The rapid increase in life expectancy worldwide is a remarkable global success story, but it has also led to a growing population of older adults and relatively fewer young adults available to provide care. By 2050, the 65-plus cohort is projected to account for 35-40% of the population in several industrialized countries. Many older adults prefer to live independently and age in place, but physical and cognitive changes can make this challenging.
Emerging and innovative Generative AI (GenAI) technologies hold immense potential to support the quality of life for aging individuals, helping them maintain their cognitive well-being and capabilities, and enabling them to live independent, healthy lives for longer. However, relatively few technological solutions focus specifically on the needs of older adults, and GenAI is no exception. To address this gap, we conducted a series of co-design workshops with older adults and caregivers to explore how GenAI could be leveraged to support daily tasks and enhance cognitive aging.
Through these workshops, we uncovered four key areas where GenAI could significantly benefit older adults: communication, memory assistance and reminders, healthcare, and technology learning and troubleshooting. Participants also shared important considerations, such as the need for accessible and customizable interfaces, preserving privacy and security, and integrating GenAI solutions to supplement rather than replace human interactions.
Our collaborative, interdisciplinary effort aimed to establish a concrete example and a roadmap for how GenAI technology can be developed to best support older adults in living independently. By involving older adults and caregivers as co-designers, we were able to gain valuable insights into their needs, interests, and concerns around such technologies. This article shares the key takeaways from our co-design process and proposes a way forward for integrating GenAI into solutions for cognitive aging.
Opportunities for GenAI to Support Cognitive Aging
Our workshop participants envisioned several areas in which GenAI technologies could make a meaningful impact on healthy cognitive aging.
Communication Support
Participants saw great potential for GenAI to aid conversations in real time and improve peer-to-peer and intergenerational communication. GenAI could “translate” and alter the pace of difficult-to-understand segments, convey key discussion points, or generate images to supplement verbal communication. Participants also suggested that GenAI could mediate family meetings and decision-making, summarizing main points and providing discussion suggestions.
Memory Assistance and Reminders
GenAI technologies were seen as highly valuable for managing and tracking daily tasks and schedules, providing reminders for appointments and special occasions, giving daily reports, and prompting users with information like names, passwords, and other details. Participants were enthusiastic about the potential for GenAI to incorporate multimodal inputs to extend the functions of memory assistance.
Healthcare Support
Participants envisioned GenAI assisting with various healthcare activities, such as visually identifying medications, tracking symptoms, answering medical questions, and providing personalized exercise plans. GenAI-based systems could also detect changes in vocal tone or other indicators that may signal health issues.
Technology Learning and Troubleshooting
Older adults expressed interest in GenAI technologies that could automatically fix technical issues, perform accessibility-enhancing UI changes, and provide troubleshooting support tailored to their learning styles and preferences. Such systems could also direct users to alternative ways of getting assistance, like calling a friend or searching online.
Key Considerations for Designing GenAI Solutions
In addition to the areas of opportunity, our workshop participants highlighted several important considerations for designing effective and inclusive GenAI technologies for older adults.
Accessibility and Customization
Older adults emphasized the need for intuitive, voice-activated interfaces with simple commands, large screens, and straightforward controls. They also stressed the importance of allowing for personalized customization, as individual preferences and needs can vary greatly. Participants wanted the ability to choose from a range of functionalities, interaction modalities, and data storage options.
Privacy and Security
Privacy and data security were paramount concerns for participants. They wanted clear policies around data handling and storage, with the option to keep personal information local rather than in the cloud. Participants emphasized the need for “watertight” security plans to prevent data breaches and misuse of personal information.
Supplementing Human Interaction
While participants were excited about the potential of GenAI, they did not view these tools as replacements for healthcare professionals, caregivers, family, or friends. Instead, they saw GenAI as a means to supplement and improve human-to-human interactions, not to completely automate them. Preserving and enhancing social connections was a key priority.
A Roadmap for Integrating GenAI into Cognitive Aging Solutions
Based on the insights gained from our co-design workshops, we propose the following roadmap to guide the integration of GenAI into solutions that support healthy cognitive aging:
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Further Identify Older Adult and Caregiver Perspectives: Continue engaging older adults and caregivers through co-design workshops, community outreach, and other collaborative efforts to deeply understand their needs, interests, and concerns around GenAI.
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Engage Policymakers to Establish Better Privacy and Security Regulations: Work with policymakers to develop robust regulations that ensure the privacy and security of older adults’ personal data when using GenAI technologies.
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Expand Research and Development in Opportunity Areas: Investigate how the key areas of communication, memory assistance, healthcare, and technology learning can be further supported by GenAI, and develop devices and services that enhance older adults’ lives in these domains.
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Engage in Cross-Disciplinary Collaborations: Foster partnerships between experts in aging, technology, design, and other relevant fields to bring diverse perspectives to the development of GenAI solutions for older adults.
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Incorporate Older Adult Interests and Preferences: Ensure that the specific needs, preferences, and concerns of older adults are central to the purpose and implementation of GenAI technologies designed to support them.
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Test Solutions with Diverse Stakeholders: Involve older adults, caregivers, healthcare providers, and other relevant parties in the testing and refinement of GenAI-powered solutions before public launch.
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Remain Open to Evolving Older Adult Interests: Recognize that older adults’ needs and preferences will change over time, and design GenAI solutions that can adapt and iterate accordingly.
By following this roadmap and continuing to engage older adults as co-designers, we can work towards a future where GenAI technologies seamlessly integrate into the lives of aging individuals, empowering them to live healthy, independent, and fulfilling lives.
