U.S. News & World Report Partners with Candid to Bring Agentic AI Survey Innovation to Senior Living

Strategic partnership modernizes how senior living operators capture real-time resident and family feedback.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 7, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. News & World Report, the global authority in healthcare decision support, today announced a strategic partnership with and investment in Candid, an AI-powered engagement start-up serving senior living and post-acute care organizations, to modernize feedback collection and advance resident engagement and quality measurement standards across the senior living industry.

Through the partnership, U.S. News and Candid equip senior living communities to move beyond traditional static questionnaires through AI-powered, conversational engagement tools. The integration expands the tools available to operators to capture real-time insights from residents and their families, turning direct resident and family input into measurable quality improvements.

This collaboration comes at a pivotal time for the senior care sector. With 10,000 Americans reaching retirement age daily – known as "The Peak 65 Phenomenon" – the need for transparent, reliable data to guide family care decisions and evaluate community performance continues to grow. Building on U.S. News' 2026 Best Senior Living ratings, which evaluated communities based on feedback from more than 540,000 consumer surveys, U.S. News continues to lead efforts to standardize resident engagement measures and bring modern, data-driven capabilities to senior living operators and care providers.

"For five years, U.S. News' Best Senior Living ratings have provided families with trusted data and benchmarks as they evaluate their senior living options," said Sumita Singh, executive vice president and general manager of Health at U.S. News. "As millions of older adults enter retirement, improving how senior living communities capture resident and family feedback is a must. Our strategic partnership with Candid reflects our commitment to bringing frictionless technologies to senior living operators so they can gather real-time resident and family feedback across all modalities."

Candid's platform uses interactive voice and text conversations that allow residents, family members and employees to provide feedback in their own words. The platform combines quantitative metrics with qualitative sentiment analysis, identifying recurring themes, emerging operational concerns and trends.

Across current deployments – which span hundreds of senior living communities nationwide – Candid's conversational format averages an approximate 70 percent response rate, drastically outperforming traditional survey channels.

"Senior living organizations have historically had to choose between collecting structured data at scale and having meaningful conversations with residents, families, and employees," said Raphael Rubens, founder and CEO of Candid. "AI allows us to combine both, understand what is driving the feedback and turn those insights into action, ultimately improving the experience and quality of care for residents."

About U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report is the global leader for journalism that empowers consumers, citizens, business leaders and policy officials to make confident decisions in all aspects of their lives and communities. A multifaceted media company, U.S. News provides unbiased rankings, independent reporting and analysis, and consumer advice to millions of people on USNews.com each month. A pillar in Washington for more than 90 years, U.S. News is the trusted home for in-depth and exclusive insights on education, health, politics, the economy, insurance, personal finance, travel, automobiles, real estate, careers and consumer products and services.

About Candid
Candid Technology, Inc. ("Candid") is an AI powered engagement platform for senior living and post acute care. Its technology helps organizations collect resident, family, and employee feedback, improve online reputation, understand retention, and automate frontline applicant engagement and interviews. Candid has been deployed across hundreds of communities throughout the United States and is backed by leading investors. For more information, visit callcandid.com.

SOURCE U.S. News & World Report, L.P.