Impact Achievers
Vireo – Expanding the qualified care workforce through personalized AI coaching
Expanding access to high-quality, practice-based professional development is key to addressing care worker shortages. The future of care depends on who we choose to include.
The non-profit association Entlastungsdienst provides reliable and flexible support for family caregivers and people with disabilities. Through individually tailored care solutions, we improve quality of life and create relief in everyday life, enabling people to live self-determined lives in their preferred environment.
Motivation
We applied for the GenAI Zürich Award because we believe artificial intelligence should strengthen human potential, especially in fields built on trust and relationships. Care work is deeply human. Yet many capable and committed people remain outside formal qualification pathways, even though they already contribute valuable skills.
This project is driven by the conviction that workforce shortages are not solved by lowering standards, but by expanding access to meaningful development that meets people where they are. It is flexible, practice-based, and enabled by technology. Inclusion means creating pathways that make existing competencies visible, valued, and further developable without compromising quality. The model is designed to scale across regions and to be transferable to other sectors facing similar workforce and qualification challenges.
AI should not replace human care. It should strengthen those who provide it and open doors for those who are ready to contribute.
Francesco Lässig
AI Engineer
Care systems face a structural workforce shortage. At the same time, many capable people are excluded from professional development due to rigid training formats, language barriers, or life circumstances. Traditional education models are not flexible enough to respond to these realities. As a result, existing competencies remain underutilised within the care system, while high professional standards rightly remain non-negotiable.
We developed Vireo, an AI-powered Care Coach that supports caregivers directly in their daily work. The tool analyses competencies based on a structured framework grounded in Swiss care standards and UN CRPD principles. It provides personalised learning pathways and structured reflection through conversational support. Built on a multi-agent architecture, it combines assessment, adaptive feedback, and guided practice within one integrated system. It is mobile-first and multilingual. By embedding learning into real work situations, it enables inclusive, work-integrated development instead of separating theory from practice.
The solution expands the qualified workforce while safeguarding high professional standards. By aligning development with defined competence levels, it enables structured growth and makes competencies visible through certification. This offers recognition, strengthens employability, and creates permeability into formal education pathways for those who wish to advance. Empowered caregivers are better equipped to strengthen autonomy, participation, and resilience among the people they support. This creates impact beyond the workforce itself.