Before you buy more AI: what your case software already does, and the numbers to check

Vendors will offer you AI. Some of it is useful. Before you spend anything, it helps to know what your case software already includes, what it costs, and which numbers in your own office decide whether more is worth it. This post covers all three, with a simple decision rule at the end.

What the case-management systems include

Here is what the main vendors publish, as of October 2026. Prices are vendor figures, and they change, so check before you rely on them.

• Passare. Five AI features: an obituary writer, a vitals-form scanner, an assistant for service ideas, a meeting notetaker, and suggestions that turn notes into case updates for staff to approve. No pricing is published (Passare AI features, vendor page, Oct 2026).
• Afterword. Its assistant, Grace, is built into the platform and won the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) Innovation Award in 2025 (NFDA, Oct 2025). Afterword lists "starting at" monthly prices based on 200 cases a year: Essential Case Management $79, Task Lists $99, Chain of Custody $149, Online Planner $179, Personalized Case Management $325 (vendor figures). Grace has no separate price (Afterword pricing, fetched Oct 2026).
• Tukios Heardstone. A 2026 Innovation Award finalist that turns arrangement-conference notes and audio into a summary, task list, personalization ideas and an obituary draft, inside the Tukios platform (NFDA supplier site, 2026).
• Osiris. Listed at $135 a month for unlimited cases on four computers, plus $9.95 a month for each extra computer (vendor-supplied listing) (G2, Oct 2026).
• Gather. No public pricing (G2, Oct 2026).

Two things stand out. First, obituary drafting and meeting notes are now built into several of these systems. Check what you have before paying separately for them. Second, in the published descriptions we reviewed, none of these products is described as sending follow-ups to certifier offices or tracking a state's certifier deadline. If that is your pain, ask your vendor directly whether it is on their roadmap.

The numbers that matter in your office

National averages give you a rough frame. NFDA counts 15,401 US funeral homes and 105,300 employees (NFDA statistics, Sep 2025). The FTC, citing the National Center for Health Statistics, counts 3,072,666 US deaths in 2024 (Federal Register, May 2026). Dividing deaths and employees by the number of homes gives roughly 200 deaths per home per year and about seven staff per home. Those are our rough divisions, not surveys, and your home may look very different.

What matters is your own numbers. Measure these for two weeks:

1. Minutes per day spent chasing certificates. Ask whoever does it to jot the time down each day.
2. Days from death to certifier signature, for each case. Your case file or your state system will show the dates.
3. Certificates past your state's deadline. In Utah the certifier has three business days (Utah HB 493, effective Jan 2026).
4. Family calls asking for status. A tally mark per call is enough.
5. Days from service to payment on cases paid by insurance assignment, since payment can wait on certified copies.

On that last point: one AI vendor publishes an example in which faster certificates shorten the time from service to payment from 41 days to 29 and save about 50 minutes of office time a day. It labels this "Illustration, not a promise" (CallSphere blog, Jun 2026). Treat it as a question to test in your own books, not as a result.

A simple decision rule

Buy nothing new if chasing takes under about 20 minutes a day and certificates rarely pass the deadline. Train your staff on the features you already pay for, write an AI-use policy (see our policy post), and use a shared sheet with a follow-up playbook.

Ask your current vendor first if the gap is something close to what their AI already does, such as reminders or task lists. A setting may be cheaper than a project.

Consider a small build if certificates often pass the deadline, one person spends a large part of each morning on calls, and payment on insurance-assigned cases waits on paperwork. Then compare the cost of the build to what you already pay. Published case-software prices run from $79 a month for Afterword's entry case-management module, to $135 a month for Osiris with unlimited cases, to several hundred a month for a full set of Afterword modules (vendor figures). Anything you add should be justified by time and cash you have measured, not by novelty.

Questions to ask any vendor, including us

• Is my data used to train your AI model? Where does it say that in the contract?
• Can I export all my data if I leave, and in what format?
• Does a person approve every message before it goes to a family or another office?
• What does it connect to, and what happens when my case software updates?
• What is the contract term, and how do I cancel?
• What did you measure at other homes, and can I speak to one?

A vendor who cannot answer the last question plainly is asking you to be the test case. That can be fine, as long as the price reflects it and you measure the results yourself.

Where Lunan fits

We are new to funeral service, and we will say so. What we do: train your staff on the AI you already have, help you write a policy, and, where your numbers justify it, build a certificate tracker that works alongside your case software. If your numbers do not justify it, we will tell you that too.

The free conversation is where to start. Bring your two weeks of numbers if you have them. Start it here.