AI Strategy Assessment Positions a Senior Living Leader for Scalable, Future-Ready Growth

A multi-location organization in the senior living industry engaged Emergent Software to evaluate its technology environment and support future growth. The organization develops and manages a portfolio of communities, providing centralized services such as IT, HR, and accounting to support day-to-day operations across locations. 

As a company that has grown significantly over the years, the organization's leadership recognized an important moment to take a forward-looking approach to technology. The senior living industry is evolving quickly, and staying ahead means not only optimizing how the organization operates today, but also building the infrastructure and capabilities that will support continued growth and an increasingly technology-savvy resident population in the years ahead.  

Leadership wanted an honest, comprehensive view of their technology environment, from organizational structure and budgeting to tooling and AI readiness, so they could make informed decisions about where to invest and how to prioritize. They were also thinking about scalability: as the organization continues to grow its portfolio of properties, they wanted to ensure that technology and operational efficiency could scale alongside it without requiring proportional increases in overhead. 

The organization engaged Emergent Software to conduct a thorough IT and AI strategy assessment, with the goal of developing a clear, actionable roadmap for the organization's technology future. 

Emergent's engagement began with a two-day, on-site assessment at the organization's headquarters. Two senior Emergent consultants conducted structured, hour-by-hour interviews with 20 to 25 stakeholders across the organization, from the CEO and COO to the Chief Legal Officer, department heads across accounting, HR, and finance, IT engineers, and several business unit VPs and directors. Every hour, a new person or small group came in, giving Emergent a thorough and cross-functional view of how technology was experienced across the business. 

The conversations explored what was working well, where there were opportunities to improve, and how different teams were approaching AI. Leadership was intentional about understanding their current state and identifying a thoughtful path forward for adopting AI across the organization. 

In addition to the stakeholder interviews, Emergent worked closely with the organization to review detailed information about their technology environment, including organizational structure, tooling investments, and infrastructure. This level of partnership allowed Emergent to provide recommendations grounded in the specific context and priorities of the business. 

Following the on-site work, Emergent delivered a comprehensive IT strategy assessment covering organizational structure, budgeting practices, staffing roles and capabilities, and specific recommendations for building toward a more proactive and strategically aligned technology posture. One of the most significant recommendations was the creation of a Manager of Business Applications, a net-new role designed to ensure that the business applications in use across the organization were continuously evaluated against the needs of employees and the goals of the business. Emergent helped define the role, made the case to executive leadership, and worked with the Emergent staffing team to help place a qualified candidate.  

Emergent’s assessment also informed the development of a structured, multi-phase technology roadmap centered on building an enterprise data platform and enabling AI-driven capabilities across the organization. 

The first phase focuses on modernizing the organization’s intranet through a full redesign and migration to SharePoint Online. This work establishes a clean, well-organized content foundation that supports day-to-day operations while also preparing the organization for more advanced capabilities. By improving how information is structured, accessed, and governed, this phase creates the necessary groundwork for scalable AI adoption. 

The second phase builds on that foundation through the development of AI agents using Microsoft Copilot Studio. These agents are designed to surface information and answer frequently asked questions across internal departments, starting with the legal team. By leveraging SharePoint content and internal documentation, the agents enable employees to quickly access the information they need, reducing time spent on routine requests and allowing teams to focus on higher-value work. The model is designed to expand across additional departments, including finance, HR, accounting, and IT, as adoption grows. 

The third phase extends these capabilities into a broader enterprise data platform. This phase focuses on unifying data across the organization and introducing more advanced analytics and data-driven decision-making capabilities, supported by ongoing data consulting and governance. Together, these phases provide a clear path from foundational modernization to scalable AI and data platform maturity.

The organization came to Emergent looking for a trusted partner who could help them see their technology landscape clearly and chart a confident path forward. The assessment delivered exactly that, giving leadership a comprehensive and actionable view of their environment and a prioritized roadmap they could begin executing immediately.  

The creation of the Manager of Business Applications role has already had a meaningful impact, adding a dedicated capability for evaluating and optimizing business applications across the organization. This structural investment reflects a core principle from the engagement: that technology should be continuously aligned to the needs of the people and the business it serves. 

The organization now has a phased, multi-year roadmap that connects near-term modernization work to longer-term goals around AI adoption and enterprise data management. The migration to SharePoint Online provides the technical foundation for Copilot Studio, ensuring that future AI development is built on a strong, well-structured base. 

Emergent's ongoing engagement with the organization spans modern work, AI development, and staffing, a reflection of the deep partnership that began with a thorough, collaborative assessment process. With a clear strategy in place, the company is well-positioned to grow its portfolio, scale its operations efficiently, and deliver the technology-forward experience that the next generation of residents will expect.