higher level of care that, you know, hey, it's time to start thinking about a move from the independent living to assisted living or assisted living to memory care.

And identifying the need for those changes before an event forces us to. Um, we also have an exciting kind of additional service with our smart badges. Um, this is a badge that our caregivers carry with them, and it identifies each time a caregiver goes into a specific apartment, how long that they're there.

That kind of additional care tracking partnered with the data that we're gathering around the changing [00:14:00] behaviors that our residents have in their apartments, gives us this really clear insight into changes that we might not have seen otherwise. We had one community in Texas that implemented the badges into their community, and they identified $6,000 in monthly revenue that they had not seen before just from additional level of care and additional reassessments.

Now, from an operations standpoint, that's great, and the dollars and cents certainly help on the P&L side. But relative to the residents' safety, I think it's probably impossible to know how much cost savings that community is gonna experience by keeping that resident safe because they're properly assessed.

So you couldn't have stated it more perfectly, Amber. I think our goal is to integrate into that entire care conversation. This isn't just about the worst day. This is about all of the days that lead up to it. And hopefully, as we identify good data, as we help make good [00:15:00] decisions, we avoid that worst day altogether.

Amber Bardon: I've never heard anybody talk about cost savings when it comes to falls management before. Yeah. So it's really interesting you brought that up. And it kind of segues into my next question because I think most communities are thinking about falls management, and I haven't seen a lot of communities implement yet, but it's definitely on people's radar and they're thinking about it.

And so when a community is thinking about a falls management system, what, what should they be considering? And I'm curious to kind of have you tie in this cost savings piece because I haven't heard that before as a use case of why you would want falls management. 

Andrew Gall: Yeah. So I like to think about it like this.

You know, especially in the independent living and assisted living environments, um, those falls are impactful to a lot of downstream things, right? If that fall results in an injury, knocking on wood for all of our residents out there today, um, we're seeing that [00:16:00] resident probably leave to the hospital and potentially a skilled nursing stay.

That's gonna impact my reputation with that hospital and my reputation with that skilled nursing community, partners that I rely on really heavily from a referral standpoint and from a long-term care partnership standpoint. Every time one of my residents leaves the community For a fall that could have been prevented, there's an unspoken reputational, uh, hit that, that we experience and then have to make up for.

If that resident experiences a change to a higher level of care as a result of that fall and injury, I now have an empty apartment that I've gotta fill, and that costs me money as an operator. It costs me money to market it, it costs me money to, to sell it, all of those kinds of things. I think there's also an impact to staffing, right?

Like the more that my residents are falling, the more that I'm constantly [00:17:00] having to address the staffing needs for those neighborhoods to keep my residents safe. That impacts their bandwidth, it impacts their quality of life and potentially it impacts my bottom line if I have to hire more staff, um, and those kind of things.

So I think like when we talk about the ways in which falls affect our bottom line, we often just think about that, you know, resident who doesn't come back or, or ends up in skilled permanently. But I think that there's a lot of impacts across the business that we don't feel at face value. And because of the nature of assisted living in the US, I think falls is that critical moment so often for our residents that is gonna be the change one way or the other.

And, you know, when we were in the midst of COVID and talking about the vaccine and stuff, I think a lot of us shared this sentiment of like, if it works, we won't necessarily know, right? Like, uh, you won't see the impact in the [00:18:00] same way. And I think that that's true here too, that the, the impact from keeping people from falling is not something that you're necessarily going to feel right away.

But the more that we look into the ways that our communities are affected when their residents are falling, the more that I, I think we can see some really quick wins and, uh, quick ways to move the needle. 

Amber Bardon: So one of the hesitations I hear with communities that are thinking about falls management is who is going to monitor all of this data, and how are they going to integrate that into their daily operations, and then what's the risk if they miss something?

So can you tell me a little bit about how Nobi transforms operations to address that hesitation? 

Andrew Gall: Yeah. It's such a great question, and I think when I first started learning about this technology, that was the first kind of- You know, I could feel the heart palpitations of like, oh, my word, how am I gonna convince my [00:19:00] caregivers that it's okay that there's, you know, a, a camera or a monitor in every single apartment?

How am I gonna convince my family members that we're not spying on their loved one or that this is safe, that this is dignified? I think the right partner makes a huge difference, right? Um, one of the things that, you know, not to, to set up the, the sales platform too much, but one of the things I really love about our team at Nobi is our very deep operational experience.

We've got over 60 years combined of, of experience in the operator space. And so I think there's a lot of us here that speak that language and understand exactly what the needs are at the community level day-to-day. Having a partner who's going to show up on a regular basis and look at that data with you is really important.

If everything is important, then nothing is. And I think when it comes to not just fall detection, but a lot of the things that are showing up in our tech stack as senior living operators these days, uh, it's data [00:20:00] fatigue, it's dashboard fatigue, it's alert fatigue. And being able to sit down and prioritize, look, these are our operational KPIs.

These are the things that are gonna move the needle for my community. And then connect that to the data that's being tracked and say, "Okay, I can give you 10 different data points every week or 100 different data points every week. But as we've talked and understand what's most important to your community and your caregivers, we know that we need to focus on these three."

Now, that could change, and I think having a partner who's gonna be flexible and be able to, uh, be really agile in that conversation is important. But understanding that, like, we know what's gonna move the needle, we know what's gonna drive change for our residents and our caregivers, that's the right place to start.

And then as those workflows improve, as that builds into kind of that regular day-to-day care life, it's easier to pivot to different [00:21:00] things or to adjust priorities because the workflow itself is now a part of how, just how we do care and how we show up for our residents. I also think that that really helps us identify the things that aren't valuable quickly, right?

And I think that's okay to say. We need to be, we need to be fast to that conversation as senior living operators. Hey, we tried this. It doesn't serve us. It doesn't work. It doesn't help move the needle, so we're not gonna spend as much time on it. And when you keep the first things first, when you keep the important things important, it's easier to identify those things quickly

Amber Bardon: I, so I, I love that you're talking about some of these points because it, I think it feeds into this whole idea of a technology culture, and how do we shift the mindsets to build that technology culture and to start thinking about technology as, as an enablement and a solutions tool instead of just a cost center in the budget.

Yep. So yeah, I think, I think you had a lot of great points around that. 

Andrew Gall: I was talking to, uh, somebody this [00:22:00] week at SL100, and they were talking about some investments they've made in their tech stack. And, um, he said, like, "I had a 40-year nurse who sat down, was part of the training. We rolled out these tools, and she pulled me aside afterwards and said, 'I just can't do it.

Like, this isn't, this isn't the, this isn't what I grew up in. This isn't what I learned. This isn't how I learned to care for people.'" I think that's indicative of a bigger conversation that's happening in senior living. I don't think she's alone. Um, I think that there are a lot of our caregivers and nurses and even executive directors and health and wellness directors who have been in senior living for decades who have watched us transition from paper charts to, uh, electronic medical records, who've watched us go from, you know, using index cards to follow up with leads to really advanced CRMs, and it is [00:23:00] overwhelming.

I think it's overwhelming for us, and we work in it every day, Amber. So I think as tech partners, we have a huge responsibility to really examine the way that we're coming to market with our solutions and to make sure that we are keeping our caregivers and their leaders at the community front and center when it comes to the experience.

If it's not a tool that they can use, if it's not a tool that makes them better at their jobs, then I think we need to have that gut check moment of like, are we showing up the right way? And as this whole space continues to change, the people that win are gonna people, are gonna be the people that do that best 

Amber Bardon: Yeah, I, I've been thinking about this a lot because I was just doing, uh, community visits with a client of ours, and I went to multiple different sites they have.

And one of the things I heard was, you know, we have... W- we appreciate all the changes that are being pushed at the corporate level. Like, it's, it's exciting. They're, they're thinking about our be- best [00:24:00] interests and the best technology. But on the other hand, we have employees that don't even have cell phones, and they, you know...

A- and I... It's kind of like this conflict because you wanna be accommodating to everybody and make it work from the operational standpoint, but you can't also wait. Like, the, the- Right ... the world is moving forward. And at some point we have to just go forward with it. And I think really the answer to that is how do we have those thoughtful conversations about the technology culture and the impact, and try to be as inclusive as possible while recognizing the fact that there...

we are going through a period of change right now in the industry. 

Andrew Gall: I agree. I agree. Um, I think, you know, we talk a lot about the value of empathy when it comes to senior living as a business, and the way that we connect to our residents and their families, the way that their stories and the journey that they've been on led them to a decision [00:25:00] to move into a senior living environment.

And I think there's a lesson for us to learn there as tech partners as well, right? And I think about that 40-year nurse and everything that she has seen over the years. You're 100% right. Like, we are... This is a one-way street from a technology standpoint in senior living. Our capital partners expect it.

I think, I think our customers expect it. You know, I, I... When I was running buildings, one of the... some of my most common questions were like, "What's my access to Wi-Fi? Can I have smart devices? Can..." All of those kinds of things. Um, so with that being said, and coming back to that position of empathy and really leaning into the stories of our caregivers, there is connection, I think, between their lived experiences and the ways in which tech can support the kind of care that they want to deliver.

You know, I'll, I'll just echo my comment a minute ago. I [00:26:00] do think there's a responsibility for us as tech partners to find that common ground, and to tell that story well. To tell that story of the kind of care you deliver is what's, is ve- is what's valuable to us. It's as important to us as it is to you.

And we wanna show up and, and make that easier, make that more accessible, so that it doesn't feel like one more alert they have to clear, one more dashboard they have to check, one more alarm they have to worry about. But rather, this is the invisible partner that's showing up at your side every day- To keep you doing the things that you're best at, which is connecting with your residents, providing amazing care, making that experience special and valuable and important.

I love this conversation. I think of all the things that I get to do in tech every day, these kind of conversations around the culture of what we're doing is one of the most special, and I think as we watch this space change, [00:27:00] we will realize it is the most valuable and important. 

Amber Bardon: Yeah, and I love that you talked about empathy.

That's actually one of the core values we have at Paras Alliance. One of our core values is empathy for that reason, because we want to be aligned with our clients. And I'm curious, does Nobi have anything in your vision, mission, or values around that concept as well? 

Andrew Gall: Yeah. Our entire organization started around the need to better support caregivers.

Our owners had a community in the UK, and there was a caregiver who was in some trouble for, uh, the perception of poor care delivery. And she went to the leaders in her community and said like, "Hey, I don't think this is fair. I, I know I've been giving really good care to my residents and, and to this resident in particular, and, um, you know, I need to stand up for myself here."

And so [00:28:00] they went back and, you know, kind of did some investigating and did some tracking and, and found out that she was absolutely right, that the perception that it occurred was misguided and that the care had been there and that resident was being well looked after. And the takeaway from that whole conversation was like, we need better tools in our apartments to protect our residents, yes, but protect our caregivers as well.

The next step towards the safety component and the ability to keep residents safe and prevent falls was really a natural progression. But this whole idea at Nobi started from this idea of how do we better support our caregivers and our team members. And I think one of the things I love about being here is that that heartbeat is consistent every day.

You know, and even the development of nurse call and the development of our smart badges has been around different ways that we can empower caregivers to, uh, give quality [00:29:00] care and, and, and have it recognized and tracked and recorded so that, so that they're protected and as well as our residents. You know, I will, uh, for as long as possible, Amber, stay idealistic about our industry.

I think it should be done well and I think residents should be well cared for. I think we should all show up to work every day saying, "How do we make somebody's mom, somebody's dad, somebody's grandma, somebody's grandpa happier, better more healthy, more enriched?" And I think we will always accomplish that mission when we start with how we support the caregivers, how we support the people, uh, delivering the work.

Amber Bardon: That's excellent. Well, and I, I think it's exciting to see how tech can enable all of that. 

Andrew Gall: Yeah. Me too. Yeah. So this 

Amber Bardon: has been an excellent conversation, Andrew. Thank you so much. I'm so glad we had Nobi come back on the pod to learn about all the new exciting things you're doing, but also just dive into more of the reason why you do this in the first place.

That was, that was great to talk about. So [00:30:00] thank you so much for joining us. 

Andrew Gall: Absolutely. It's always a pleasure to hang out with you guys. Thanks for having us.

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