Digital Skills for Seniors: Better Access to AI Care

Ireland has a problem that doesn’t look like a healthcare problem—until you sit with it for a minute. Only 19% of adults aged 65+ are considered digitally literate, below the EU average of 25%. And among people over 75, 41% have never used the internet (CSO, October 2024). Those numbers aren’t just about online shopping or video calls. They translate into missed GP portals, confusing medication apps, unbooked appointments, and a growing gap in access to AI-supported healthcare services.

That’s why the recent announcement of the €540,000 “Hi Digital Fund”—a two-year initiative from Rethink Ireland and the Vodafone Foundation, supported by private donors and the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht via the Dormant Accounts Fund—matters well beyond digital inclusion. It’s a healthcare access story.

Five recipients—Roscommon Leader Partnership, Kerry Community Youth Service, University of Limerick, Rehab Group, and Citizens Information Services—will reach an estimated 13,000 older adults over the next two years. If those programmes are designed well (and I think the ingredients are here), they’ll do something very specific: make AI-enabled care usable for the people who need it most.

The healthcare reason digital literacy for older adults matters

Digital literacy is now a prerequisite for accessing basic healthcare pathways. When appointment booking, prescription renewals, test results, and remote consultations move online, “not being digital” becomes “not being served.”

This hits older adults hardest because they’re also the group most likely to:

• Manage multiple chronic conditions
• Need frequent interactions with health services
• Benefit from remote monitoring (blood pressure, diabetes, heart failure)
• Face transport barriers—especially in rural areas

The reality? A lot of healthcare technology assumes a baseline level of comfort: creating passwords, reading notifications, confirming identity, navigating menus, and avoiding scams. Without those skills, AI tools don’t increase access—they increase frustration.

Telemedicine is only as good as the last mile

Telemedicine gets pitched as “simple”: click a link, join a call, talk to a clinician. In practice, the last mile is where it fails:

• The text message link arrives on a phone set to silent
• The camera permission prompt appears and the call is missed
• The patient can’t find the email with the video link
• A software update interrupts the appointment

If we want telehealth to work for older adults, we need to stop treating those moments as user error. They’re system design and training problems.

Patient engagement is becoming AI-assisted—whether we like it or not

Healthcare providers are steadily adopting AI for triage, symptom checking, call-centre support, and risk stratification. Patients may never “use AI” directly, but they’ll interact with AI-shaped workflows:

• Automated reminders that require confirmation
• Portal messages that need responses
• Digital forms that drive clinical prioritisation
• Remote monitoring alerts routed through apps

Digital confidence is the bridge between the patient and those workflows. No bridge, no benefit.

What the €540,000 Hi Digital Fund signals for Ireland’s care system

The Hi Digital Fund is a public-private-community collaboration that targets a specific bottleneck: skills, not devices. That focus is what makes it relevant to healthcare and medical technology.

From the announcement, we can pull out three signals that healthcare leaders should pay attention to:

1. It’s community-delivered. Older adults often learn best in trusted local settings.
2. It’s designed for scale. The recipients are positioned to expand reach beyond one-off workshops.
3. It’s aligned with an existing national programme. Vodafone Foundation’s Hi Digital programme has already engaged 100,000+ older adults since 2021, with weekly in-person support sessions.

This combination matters because healthcare digital transformation tends to overinvest in platforms and underinvest in people. Funding that explicitly supports training and inclusion is a corrective.

“Digital inclusion isn’t just about access, it’s about dignity, connection, and opportunity for every generation.”

That line from Vodafone Foundation’s Liz Roche is more practical than it sounds. Dignity, in healthcare terms, often means not having to ask your neighbour to read your test results.

Why this is especially timely in December

December is when isolation spikes, scams spike, and health services feel stretched. It’s also when families often notice digital gaps: a parent who can’t open a message from the pharmacy, or a grandparent who’s anxious about an online appointment.

If community organisations can capture that seasonal attention—“let’s get you set up before winter appointments ramp up”—they’ll see better attendance and faster progress.

What “good” senior digital literacy looks like in AI-enabled healthcare

Senior digital literacy programmes work when they teach healthcare tasks, not generic tech features. “How to use a smartphone” is too broad. Older adults typically want to accomplish something concrete.

Here’s what I’d prioritise if the goal is better access to AI-enhanced care.

1) The healthcare essentials (skills that pay off immediately)

These modules create near-term wins and reduce service friction:

• Booking and joining a video appointment
• Using a patient portal to view results and send a message
• Ordering repeat prescriptions online (or via app)
• Saving important contacts (GP, pharmacy, family caregiver)
• Turning on accessibility features (font size, voice typing)

A strong programme tracks these outcomes as “tasks completed,” not “hours attended.”

2) Security and scam resistance (critical for older adults)

Digital health creates new attack surfaces. Older adults are disproportionately targeted by impersonation scams, and healthcare-themed scams are common (“Your test results are ready—click here”).

A practical security curriculum should include:

• Recognising phishing texts and emails
• Safe password habits (and when to use a password manager)
• Device updates explained in plain language
• Two-factor authentication without panic
• What to do if they clicked something suspicious

If you run a healthcare organisation, don’t leave this to chance. Security is part of patient safety now.

3) Understanding AI-driven interactions (without overcomplicating it)

Most older adults don’t need an AI lecture. They need to know what changes when AI is in the loop.

Teach three simple realities:

1. Automated messages still matter. Don’t ignore them because “it’s just a computer.”
2. Forms influence prioritisation. The way you answer questions can affect who calls you back first.
3. Humans are still responsible. If something feels wrong, ask for a person.

That last point is huge for trust.

How community programmes can connect to real healthcare outcomes

Digital inclusion programmes create measurable healthcare value when they integrate with local care pathways. Otherwise, they risk becoming well-meaning computer classes.

Here are practical ways the Hi Digital Fund recipients (and similar organisations) can tie training to outcomes.

Build referral loops with primary care and pharmacies

GP practices and pharmacies already know who is struggling—patients who repeatedly miss calls, can’t access results, or rely on paper-only communication.

A simple loop looks like this:

1. GP/pharmacy identifies a patient who could benefit
2. Patient is referred to a local digital support session
3. Session focuses on the exact task (portal login, video visit, prescription request)
4. Patient leaves with a one-page “cheat sheet” and a follow-up option

If I were designing this, I’d also add a “caregiver-friendly” option so an adult child can attend once and support from home.

Use volunteer models to scale without losing trust

The announcement referenced UL’s Digital Volunteer programme expanding to nearby universities. This is smart because:

• It’s cost-effective
• It creates intergenerational trust
• It turns learning into a relationship, not a transaction

For healthcare tech adoption, trust beats polish every time.

Treat connectivity as a rural health equity issue

The RSS content calls out that the gap is more pronounced in rural areas. In those settings, digital confidence and connectivity are intertwined.

Programmes should be ready to troubleshoot:

• Weak Wi‑Fi n- Limited data plans
• Older devices that can’t run newer apps
• Patchy coverage that makes video visits unreliable

If video appointments don’t work consistently, seniors will abandon telehealth and default back to transport-heavy care.

For healthcare and medtech leaders: what to do next

If you’re building AI in healthcare, older adults aren’t an edge case—they’re the main case. They’re also the cohort most likely to benefit from remote monitoring, early detection, and better care navigation.

Here’s what works in practice.

Design your product assuming low digital confidence

A good baseline:

• Fewer steps to complete key tasks
• Clear error recovery (“Here’s how to try again”)
• Large touch targets and readable typography
• Human support that’s easy to reach
• Consistent language (avoid switching terms like “visit,” “session,” “appointment”)

If your AI product needs a training manual, you’ve already lost half your intended audience.

Measure adoption with equity in mind

Track outcomes by age band, geography, and first-time users:

• Successful onboarding rate for 65+
• Drop-off points (where do users quit?)
• Time-to-complete for core tasks (join call, send message)
• Support tickets per 100 users

This is where software development discipline belongs in healthcare: instrument the journey, then fix the journey.

Partner with local organisations instead of “educating from HQ”

The Hi Digital Fund is a blueprint for how to do partnerships well: fund trusted organisations embedded in communities.

If you’re a healthcare provider, insurer, or medtech company, a useful next step is to sponsor task-based training sessions aligned to your services:

• “How to use the hospital portal” clinics
• “How to join your video appointment” drop-ins
• “How to read your results safely” support hours

Done right, you reduce missed appointments and improve patient satisfaction—without adding more burden to clinical staff.

The bigger point for our AI in Technology and Software Development series

This post sits in our AI in Technology and Software Development series for a reason: digital literacy programmes are infrastructure. They’re the human layer of adoption.

Healthcare AI talks a lot about accuracy, models, and integration. Those are real concerns. But the most immediate failure mode is simpler: a patient can’t use the tool.

If the Hi Digital Fund reaches 13,000 older adults as planned, it won’t just teach people how to use devices. It will widen access to telemedicine, make remote monitoring more realistic, and help older adults participate in AI-shaped care pathways with less stress and more control.

If you’re leading digital health, here’s the question I’d sit with: What part of your AI roadmap fails if the patient can’t confidently tap “Join appointment”?