What on earth is GriefTech?
Love it or hate it, technology pervades our lives every day. Think email, online buying and banking, social media, and apps for this, that and the other.
Whilst embracing technology, we often bemoan the loss of the human touch and yearn to hear a human voice. Yet in-person and telephone communication is eroding daily as texts, chatbots and automated call-handling take over.
It may seem unimaginable that loss and bereavement will go the same way, but technology is creeping up on the funeral business, bringing with it both exciting and scary things.
Under the banner of GriefTech, we can find digital tools, platforms and services designed to support people before, during and after the loss of a loved one. Investors are beginning to recognise that bereavement represents not merely a single event but a long-term journey involving emotional, legal, financial, and logistical needs. As a result, GriefTech is attracting attention from venture capital firms, healthcare providers, insurers and employers seeking innovative approaches to supporting individuals during times of loss.
In this article, I’ll touch on four categories of GriefTech that aim to help manage the practical, emotional and social dimensions of death and bereavement:
- Estate management
- Funeral support
- Memorialisation
- Bereavement support
References to companies and products are examples only and not recommendations. It’s a big subject and readers should do their own research to suit their needs.
Estate management
Whether you’re a light technology user or you hold your entire life digitally, every one of us will leave behind some form of digital footprint. Social media profiles, cloud storage, email accounts, digital photographs, subscription services and online communities all create new challenges after death.
One growing area of GriefTech is digital end-of-life planning and estate administration that can manage traditional and online artefacts. Mainly focused on employers, financial institutions and consultants, these tools help with documenting wishes, legal information and legacy plans, then simplifying post-death administrative and legal processes, including probate, financial administration, and online accounts and passwords. Users can typically view the status of their estate and digital assets via an app. Examples include Empathy (www.empathy.com) and Legacy (www.legacy.com).
Funeral support
One of the more mature areas of GriefTech covers the services available to support funerals, from making them more inclusive to enhancing services with audio and visual experiences. These services will typically be set up by the funeral director or celebrant although some provide aspects of their service directly to family members.
OneRoom (www.oneroomstreaming.com), Funeral Streaming (www.funeralstreaming.co.uk), Obitus (www.obitus.com) and Wesley Media (www.wesleymedia.co.uk) are examples of technology that enable remote attendance at funerals and memorial ceremonies, so that geographically dispersed, ill or otherwise-disposed family members and friends can participate in services.
Obitus and Wesley are also the usual choices for crematoria and other funeral venues for music and visual tributes, with the ability to compile a programme of music, slideshows and videos to run during a ceremony. Families and friends can access the audio libraries free of charge to search for music and songs. Obitus has recently launched an ‘immersive experience’ available at crematoria that have invested in upgrading their systems. A range of experiences, from basic to fully customised, can be projected onto the complete front wall of the chapel forming an animated backdrop, for example, a recreation of a football stadium with the deceased’s name scrolling round the advertising banner. Not for everyone, but it’s quite impressive.
Memorialisation
Traditionally, and still for many people, grief is an intensely private experience. However, digital culture and changing attitudes have made it much more acceptable to open up about challenges, negative experiences and mental health. This extends to normalising public expressions of mourning and remembrance.
This trend has paved the way for a host of technology including online memorials, tribute pages and virtual ceremonies, allowing people to connect widely and create new forms of collective remembrance.
Examples in this category include MuchLoved (www.muchloved.com), where families can create permanent tribute pages to share memories, photos, messages and donations; Legacy (www.legacy.com) for publishing obituaries and collecting condolences; and OneRoom (www.oneroomstreaming.com), enabling remote attendance at funerals and memorial ceremonies so that geographically dispersed family members can participate in services.
Social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram and X also allow users to create memorialised accounts and participate in virtual tributes. When using these platforms, it is important to recognise the importance of maintaining appropriate privacy and security, and of preventing prolonged mourning.
Memorialisation technology is usually available through your local funeral director or celebrant, but some services can be directly accessed by individuals.
Bereavement support
It is widely and increasingly acknowledged that bereavement has a psychological impact on most people. The ability to cope varies depending on the circumstances of death, individual personality and availability of support. For many people, grief can be an isolating experience that can affect wellbeing, relationships and productivity, particularly if the grief is lengthy and complicated.
Digital grief-support platforms provide accessible resources, counselling connections, guided journaling and peer-support communities that can supplement traditional care.
Examples in this category include Untangle Grief (www.untanglegrief.com), a bereavement support app that provides emotional and practical support, coaching and grief resources; and GriefShare (www.griefshare.org), which offers online support groups over 13 weeks.
Empathy (www.empathy.com) mentioned above under Estate Management, also provides grief support services for employers to help employees navigate loss while reducing corporate administrative and emotional burdens.
The future of GriefTech
As we move forward, we will undoubtedly see all the above technologies become increasingly mainstream. In addition, there are three areas where technology could start to take us to new, and sometimes worrying, places:
- Legacy creation before death: The idea of a living eulogy has been around for years, often connected to speeches at key life events and occasions. For those who would like to participate in creating their own eulogy, obituary or legacy, there are products that help individuals proactively create digital legacies while alive. For example, Storyworth (www.storyworth.com) is a memory preservation platform for recording life experiences, values, lessons and family history through stories, photos and videos to create a lasting family archive for future generations.
- Grief analytics and healthcare integration: Healthcare providers are beginning to explore clinical bereavement platforms integrated into health systems. The aim is to identify individuals at risk of prolonged or complicated grief and provide early intervention by connecting them with appropriate support.
- Artificial Intelligence (AI): Perhaps the most controversial area in GriefTech is the use of AI to preserve, recreate or simulate aspects of a person's identity. By analysing voice recordings, written correspondence, video archives, social media content and personal stories and memories, AI can generate interactive archives, digital biographies and even conversational avatars. For example, in future, a grandchild could ask questions about a grandparent's life and receive responses generated from recorded interviews. Whilst such systems can help to preserve family history and provide comfort, they raise ethical concerns regarding consent, privacy, authenticity, emotional dependency and the commercialisation of memory.
Conclusion
GriefTech is a subject as broad as it is deep. It represents a logical way forward to modernise and support one of humanity’s oldest emotional experiences.
Clearly, no application, algorithm or platform can eliminate, overcome or speed the grieving process. Nonetheless, technology can certainly enhance the celebration of life, preserve memories, simplify practical burdens and provide meaningful support during challenging times.
As life becomes increasingly digitised, technology companies will need avoid dehumanising grief. The successful ones will combine innovation with ethical responsibility and genuine empathy for human loss.