AI and machine learning

As interviews begin, ideas for the future of AI and older adults are emerging.  For the updated report, The Future of AI and Older Adults 2030, suggestions for the future are key to the conversation. As interviews are scheduled and completed, recommendations emerge. These ideas are sensibly building on what would be useful for older adults, coupled with what has already been delivered in the marketplace. For each of these ideas, the report will also consider the barriers that may hobble full adoption, including lack of awareness, training (both for the consumer side and professional), and acceptable cost.  But for now, imagine that by 2030:

The aging population has significant implications.  Consider a few assumptions:   Average life expectancy at 65 is mid-80’s, though many will live into their 90s. Older adults want to remain in their home as long as possible.  A quarter of men aged 75+ and 43% of women live alone.   Reports indicate that 46% of those aged 75+ have a disability.  It’s not much of a stretch to imagine that as many as half will need some kind of care assistance in their home at some point.  It is also likely that most people will not be able to afford 24x7 home care. But even if they could afford it, there is a severe home care worker shortage that is likely to worsen over the coming years as baby boomers enter their 80s.

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.

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.

Kudos to the Forbes Technology Council!  Their post, 20 Untapped Tech Opportunities to Serve Older Adults was a great addition to the write-ups about tech for older adults.  Hopefully it was seen by entrepreneurs considering market entry with a new invention, including the innovators/investors at the What’s Next Longevity Venture Summit in Berkeley, underway today. And the reverse is also true – the Forbes folks should look around and see what’s already announced or in-market.  Here are their suggestions that caught my eye -- for startups, investors, and just plain reverse mentors: