Special guest blog by Dr. Ashish D. Aggarwal of JubileeTV
As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly embedded in products and services for older adults, success depends on more than technological capability alone. Building solutions that older adults actually adopt requires a deep understanding of their priorities, concerns and lived experiences.
In this guest post, Dr. Ashish D. Aggarwal, Co-Founder and CEO of JubileeTV — an AgeTech Collaborative startup participant that turns any television into a vital connection point for families to interact and support aging loved ones — shares three principles that have guided his work designing technology for older adults. Drawing on years of experience in the AgeTech space, he explores why privacy, simplicity and a focus on real-world needs are essential for creating AI solutions that earn trust and deliver meaningful value.
For the better part of a decade, I've spent my working life trying to make everyday technology simpler for older adults. What I've learned is that older adults are not reluctant to embrace technology; they're reluctant to use technology that feels intrusive, is difficult to understand, or wasn't designed with their priorities in mind.
AI will undoubtedly improve the quality of our lives. But the vast majority of older adults are understandably apprehensive of its potential, and not without reason. A 2025 AARP survey found that nearly six in ten adults aged 50 and older said technology still isn't designed with their age or needs in mind. They're worried about their privacy, being scammed or taken advantage of, and losing human connection. With more than 112 million Americans aged 50 and older, earning their trust is a responsibility today’s innovators cannot afford to get wrong.
Based on my experience, it comes down to three guiding principles.
Make Privacy Central to Product Design
Older adults are among the most targeted populations for fraud and financial exploitation, so it's understandable that privacy is their most immediate concern when it comes to AI. Many products treat privacy as a feature to be added once the core product is built. For older adults, it has to be among your first design decisions. That means explicit consent, minimal data collection, and transparent communication about how information is being used and protected.
At JubileeTV, we recently partnered with Canary Speech, a voice biomarker company that analyzes speech patterns to detect early changes in cognitive and emotional health. It has the potential to catch changes in a person's health before any of us would otherwise notice. But as meaningful as those benefits are, they weren't the first conversation we had. We started by making sure their approach to data privacy aligned with what older adults deserve: audio snippets processed and then deleted, no voice recordings stored, and insights shared only with authorized family members. If we didn't get that right, we risked alienating the very people we were trying to help.
Build Technology that Disappears into Daily Life
The most common mistake in designing for older adults is adding friction; another login, another app, another interface to learn. Older adults have full lives; technology shouldn't demand time and attention it hasn't earned. This is the primary reason why we designed JubileeTV around the most familiar and used device in the home: the television. When designing AI solutions, the most effective ones work quietly in the background, delivering real value without demanding anything in return, for both the older adults and the families who care for them.
Design for What Older Adults Actually Care About
Privacy guardrails and passive technology will not matter if the product isn't solving for their most fundamental needs. According to AARP, three in four adults aged 50 and older want to remain in their own homes as they age. At the same time, a 2025 AARP study found that 4 in 10 adults aged 45 and older are lonely. Independence, connection, and dignity are not mutually exclusive. AI solutions that address these needs are more likely to earn a lasting place in seniors' lives. When we get it right, technology stops being something older adults tolerate and starts being something they welcome.
The aging population is one of the defining challenges of our time. And for once, the tools to meet that challenge are available to us right now. AI has the potential to help older adults live longer, more independent, and more connected lives, but we must build with them front of mind.
For those of us in the AgeTech space, this is both an opportunity and an obligation. Older adults deserve technology that protects them, respects what they've already built, and addresses what they actually care about. The companies that embrace those principles won't just build better products. They'll build something that genuinely improves people's lives.
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