The Innovation Power of Care Work
We often speak about the future as if it were something that simply happens to us. In reality, the future is shaped by the choices we make today. It emerges when we roll up our sleeves, dare to think differently, and start building solutions instead of merely talking about challenges.
This was precisely what we witnessed at the CareFuture research project's Tomorrow’s Care Work Innovation Competition gala at Tavastia Club, Helsinki, on a September afternoon. There, innovative thinking, courage, and a genuine desire to create a better future for care work came together in a tangible and inspiring way.
Tomorrow's Care Work Competition seeks solutions to the care crisis
The CareFuture project, a collaboration between the Universities of Vaasa and Jyväskylä, the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, and Tampere University of Applied Sciences, launched the innovation competition with an ambitious goal: to identify innovations that solve the increasing care crisis facing our society. As the population ages, the demand for care services continues to increase, while the sector struggles with persistent workforce shortages. At the same time, an increasingly multicultural society brings new needs and perspectives, and the pressures of working life challenge both employee well-being and the sector’s attractiveness.
Our aim was to highlight innovations that can improve the quality of care, improve everyday work, and help build a more sustainable future for the sector. We invited a wide range of actors to participate, seeking innovations from civil society organizations, workplaces, wellbeing services counties, technology companies, as well as networks of leaders and decision-makers. We also received valuable support and visibility from numerous partners working across the innovation ecosystem.
150 Innovations: From everyday insights to future solutions
In total, the competition received 150 submissions. Together with juries comprising societal leaders active in the care sector, researchers, and nursing students, we selected the 36 most promising innovations. The winning innovations will now become part of a long-term research and development collaboration wit the CareFuture project partners. You can have a look at all the winning innovations in CareFuture project website.
This broad participation demonstrated that the willingness and capability to innovate is strong across the care sector. Not only companies but also care workers and civil society organizations presented new and bold ideas stemming from the everyday doings of care work. The innovations varied in their scope: while others were based on widened participation, deeper collaboration and enhanced human interaction, others used technology to improve the conditions of care work. The competition highlighted not only the challenges facing the sector but, above all, the creativity, expertise, and determination that can help address them.
The best innovations put people at the center
Most of the winning innovations were about enhancing the conditions for human interaction, meaningful encounters and the everyday practices of care work. While there were several technological solutions presented, the focus was on the people: care workers whose workload was eased, people in need of care, and the relatives who wish to stay informed and present in their life. This serves as a powerful reminder that the future of care is, above all, about people. At the same time, it depends on our ability to embrace new opportunities and ways of working. It was particularly encouraging to see the wealth of creativity, insight, and willingness to innovate among citizens, care professionals, and businesses alike. Despite their diversity, all the submissions shared a common ambition: a desire to build a better future for care work.
The prominent role of technology and artificial intelligence (AI) was also evident across the innovations. Digital solutions and AI have the potential to provide significant support in everyday care, reduce workload, and free up time for human interaction.
The promise of technology: beyond risks and restrictions
The value of technology lies in how well it supports the fundamental mission of care and respects human dignity, autonomy, and human rights. Ultimately, the legitimacy of technology, indeed its only legitimacy, derives from its ability to improve people´s quality of life.
In ethical discussions surrounding technology, emerging technologies such as AI are often assessed primarily through the lens of risks and concerns. These issues should not be overlooked. However, it is equally important to recognize new technologies as opportunities. This, too, is an ethical choice: whether to adopt and make use of them, or to leave their potential unrealized.
Ethics also entails the willingness and courage to develop and implement unconventional solutions that have the potential to genuinely improve wellbeing, enhance the meaningfulness of work, and raise the quality of care. We should be bold enough to embrace experimentation when pursuing these goals while also preserving our readiness to retire ideas that do not serve their purpose.
The CareFuture project is committed to promoting the ethical and social sustainability of innovations through anticipatory ethical assessment. Together with innovators, we will examine potential impacts already during the development phase, considering how solutions may affect users, employees, organisations, and society as a whole. The aim is not to slow innovation but to help it succeed.
By assessing the implications of technological and AI-enabled solutions early in their early development phase, it is possible to identify areas for improvement and ensure that innovations serve people in the best possible way. In doing so, we can also strengthen users' trust in these solutions and support their responsible adoption.
Innovation lives in everyday care practices
The greatest asset in the care sector is not technology, processes, or resources. Its greatest asset is the ability to truly see another person. The philosopher Iris Murdoch described this as a just and loving gaze: the capacity to see another human being as clearly and as free from prejudice as possible. This moral vision lies at the heart of care work. It is the ability to understand people's needs, recognize the challenges they face in everyday life, and find meaningful ways to address them. Behind this ability stand care professionals, with their experience, expertise, creativity, and genuine commitment to others.
At the CareFuture project, we work to bring this human understanding together with the needs of those requiring care and the new possibilities offered by technology and AI. In doing so, we are not merely developing new tools. We are creating entirely new ways of supporting wellbeing, dignified lives, and high-quality care. The true strength of the innovations lies in the people committed to creating conditions for future care work where human connection and quality of life are preserved despite the challenges facing the care sector.
Every innovation, whether large or small, can be a step towards a more humane and sustainable future.
The future does not happen to us - we build it
The future is shaped by the possibilities we dare to see today and by the actions we dare to take. It is something we build every day. That is why the future is in our hands.
The innovations and innovators showcased in the gala demonstrate that the care sector possesses an extraordinary wealth of expertise, imagination, and capacity for renewal. They gave evidence that the future of care is not something people wait for passively. It is being actively and purposefully created.
We must dare to imagine something better and then have the courage to make it possible.
Jaana Leikas, Hanna Saari, Anton Sigfrids
Thank you to our partners and networks supporting the competition: Innokylä, the Doing Important Work initiative, the AI Ecosystem in Social and Health Services , the Good Work Programme of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, and the RDI Growth Programme for Health and Wellbeing . Numerous other networks and influencers also helped us reach the people and communities that are already building the future of care today.