BASKING RIDGE, N.J., April 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Silver Tsunami has arrived. Today there are 46 million older adults in the United States. By 2050, that number is expected to grow to 90 million. Those adults aged 85 and older, who often need assistance with personal care, will nearly quadruple by the year 2040. According to AARP, 77% of them want to age in place, in their own home. Our nation is aging; how will they get help?
Voice technology in 2022 – living up to hope and hype? By 2018, it seemed possible that Voice First technology (and its associated AI software) could transform the technology user experience for older adults (see report: The Future of Voice First Technology and Older Adults 2018). Fairly new at the time, a few senior living organizations embraced it for its home automation potential, possibility of concierge services -- turn on the lights! Raise the blinds! Book me on the afternoon trip!. The generally accepted view was that this technology was going to be “Easy, Cheap, Useful, Smart, and Connected (home automation that just works).” Amazon’s Alexa service ran on multiple variants of cheap hardware. Like Apple’s Siri, the software’s understanding of requests was relatively weak (compared to Google Assistant, which emerged in 2018 on Android and iOS).
Voice technology in 2022 – living up to hope and hype? By 2018, it seemed possible that Voice First technology (and its associated AI software) could transform the technology user experience for older adults (see report: 