From 2025 Market Overview: How the tech market for older adults evolves

As 2025 began, the oldest baby boomer has turned 79. The population aged 65+ exceeds 58 million. Because of the sheer size of the older adult market, vendors see them as constituents of the market of technology for multiple age and health segments, though in the consumer product category their opinions are still often ignored (see The User Experience Needs An Upgrade).

Fragmentation endures. The marketplace of products and services today is still fragmented, with ever-shifting cottage industries comprised largely of startups, challenged by channel complexity and end user resistance. But according to AARP’s Longevity Economy projections, the 50+ population will control 51% of technology spending by 2030. That market will be dominated by the largest players, who will acquire a plethora of startups. The benefit of new tech will accrue to most but will challenge users at every product introduction. Service providers, caregivers for older adults, and senior living organizations will need to keep up. What’s next ?

AI will be everywhere and for everyone. Consider that at the very end of 2022, a new offering, ChatGPT, emerged from OpenAI, funded in the billions by Microsoft and others, that puts online access to information in a smart new light – Google, in particular, reacted quickly to fix its list-of-links search engine.. ChatGPT has absorbed a great deal of knowledge and text understanding land competitors soon followed. By 2023, AI technology had already provided many benefits for older adults and even more striking, for those who care for them. More recently it has shown its utility in senior living organizations as well.

Older adults will adapt to tech change and new technology will adapt to them. When an 88-year-old neighbor is filming fireworks with his smartphone, it is easy to see that times have changed. If an affordable technology can be found that meets a personal need (or answers a compelling question), people will find it and get it to work. Remember encyclopedias – we now cannot imagine ANY process that would again make them useful. Could tech training be more readily found? Soon all devices default to ‘Accessibility’ and age-friendly security options.

In-home healthcare services will further expand. Hospital closures accelerated in 2024 combined with a national shortage of physicians – accelerate the need for health care delivery in the home. Telehealth services to replace or supplement in person visits will remain as an offering likely throughout 2025 and beyond. Dispatch Health’s in-home urgent care is now available nationwide and urgent care centers are growing at a rate of 7% per year. Remote patient monitoring (RPM) moves more post-acute care into the home – regulatory changes in the past year contributed to the growth of in-home care. Older people, consumers of a significant portion of healthcare spending, will need and use many of the digital health technology categories.

Smart displays and interfaces will be ubiquitous. For older adults, touchless technologies and voice-enabled interactions are ideal, especially when accompanied by a display of large font text and engaging how-to-cook videos. Why? Because it is easier for them – turning frustration into a valued service world in which what you say should get you what you need. Voice interfaces will migrate to be expected infrastructure in smart displays and apps, added to every feasible appliance, device, and vehicle. They will have widespread use in independent and senior living, since many older adults will bring them along at move-in time.

Sensor technology shrinks – and changes form. Sensor technology failed to meet its promise a decade ago. But the tech has changed – now sensors offer Wi-Fi and room-based fall detection (even in a steam shower) or even clinical ambient listening. There are wearables that can predict the onset of stroke, track home blood pressure, as well as fit into Air Tags or Smart Tags that can pinpoint the location of a purse, phone (or suitcase) left behind or even a person who is lost.

Caregiver shortages boost in-home monitoring. Fifty-three million Americans or one in 4 American adults are providing care to someone with health or functional needs – in short, they are family caregivers. The intersection of three simultaneous trends of aging alone at home, the worsening caregiver shortage and worker turnover, means that interest in monitoring technology in the home will grow, including easier-to-integrate home hubs that can manage sensors, smart doorbells or fall detection without wearables. As the population ages, both concierge healthcare and concierge home and home health care services are set to expand – each tailored to individual needs, as well as compensating for worker shortages in standard offerings.

Many tech offerings are still too hard to set up and use. With the aging of baby boomers, offerings like Support.com (help with any connected device) will tailor messages to reach an older adult audience. Cyber-Seniors trains young people to be technology tutors for older adults. National efforts (like the OATS-AARP collaboration) will further attempt to make tech training available for older adults new to a technology in 2023. On the flip side, tech innovators should offer their own Accessibility (Apple) options or Easy Mode (Samsung) – defaults or quick set of options that can be expanded, or set up via remote configuration by family for in-home tech.

Read the report: Market Overview 2025 Technology for Aging, January, 2025