Applied AgeTech in Real Life is a three-part series from AARP Research and the AgeTech Collaborative™ from AARP. Each installment translates lived consumer experience into practical insights for designers, innovators, startups, and media. The series is grounded in qualitative research with older adults across the Active, Supported, and Assisted stages of the aging journey.
This installment focuses on Aging in Place, the widely shared aspiration among older adults and one of the most consistently misunderstood challenges in the AgeTech field. It examines what the desire to stay home actually requires, where technology is falling short of that reality, and what the field would need to do differently to close the gap between what older adults want and what they are currently being given.