Big Tech Comes for Boomers

Sick of the pandemic? Imagine how your relatives 70+ are feeling.

For nearly three years, countless seniors have been isolated from the rest of the world. In addition to COVID-19 itself, the pandemic has presented older people with a multitude of crises, including difficulty accessing medical care, reduced or shut down supportive services, and an epidemic of isolation. 

The one bright spot? Tech giants like Google, Facebook and Apple — long focused on millennials and Gen Z — are now building a more inclusive base through new products and services to help older Americans.

Let’s Break It Down: 

  • Age Tech: Digital technology specifically built around the wants and needs of older adults, ideally including them in the design process.

  • Longevity Economy: The sum of all economic activity driven by older adults and their needs. Age Tech is poised not only to transform the lives of the people it serves, but rake in big money for those who develop it.

  • Aging in Place: The capacity to live independently, regardless of age or ability. Age Tech is poised to revolutionize this concept by providing services and needs for older people from the comfort of their homes.

WHAT’S UP ⬆️:
Business leaders have started investing in Age Tech as a solution to the challenges older folks face — challenges both exposed and exacerbated by the pandemic. With this outpouring of resources has also come a fundamental realization: adults ages 70+ are more adaptable, savvy, and contain more untapped potential for the sector than Big Tech ever anticipated.

  • Amazon launched Alexa Together, a service full of caregiving features including an emergency helpline, fall detection, and an activity feed so family members can check in.

  • Google started piloting interfaces at retirement homes to help residents easily access features like alarms, weather, music, and video calls with preloaded contacts.

  • Nobi created a ceiling lamp that alerts caregivers when a fall or irregular movements are detected, and that automatically illuminates the floor when someone starts to walk. 

VR companies like Viarama and Mynd VR are creating virtual experiences specifically for seniors. Their uses range from combating loneliness, to stimulating memory and cognition, to allowing people with infirmities to virtually travel to exotic locales.

WHAT’S DOWN ⬇️:
If the trend continues, we can worry less about the well-being — both physical and emotional — of our older relatives. What remains to be seen is whether Age Tech ends up exposing elderly people to the dark side of technology.

WHAT’S NEXT ➡️:

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Disruption		 The pandemic caused e-commerce to skyrocket… and one of the largest spending groups were seniors, who increased online shopping 49% in 2020. Data indicates that this newfound digital savvy will not only stick, but narrow the technology gap. So long, “How do I open PDF,,,?” memes.
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Innovation		 From heart monitoring to combating isolation, Age Tech can help solve the caregiver crisis — a critical shortage of elder care workers while the global population of seniors grows faster than any other age group.
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Polarization		 Mixing technology and older adults will be a game changer… in ways both good and bad. We’ve laid out a lot of the positives already, but elderly people are also more susceptible to scams, phishing, and disinformation. In addition, many Age Tech services — by definition — raise privacy and surveillance concerns that have dogged the industry for years.
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Stickiness		 Advertising has an obsession with youth, in hopes of capturing both cultural relevancy and the wallets of America’s largest generation. Will Age Tech create a durable marketing niche geared toward older adults… or just become the latest version of those terrible LifeAlert ads?
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Social Impact		 By 2050, the number of people over 60 is expected to reach nearly a quarter of the world’s population. This massive increase will fundamentally reshape every facet of society. In the meantime, Age Tech’s ability to connect seniors to an increasingly online world could become the perfect antidote to loneliness — an increasingly dangerous concern in the pandemic era.
Content Team