By Ian Werther in News — 20 Mar 2026

Samsung, KB Life to Digitize Elder Care with Wearables and AI-Enabled Homes

Samsung Electronics announced a new collaboration with KB Life and its elder care subsidiary KB Golden Life Care to advance digital elder healthcare services. The three organizations signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly elevate digital health care for seniors, combining Samsung’s technology with KB Life’s care expertise and KB Golden Life Care’s on-site operations. KB Life is the life insurance unit of KB Financial Group, while KB Golden Life Care runs urban-style nursing facilities in several districts, including Wirye, Seocho, Eunpyeong, Gwanggyo, and Gangdong.

The partnership aims to create synergies by integrating Samsung’s products and technology with KB Life’s senior care know-how and KB Golden Life Care’s facility management. Plans center on wearable-based health management and AI-enabled home solutions using SmartThings Pro to enhance living environments in senior facilities and to apply these services to new nursing homes and senior towns.

Today, Dr. Abhishek Shukla warmly welcomed students from La Martiniere Girls' College, Lucknow, to Aastha Centre for Geriatric Medicine, Palliative Care Hospital, Hospice & Social Welfare Society. In an enriching and thought-provoking session, he introduced the concept of a "good death" one that is peaceful, dignified, pain-free, and in alignment with the individual’s values and wishes. He emphasized that in palliative care, death is not seen as a failure, but rather as a natural culmination of life. Dr. Shukla encouraged the students to see death not with fear, but with understanding and compassion, especially when curative treatment is no longer beneficial.
He also introduced the important distinction between chronological age and morphological (biological) age. Chronological age is simply the number of years a person has lived, while morphological age reflects the actual condition of the body and mind. Dr. Shukla explained how unhealthy lifestyle choices, such as poor diet, lack of exercise, stress, and substance abuse, can accelerate ageing, making a person biologically older than their chronological age. This insight helped students understand the urgent need to focus on preventive care and holistic well-being from an early age.
A significant part of his discussion centered on society’s growing reluctance to accept death. Dr. Shukla observed how, in today’s medicalized world, death is often seen as something to be fought at all costs, leading to excessive interventions even when they no longer offer comfort or cure. He urged the students to reflect on the ethical dimension of end-of-life care, emphasizing the importance of knowing when to shift the focus from prolonging life to ensuring quality of life. In doing so, he highlighted the role of empathy, communication, and courage in delivering compassionate geriatric and palliative care.

AasthaCares #GoodDeath #PalliativeCare #GeriatricCare #EndOfLifeCare #AgingGracefully #HolisticHealth #CompassionInCare #LaMartiniereGirlsCollege #AasthaGeriatricCentre #DignityInDeath #MorphologicalAge #HealthAwareness #LifestyleAndAging — Representative image for context; not directly related to the specific event in this article. License: CC0. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

A key component is a senior-specific health management service built around wearables such as Samsung Galaxy Watches and the Samsung Health platform. Inhabitants’ heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, activity, and sleep patterns would be monitored via Galaxy Watches, with health data consolidated in Samsung Health and monitored by care staff. The system would issue alerts when signs exceed predefined thresholds to support proactive health management.

On the environment and energy side, the collaboration will advance specialized B2B solutions centered on SmartThings Pro to manage senior living spaces. AI appliances in resident rooms would be linked to SmartThings Pro to maintain comfortable indoor temperature, humidity, and air quality, while centralized controls would aim to improve energy efficiency.

Safety features are also being developed. If a resident remains in a private bathroom for an extended period, occupancy sensors connected to SmartThings Pro would trigger alerts through connected speakers and lighting, enabling immediate staff intervention.

Life Care Center of Kirkland, a healthcare facility in the Juanita neighborhood of Kirkland, Washington, during the 2020 COVID-19 virus outbreak — Representative image for context; not directly related to the specific event in this article. License: CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Samsung officials said the partnership will demonstrate new value for senior care through the integration of SmartThings Pro and Samsung Health, and they plan to expand cooperation to meet growing demand in the senior market. The signing took place at KB Life Tower in Seoul’s Gangnam district, with executives from Samsung, KB Life, and KB Golden Life Care in attendance.

Beyond Korea, the deal reflects a broader push to digitize elder care through wearables, AI-enabled environments, and smart building platforms. For U.S. readers, the collaboration highlights trends in remote health monitoring, data integration between consumer devices and care services, and the potential for similar smart-care ecosystems to shape aging-in-place strategies, facility management, and cross-border supply chains in the rapidly evolving market for digital eldercare technologies. It also underscores ongoing considerations around data privacy and security as health data moves between wearables, health apps, and care operators.

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