Care Workers' Experiences of Digital Technologies and Anticipated AI: An Exploratory Qualitative Study

This study examines how care workers experience established digital technologies and how those experiences shape their sensemaking of artificial intelligence (AI) before its formal implementation. Nine care workers supplied asynchronous written responses concerning digital work, AI, technological pressure, learning and care values. The data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Sensemaking and technostress scholarship informed the later interpretation without functioning as predetermined coding categories. Participants valued digital systems for improving documentation, information access and efficiency, while also describing system failures, time pressure and accountability concerns. Their expectations of AI were shaped by existing digital experiences and informal sources of knowledge. Technology was consistently positioned as support for, rather than a replacement for, empathy, trust and relational care. This is a preprint and has not undergone peer review.