Table of contents
Welcome to the first edition of Lab Notes – your monthly window into what we're building, shipping, and dreaming up at Birdie's Smarter Care Lab. This is where we share the innovations, improvements, and ideas that are shaping the future of care technology. Let’s dive in!
What's new: faster task and medication loading
What's happened?
You may have seen us talk about this in our latest Mailbag episode – and if you've noticed your tasks and medications loading faster over the past couple of months, you're not imagining it!
Our engineering team completed a major infrastructure upgrade by migrating to our newer, faster API (that's Application Programming Interface – essentially how different parts of our software talk to each other).
But migrating users safely wasn't easy, especially when critical medication information was involved. For months, we ran both the old and new systems in parallel, comparing results to ensure users were getting the same exact data they needed. We’re excited to share that 100% of users have been successfully migrated to the faster system.
The impact:
The new Care Planning API loads tasks and medications in an average of ~200 milliseconds – that's 5x faster than before. This means:
- Less time spent by carers standing around with the Birdie app open
- Much less likely that the connection fails on a poor Internet connection
- More energy efficient and greener – the new API can support more traffic while using less energy
The result? This upgrade now benefits every single carer across the Birdie platform, making a difference in thousands of visits every day.
What’s in the works: SmartPlans
We've been busy in the Smarter Care Lab working on something that could transform one of the most time-consuming parts of care delivery: assessments.
What is SmartPlans?
SmartPlans uses AI to turn care assessment conversations into completed care plans. Here's how it works:
- Record your conversation in the Birdie app during the client visit
- AI analyses the transcript and suggests assessment answers
- You review and confirm – staying in complete control of clinical decisions
SmartPlans works within your existing Birdie workflow – no separate systems, no extra logins.
Alpha stage
SmartPlans has now entered alpha testing – the earliest stage where we work with a small group of agencies to validate the feature is safe and works as intended. Stay tuned for how and when you can get early access.
Want to learn more about how we're building AI at Birdie? Watch our Smarter Care Lab video for behind-the-scenes insights and a demo of SmartPlans in action.
Coming soon: Upgraded Rostering in 2026
We've spent the last two years working with over 2,000 agencies, gathering thousands of insights to create Upgraded Rostering from the ground up. It's coming in 2026, and here's a glimpse of what it can do:
Up to 75% faster scheduling – Our brand new templating system means you can get the job done in record time. Create flexible multi-week client templates that turn rostering from "once a week" to "one and done."
Completely in sync with care management – Unlike systems that don't update in real time, Upgraded Rostering is built as one with care management and finance, so even last-minute changes are safe and easy.
Built-in safety – Advanced conflict detection prevents scheduling errors before they happen. The system flags potential issues across all aspects of care scheduling to keep you compliant and your carers protected.
Intelligent insights and analytics – Unlock a deeper understanding of your care delivery with analytics that help you make smarter, more confident business decisions.
Want to be first to know?
Join the Upgraded Rostering mailing list to get early access updates, beta testing opportunities, and exclusive previews as we get closer to launch.
Your feedback in action
Since launching early access to Upgraded Rostering, we've been listening closely to our partners’ feedback – and we're already seeing the results.
Recently delivered
The most-requested feature? Weekly View. You told us the day-by-day view made scheduling inefficient, so we've just released a read-only Weekly View for early access users, with assignment and editing capabilities in the works. This gives you a clearer overview of your weekly schedule, making it easier to spot gaps, conflicts, and opportunities at a glance.
We've also shipped Xero export capabilities, allowing you to easily export rostering data in Xero's format and streamline your invoicing process. And you can now edit visits after manual check-in, giving you the flexibility to adjust care delivery on the fly when plans change unexpectedly.
What's next: Planned improvements
Based on what you've shared, we're working on Carer Utilisation visibility so you can see weekly carer hours at a glance and manage workload effectively, rather than calculating manually. We're also looking at adding an Audit trail and timeline so you can see who made changes to visits and when, giving you better accountability and operational oversight.
Exploring: Under consideration
We've heard your frustrations about having to delete and recreate tasks to make changes. We're exploring the ability to edit tasks after creation so you can adjust schedules more efficiently. Any changes will only apply going forward—previous tasks will remain as they were originally scheduled.
Finally, we're investigating ways to improve template management, particularly for detached visits (individual visits that have been edited away from the template). Currently, these visits don't receive subsequent template updates, and we're working to streamline this to make visit management smoother.
Your feedback directly shapes our product roadmap – thank you for continuing to share what matters most to your teams!
Stay connected
We're committed to building technology that solves meaningful problems for our care community, and we can't wait to share what we're working on next.
Join the Smarter Care Lab mailing list to get Lab Notes delivered to your inbox every month, plus exclusive updates on what we're building.
Published date:
December 4, 2025
Author:
Jasmine from Birdie
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