Artificial intelligence in dementia care: challenges, controversies, and policy implications

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly expanding into dementia-related health and social care, with proposed applications ranging from early risk detection and monitoring to care coordination and service planning. While these technologies may support independence, reduce caregiver burden, and improve efficiency in overstretched systems, dementia care is a uniquely high-stakes context for digital innovation. Cognitive decline can affect consent and agency, care often occurs in private domestic settings, and individuals may become increasingly dependent on others to interpret and act on algorithmic outputs. This Perspective examines the opportunities and challenges of AI in dementia policies and services, focusing on equity, privacy, accountability, and the risk that technologies displace human care. We argue that AI tools are only as reliable and fair as the data and infrastructures on which they depend, and that uneven access to digital resources may widen disparities in diagnosis, monitoring, and support. We also highlight often-overlooked considerations, including environmental sustainability and the broader role of AI in shaping exposures relevant to brain health across the life course. Whether AI improves dementia care will ultimately depend on policy and governance choices, including investment in equitable digital infrastructure, robust real-world validation, and safeguards that prevent technology from substituting for human care. Finally, we propose governance priorities to ensure that AI-enabled dementia innovations are implemented as a public-interest matter, grounded in meaningful engagement of people living with dementia and care partners, real-world validation, and safeguards that protect dignity, autonomy, and social legitimacy.

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