“Age tech needs to be reliable, easy to use, accurate and affordable”  

  – Empowering Independence With Technology..., AARP

Here’s another pocket field guide to the next 25 years of “elderware”—the gadgets, apps, and services that might shape how we care for our bodies, move through our towns, savor our afternoons, and stay loud enough to change the world when the occasion requires. Think of it as dispatches from this homespun cyber shaman, as I wrote a few weeks ago, tech needs to serve human dignity in a convivial way. Tools matter, but the story we make with them matters more.

Where we are now (and what’s next)

Older adults are not just “keeping up”—many of us our steering the bus. In the U.S., AARP’s latest tech trend snapshots show strong adoption of mobile, smart-home, and health-related tools among people 50+, with interest in AI rising—alongside persistent worries about price, reliability, and whether products are designed with us in mind. That last part is a big deal: 64% of adults 50+ say most tech still isn’t built for them. Let’s treat that as a design brief, not a complaint. (AARP)

As I looked around the web via my JoeBot, I found that the eldertech ecosystem is maturing. As examples:

1. Canada’s AGE-WELL network keeps surfacing real-world solutions—from fall prevention to caregiver support—showing AgeTech as an innovation economy, not a niche. In Europe, the now-concluded AAL Programme seeded hundreds of products and services and offered hard-earned lessons for future partnerships. Together, they’re signals that elderware is no longer a cottage industry; it’s a commons we can shape.
2. Japan, where labor shortages and longevity collide, has moved fastest on care robotics—subsidizing deployment since 2015 and testing how robots complement, not replace, human touch. (Check out Labrador here in the US - demo, or LOVOT from Japan) Researchers and reporters alike caution against techno-savior myths, but the arc is clear: safer lifts, smarter monitoring, and tools that extend caregivers’ reach are on the near horizon. (APARC)
3. WHO’s Commission on Social Connection adds a crucial drumbeat: loneliness is now recognized as a global health risk—“a defining challenge of our time”—and tech has a role to play only if it fosters real connection, not just more clicking. That’s our north star for the categories below. (World Health Organization)

Health: from data exhaust to body wisdom

Remote care, quietly mainstream. In Canada, home monitoring programs report more “days at home” and smoother discharges; passive remote monitoring research shows older adults with complex needs can remain home safely with the right blend of sensors and human follow-up. Australia’s CSIRO is mapping the aged-care data landscape to make this scalable and ethical, not a patchwork. Expect U.S. and European systems to keep borrowing these playbooks. (JAMDA)

Glucose as a lifestyle vital. Over-the-counter CGMs are here for non-insulin users, led by Dexcom and Abbott’s Lingo, and Senseonics won FDA clearance for a year-long implantable sensor. Paired with apps, CGMs are becoming personalized nutrition coaches—early trials show improvements in weight, HbA1c, and insulin markers when counseling is built around the data. This is not a magic sticker; it’s a feedback loop you can live with. (Reuters)

AI caregivers that don’t spy. The CES pipeline tells a story: thermal and radar sensing for fall detection without cameras; wearables that predict instability before you hit the floor. The signal here is privacy-preserving, always-on safety—ambient, not invasive. (Age in Place Tech)

What to watch for (health):

• Data interoperability over walled gardens, so your cardiologist and your adult child can see the same dashboard. (Listen to my podcast conversation with Mary Ann Schultz) on the topic of Precision Health, and imagine the coming of encrypted Health Cards (like Apple Wallet) for your records. Expect that uniform systems being developed by consortia like TEFCA (Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement) is creating a "network of networks" to ensure secure, nationwide data exchange.
• Consent as a process, especially if you’re sharing stories of illness or decline; you reserve the right to pull a story back. That’s an ethics line we’ve drawn for years. See the recently enacted policy under the European Health Data Space as a model of what is coming in patient privacy.

Leisure: joy as a health metric

I’ve always said: if the tool doesn’t help you play, chillax, re-create your own life, it’s not technology—it’s just another gadget on the electronic waste pile. Expect the next wave of leisure tech to blur with health:

• Story Work is a form of Cognitive engagement and damn sure beats doom-scrolling. Meta-analyses suggest that active digital use—learning, creating, socializing—supports cognition as we age. Treat your tablet like a guitar, not a television. Check out research like the Digital reminiscence / life-story tech (RCT): Online Life Story Book in the Netherlands, or the fresh peer-reviewed findings (2025) from the Positive Ageing Digital Storytelling Intergenerational Program (PADSIP) in Australia (featured in my conversation with Mark Silver, PADSIP's founder, on this week's podcast.)
• Personalized nutrition as a hobby. Beyond Noom and other diet apps, you're likely to have bots and apps tied to wearables will turn your culinary life into experiments you can taste. The science is young, but the direction—feedback plus coaching—is durable. (PMC). What might this look like? A. Coach orchestras.” Expect Noom-style apps to ingest wearable data (glucose, sleep, activity), then route you through AI micro-lessons and human check-ins timed to your rhythms—think lessons when your glucose is stable, nudges when your sleep is off.
  B. Cheaper sensors in mainstream retail. With Abbott Lingo moving on-shelf at Walmart, it’s plausible that Noom/WW will partner on BYO-sensor bundles (buy sensors retail, subscribe to guidance in-app). That lowers barriers for the “average Joe.”
  C. Recipe bots wired to your biometrics. Instacart + Samsung show how meal planning and grocery spend will meet diet targets and glucose stability—an opening for Noom to be the behavioral layer on top.

Advocacy: dashboards meet democracy

Tools that help us notice together will matter as much as tools that measure vitals. Social prescribing—the UK’s whole-person referral pathway—keeps spreading precisely because clinicians can link a patient to a walking club, a story circle, or a benefits counselor, then track outcomes. Pair that with city dashboards from “smart shrinking” strategies in Europe and you get communities that design with older residents, not for them. (NHS England)

Remember: when you publish your story—of housing, transit, care—you are doing public health. Keep the consent conversation alive, and lean on cultural humility as a stance.

Mobility: dignity on wheels (and rails, and feet)

E-bikes as mobility prosthetics. Across Europe and North America, research frames e-bikes as inclusive mobility, especially for older riders and folks with mild limitations. Helmets, infrastructure, and training are part of the bargain—ask the Dutch, who are re-examining safety as older e-bike use rises. (ScienceDirect)

Autonomous shuttles where transit doesn’t reach. Pilots in rural France, Belfast’s port district, and U.S. healthcare campuses point to a near future of slow, reliable, geofenced shuttles that connect senior housing to clinics and markets. The line from “demo” to “daily” is bumpy, but the use case for older riders is strong. (euronews)

What to watch for (mobility):

• Bundles that include training + helmet + route design with every e-bike sold to seniors.
• Shuttle cooperatives run with unions and rider councils so automation augments labor, not erases it. (Japan’s careful robot rollout is the right cautionary tale.) (Reuters)

Community & connection: the antidote to isolation

WHO’s new numbers are stark: one in six worldwide experiences loneliness, with measurable risks for early mortality. The winning products here will be less about “engagement minutes” and more about ritual and reciprocity—tools that make it easy to show up for each other. (World Health Organization)

• Voice assistants that listen back. Studies in China and the U.S. suggest well-designed voice agents—and soon, LLM-powered ones that allow interruptions and back-channeling—can nudge cognitive gains and reduce isolation, especially when they cue real-world activity. No bot replaces a neighbor, but a bot can remind you to text one. (PMC)
• Social prescribing, local flavor. Scotland’s knowledge network, England’s NHS, and municipal programs across Canada and Australia are building the pipes so that a “prescription” to a choir or walking group is as normal as one to a statin. Your story circle belongs on that menu. (NHS Knowledge Scotia)

A closing benediction

Don’t underestimate the humble story work session – Sitting a circle working on a story concept, working with a facilitator to create the narration, cditing your own two-minute story – can still be a spiritual practice. Sorting meaning with others is a technology that never disappoints.

If a tech vendor shows up at your organization with a shiny pitch, you know what to do. Invite them to the story circle. Ask them what this gadget helps you be, not just what it helps you do.

Sources & signals

• AARP Tech Trends among older adults; barriers and rising interest in AI. (AARP)
• Canada’s AGE-WELL reports and highlights; remote monitoring outcomes. (agewell-nce.ca)
• EU’s AAL Programme: impact and evaluation for active/healthy aging. (aal-europe.eu)
• Japan’s care robotics: policy, research, and realistic timelines. (APARC)
• WHO Commission on Social Connection (2025). (World Health Organization)
• E-bikes and seniors: inclusive mobility literature; helmet/safety context. (ScienceDirect)
• AV shuttles for rural/elder mobility (France; Belfast). (euronews)
• CGM market and evidence; implantable year-long sensor approval. (Reuters)
• CES AgeTech signals: privacy-preserving falls detection; predictive wearables. (Age in Place Tech)
• Australia’s CSIRO aged-care data landscape and digital health trends. (Australian e-Health Research Centre)
• China’s “smart elder care” policy & longevity market; older adults and voice assistants. (European Society of Medicine -)
• India’s telehealth growth and elder-care startups. (Mordor Intelligence)

(And for the craft and conscience behind all this: our long-standing ethics and story methods remain the keel—protecting dignity, practicing consent over time, and structuring stories so insight leads the way. )