smart home

You don’t really think much about it anymore – voice is just there. Today you are used to speaking to devices – tapping a microphone in an app, saying a wake word like Siri or Alexa, getting an increasingly smart response.  No update required.  Older adults appreciate it, according to a new research report.  And who wouldn’t? Siri supports 21 languages, adding additions regularly. Amazon Alexa supports 9 today – and enables two languages at once if one of them is English. Amazon claims there are 600 million Alexa devices today, with at least 40 million in the US.  Back in the day (2018), the spoken interface was called Voice First (as opposed to Mobile First.   It was an AI-enabled breakthrough for those who found typing difficult. Today we have smart auto correct, question clarification, expansion, do you want to know more?

 A blogger asserts, unquantified, unsupported by any numbers.  But it sounds intriguing, doesn’t it? You picture the unplugging and disconnecting of voice-enabled devices, user-run temperature and light controls.  Get these out of here! Then you say why? Or more to the point, what is the data that supports this?  An 2024 AARP report about growing utility and adoption of smart home technology?  Apparently ‘many retirees are now reconsidering whether devices are improving or creating new frustrations.’ Hard to argue that managing smart home tech to work on your behalf, well, takes work.  But take the devices out?

January 2026 is just around the corner.  And so will begin the wave of 73 million baby boomers turning 80 over the next 20 years. Maybe they are all in great shape! Not according to a Johns Hopkins researcher: only 25% are ‘robust and active’.  'The rest are a mix of frail and vulnerable, slowed down by health issues.' And many in their 80s and 90s will be aging in place alone – projected by a Harvard study to exceed 10 million.  The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) just put out a request for tech ecosystem recommendations – clear understanding that the future for health tech for older adults will be required – and even (!) interoperable. The pace of making all of this happen clearly needs to accelerate.

Is everything now voice-enabled -- so that transition is done?  Whine On. Is the response smart or, uh, just a response? Just tried an experiment, asking via Hey Siri for the best technologies to use for people with dementia.  Got a nice and brief summary. Next pass, skipped the ‘Hey Siri’ part, asked the same question. This time it offered up the possibility of using ChatGPT which produced a long and useful list.  So it appears Apple’s partnership with ChatGPT is working well.  But why the first list at all?  People asking the question don’t really want the longer list and are satisfied with the minimum?  Really?  

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.

Years ago, tech for older adults became a unique category – is it still?  Today most older adults want to use all consumer technology, aka AllTech.  Why?  Because their families and peers do so, for one, and second, (or maybe first), they do not consider themselves old.  A puzzle framework evolved over the years that can encompass ‘AllTech’ but adds supportive tech for those with specific limitations like hearing loss, as well as many other enabling technologies for vision limitations, fall prevention/detection, mobility and transportation needs. The categories of technology have been supercharged as the world of cameras, voice technology, motion sensors, and most recently the addition of machine learning and other AI tools that represent the next generation of utility for older adults. Today, these capabilities are all the more useful -- as life expectancy at 65 extends well into the 80’s for both men and women. (see Market Overview Technology for Aging 2025).

Sensor-based remote monitoring of older adults – a good idea in 2009.  That year, GE acquired the sensor-based monitoring technology, QuietCare from Living Independently Group (LIG). Sensors could be placed around the home and alerts transmitted about the older adult – across multiple rooms, motion, and lack of motion could all be detected without a wearable. At that time, the ‘home health monitoring’ market was projected to grow to $7.7 billion by 2012. That did not happen, but fast forward to 2023 – market sizing indicates a sizable ‘remote health monitoring’ space. In the 15 years since the QuietCare acquisition, much has happened – although many players left the space when it was unclear how to make money in it.

The 2024 media message touts aging in place. It’s what everyone wants to do, even those with homes that are difficult to navigate, long distances from family, and must have major modifications to enable remaining there. Yet you read this message nearly every week  -- Next Avenue lauds the benefits, sponsored by Lively from Best Buy Health.  Fortune tests home monitoring systems they say are critical to Aging in Place.  And USA Today publishes a survey that underscores the desire to age in place. So what is the market of tech that will support this goal?  AARP calls it AgeTech – and has a startup directory of new entrants, including categories of health, mobility, caregiving and more.  But that is a list, not a solution.