Laurie Orlov's blog

It’s a pretty good tech universe if you know what you’re doing...  Maybe you’re someone who reads all the new tech announcements, knows that your phone is aging, understands what features you need and goes forth and buys the new gadget of the day.  However, survey after survey show that while adoption is growing, more than half (59%) of older adults think technology is not designed with their age in mind. two-thirds (64 percent) of older adults believe they have the digital skills necessary to fully take advantage of being online.

Consider this gloomy WSJ article about aging. More Americans Are Aging Alone, Who Will Take Care of Them? The premise? “More than 16 million people aged 65 and older in the U.S. live alone. That represents 28% of that age group, almost triple the share in 1950." Whoa!  First of all 20% of the 65+ population is working today. Why? Life expectancy at 65 has risen to the mid-eighties for both women and men, compared to late 60’s, early 70’s in 1950. And a shrinking percentage of Americans live in rural areas today, according to Pew Research. While the article is a compelling description of a heroic organization of underpaid workers serving an Appalachian community, mapping the article to the reality of older adults in the United States today is disingenuous.

We are selling a product that people don’t want to buy. This Senior Housing News article, The New Skilled Nursing: Assisted Living Operators Adapt to Changing Place in the Care Continuum does not hide a trend that is significantly changing their business but also the future for older adults. So they delay their move until it becomes urgent – Mom cannot live at home any longer. Translate – Mom is too frail, her dementia is worse, her mobility has declined, etc. She will need multiple types of support.  Recent statistics about assisted living demographics are harsh: Consumer Affairs asserts that 70% of residents have some level of dementia, with the majority of residents women in their 80’s.

Clearly many caregivers are missing out on useful technology.  According to the new AARP Caregiving in the US report, utilization of useful technologies, detailed in a brief report attached here, that could help with care of either children or older adults is below 50% other than smart home tech. Maybe that is the smart doorbell?  Smart TV? --which is just about all you can buy.  Only 10% of caregivers say they own home health safety devices, which probably include a pendant with fall detection or an in-home fall detection device. If these caregivers are living with the older adult, perhaps that makes sense.  If not, perhaps they do not know what they don’t know. Only a third say they use smart home technology (for lighting? Temperature control? Other?). Perhaps the AARP site for caregivers would be of benefit.  Lots of information there.

The University of Michigan polled older adult responders – and the results are in. In a recent survey of more than 1000 adults aged 50+, the University of Michigan poll, fielded inside Michigan and nationwide, demonstrates that Artificial Intelligence technology is useful to older adults – and that they are not intimidated by it.  As with other studies, those with less education had somewhat less trust in AI-enabled information, and those with health disabilities also were somewhat less trusting of the information they found. (Source: July, 2025 University of Michigan AI Poll).

In 2023, twenty-five interviewees agreed that AI was going to matter to older adults. This report was an early entrant connecting AI to their needs. By then, advances in AI had received the full attention of the technology industry, which was undergoing its first major disruption since the arrival of smart speakers and voice in 2014. In fact, some thought it was going to change the interaction with and care of older adults in a dramatic way.  Many predictions have been realized as of today, including the widespread use of conversational AI in the home, use of AI in healthcare – particularly in clinical documentation, hearing assistance technology, 24x7 remote monitoring, chatbots for everything, including senior living. In fact, today many experts believe that AI is the most transformative technology since the introduction of the Internet.

This report is published every five years – and it is (still) dismaying.  The new report, Caregiving in the US 2025, was published this week. The previous report was surveyed in 2020. The bottom line of it is the sheer number of adults (63 million) who provide care to an adult family member or child with a medical condition or disability in the past 12 months. Most of this care is unpaid.  Some are leveraging state or national programs to pay family caregivers, and one-third, likely higher income, hire outside help. The report’s focus is on the 59 million who provide care for an adult. So what has changed in terms of tech use? If usage penetration is a metric, there is some progress. For example:

AI technology is permeating every aspect of business technology today.  Increasingly it will be deployed in the care of older adults, as apparent in research reports like The Future of AI in Home Care and an earlier report, The Future of AI and Older Adults (which will be revisited with new research later in 2025).  With little effort, AI-enabled offerings can be found throughout the startup directory of the AgeTech Collaborative from AARP.  So here are five that sound promising from their descriptions -- all info is derived from the startup website or other reference site.

What is the prevalence of hearing loss today?  One-third of adults between 65 and 75 have age-related hearing loss. Further, 40-50% of adults aged 75 and older have age-related hearing loss, with 50% of those aged 85+. This is the result of changes in blood flow and the structures of the inner ear, changes to a nerve related to hearing, and changes to how the brain processes speech and sounds. Hearing loss is correctable – but many older adults avoid hearing aids or don’t wear them. Many with untreated hearing loss are at risk of developing dementia. Despite the fact that hearing aids can improve hearing and reverse the social isolation and cognitive decline that can result from hearing loss, most adults with hearing loss do not use hearing aids – or defer their use for as many as ten years following its onset.  Learn more.

The more things change…Argentum published a new survey of senior living executives last month, querying execs about tech adoption, including thoughts about AI in senior living. The report (also sponsored by A Place for Mom) compared two sets of responses about tech from 2023 and 2024 – enabling a possible comparison. On the upbeat side, as of 2024, 76% of responders are optimistic about the role AI can play in their organizations. That question was probably not asked in 2023, so there was nothing to compare, but a number of them today are apparently experimenting with AI. They say that the uses are for staffing efficiency, care planning and improved resident interaction. Perhaps a number of them read a most 2024 report from this website, The Future of AI in Senior Living and Care and saw possibilities for improved documentation, staff education, and even the potential for predictive analytics.