Hi there!

I’m Erna, the author of Care Fully.

Care Fully is a play on words. The questions I am asked and the ones I still have drive each issue of this newsletter.

We “care fully” by balancing our needs as caregivers with those we provide care for. My goal is to offer up experiences and information to support your caregiving journey.

Caregivers deal with change day in and day out. We might start out feeling unprepared for the level of care and effort caregiving requires, but we do our best. That’s what I did.

My journey taught me the expression “the only constant is change.” The words come from Greek philosopher, Heraclitus who was inspired by the constant movement of everything in the natural world.

Today, everything moves quickly. We can barely keep up with insurance coverage updates, never mind everything else. Change is constant. It has the potential to create uncertainty, but it also provides the opportunity to build something better than the status quo.

People, process, systems, policy, and technology are areas of the caregiving journey of interest to me. I’ll spend this newsletter highlighting one article that signals organizations are starting to ask the right questions.

If this edition was forwarded to you, please sign up for your own copy here. To spotlight or support caregiving in your company, email [email protected].

🤖 BEEP BOOP COULD HELP WITH UNDERLYING CAREGIVING TASKS

Last week, a Forbes article entitled, “Why Caregiving Belongs In Your AI Workplace Strategy,” caught my attention. I share a few points of interest below some of which highlight Joanna Drake, a partner at VC firm Magnify Ventures. You can read the article in its entirety here.

THE OPERATIONAL ISSUE

“Care is an operational issue affecting workforce participation, retention, burnout, and long-term performance. . . Yet many companies are still approaching the problem the same way: by layering on more standalone benefits. But they often leave employees coordinating fragmented systems, providers, and services themselves.”

This is one of the first times I’ve seen an investor use their platform to write critically about caregiving solutions. Some of these solutions might be among those funded by their peers. Tools don’t solve issues on their own.

THE BURDEN DOESN’T DISAPPEAR

”Adding another tool doesn’t remove coordination work, it just adds one more interface to manage. This is where AI has the potential to fundamentally reshape workforce support, not as another point solution, but as a layer that absorbs the coordination itself.”

Caregivers do everything from getting physicians to communicate with one another to ensuring proper care for loved ones. We manage finances, our household as well as our loved one’s while working full time.

But, a plethora of tools won’t change our caregiving workloads or the amount of coordination required to care for others.

THE NEXT FRONTIER

“The next frontier is convergence: systems that communicate with each other and absorb the coordination work currently falling to employees and family members. This evolution is what AI as care infrastructure looks like. . . Much of the friction limiting employee capacity lives outside of the workplace, yet most AI investments are focused on automating departmental tasks inside the office walls. The companies that will win in the next era of work will recognize care as a core business issue, and they will ask different questions before making investments.”

Companies and people alike are struggling to determine how AI can successfully solve problems. Not just any problems, but the ones we haven’t been able to address, because of their complexity or the resources required to identify root causes. These are the tasks that take time away from the care we provide and our workday.

Drake introduces the opportunity to bring the best of AI to the tasks requiring time and coordination. Going beyond automation is sorely needed.

💰 FOLLOW THE MONEY

Magnify Ventures, closed a second fund at $46.6 million, backed by returning investor Pivotal Ventures, Melinda French Gates’ organization. And, they’ve added new investors Jordan Park and Unum (the very large employee benefits company), and financing from California’s Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank. This fund will back companies building AI infrastructure across health, wealth, and family care.

I’d like you to take note of Unum. When investors start saying yes, we see the opportunity, we’ve found a partner representing the workplace benefits space, and we are paving the path for solutions that help caregiving employees, it is a win. This signals we’ve moved past predictions and into products.

📆 WHY DOES THIS MATTER NOW?

Pivotal-led research found the share of women who say caregiving holds them back professionally rose from 10% in 2019 to 26% in 2024. The problem more than doubled during the same years employers were expanding caregiving benefits. More tools, more strain. That’s the gap Drake’s argument is aimed at, and it’s the reason we need something more. We need solutions that add intentional capacity.

Let’s be clear, developing solutions is one side of the equation. The other side will wrestle with the following questions:

These are only a few of the questions that need answers. But, I’m here for this.

Every caregiver journey is different. Having a range of solutions that alleviate the stress of time consuming caregiving tasks will be welcomed, especially if these solutions are subsidized by employers.

📝 NEXT STEPS FOR CARE FULLY

This past year has been one of action for Care Fully, and now it is time for another change. Care Fully will continue to exist, but will return to a twice a month schedule. My goal is to split time between writing shorter posts that will live on my site www.cg360.info and editions of the newsletter that come to your inbox.

I’d love for you to continue reading Care Fully and visit my website for information similar to what you just finished reading. I’ll share more about this change next week.

As always, thank you for your time and your comments.