Age tech is exploding. The ‘modern grandma’ market wants more than health aids.

For many older people, the feeling of being recognized or “seen” can seem like a luxury reserved for the young, especially when it comes to technology products, which are almost always designed and marketed for adults younger than 60 years old.  

But that’s changing. Older consumers are drawing attention as a distinct and fast-growing tech target market. Despite persistent stereotypes about being tech-averse, they regularly engage, stream, and shop online, often using multiple devices.

Patricia Cole, a 79-year-old Bloomington, Indiana, artist, uses her iPhone and iPad daily to engage on multiple social media platforms, shop, and stream music through her headphones while she paints.

“I often make little videos – they call them reels – for Instagram around my studio, looking at paintings and talking about them,” says Ms. Cole, a former longtime city councilor here. “I wouldn’t say I’m really good with tech, but I can figure a lot of things out.”

Older tech users like Ms. Cole, living, working, and playing longer than previous generations, have unique consumer needs and the means to acquire new apps and devices to make their lives more fun and fulfilling.  

The market for “age tech,” or gerontechnology – digital products and platforms that aim to meet the specific needs of older people – has exploded in recent years, with many companies in the space focused on health- and care-related devices. Now, recognizing the spending power of users like Ms. Cole, investors are increasingly backing startups with household gadgets and lifestyle items geared toward social connection, gaming, fitness, education, relationship-building, and home-sharing.

The shifting internet user base

“Demographic changes are among the most significant changes to technology, because they represent changes to the internet user base,” says founder-turned-investor Monique Woodard. Her venture capital firm, Cake Ventures, funds startups that leverage demographic shifts, including the rapid growth of the older population.

There are about 62 million people ages 65 or older in the United States – close to 20% of the population. It is the wealthiest age group and accounted for 22% of spending in 2022, up from 15% in 2010, according to the U.S. Labor Department’s consumer expenditures survey. Technology spending by people older than 50 is expected to grow to $623 billion per year by 2050, according to recent research by AARP.

Another recent AARP study reveals a new reality about older people and tech: Americans over 50 own smartphones at roughly the rate consumers ages 18 to 49 do. Even among those ages 70-plus, 61% say they “have the digital skills necessary to fully take advantage of being online.” Video gaming is also widespread among older adults; most play logic, puzzle, or card games on their smartphones, but more are purchasing gaming consoles in recent years.

Older people are generally more skeptical of artificial intelligence and more concerned about data privacy, and they might need higher contrast or larger text on websites, but many regularly download and use digital apps and platforms much as younger generations do.

Debunking ageist stereotypes.

The age 65-plus population skews female, and many in this demographic are fitness-conscious, tech-savvy women who enjoy traveling and spending time with friends and loved ones. As their numbers swell, they’re bringing to life a new vision of old age, garnering such online descriptors as “modern grandma” and “glam-ma.”

Investors are taking notice, says Ms. Woodard, whose relatively early interest in age tech began in 2016: “I’ve seen it completely change and evolve over the last several years. Now, there are a number of individual investors, as well as firms, who are very interested in the aging space. They think of this as a good strategy, and downstream capital is more available.”

Courtesy of Eben Pingree

Kinsome is an AI-powered app designed to help grandparents connect and communicate with their grandchildren.

Similarly, Mary Furlong, a longevity economy expert working at the intersection of aging, health, and technology, saw age tech's potential as far back as 1996, when she founded the nonprofit SeniorNet.

“The longevity market today is where the internet was 30 years ago,” she says. “Many companies didn’t have an internet strategy 30 years ago because they were just learning how the digital world was going to change business and change culture.”

Although age tech companies have awoken to the opportunities within the demographic changes, they have not yet established best practices for involving older adults in product design. As a result, most older gamers “feel like an afterthought to the gaming industry,” AARP researchers wrote. 

Company founders, like Eben Pingree of Boston-based Kinsome, an AI-powered app that facilitates engagement between grandparents and grandchildren, find it difficult to connect at scale for product research with older adults who live independently. Early on, Kinsome relied mainly on input from residents of living facilities for older people. Now, it gets feedback from beta users in the company's target market.  

“Part of the problem is that there isn’t enough segmenting of those groups and talking about them more specifically,” Mr. Pingree says.

Reaching this fragmented market is often a challenge of whether to aim directly at older consumers, their adult children, or organizations and governments, says Ms. Furlong. At the same time, companies relying on ageist cliches and stereotypes in their ads experience backlash. Ms. Furlong advises her clients to develop strong business-to-business strategies in which nonprofits, governments, and other businesses help get products into consumer hands.

Gerontologist and marketer Amy LaGrant believes “the experienced consumer,” a term she coined for the multigenerational, multifaceted user group, deserves sophisticated, tailored messaging.

“I’m not necessarily saying that young people are dumb, but I am saying that experience and wisdom come with age,” she recently told an audience at an Aging 2.0 startup pitch competition in Nashville. “These are people who ran the world before they became a ‘senior.’”   

Many experienced entrepreneurs, surprised by the dearth of tech useful to their aging parents, have found themselves involved in age tech. Their products are making it easier for older people to tell their life stories, stay connected socially, monitor and manage health, continue learning, and live more independently.

Ms. Furlong, a well-known figure in the age tech space, is optimistic that changing attitudes and perceptions of aging will ultimately improve the quality and diversity of digital solutions coming onto the market for older users. “What I find the most exciting,” Ms. Furlong says, “is the orchestra of talent developing the next set of solutions. I’ve never seen as many smart people coming into this space.”

This article was written with the support of a journalism fellowship from the Gerontological Society of America, the Journalists Network on Generations, and The Commonwealth Fund.