Innovating for Healthy Longevity

AgeTech is the growth opportunity of the future

We live in a remarkable time.?The rapid pace of technological innovation combined with increased longevity is changing the way we live and age.

In fact, our ability to live longer, more productive lives is one of humankind’s greatest achievements. We’ve added more years to average life expectancy since 1900 than in all of human history up to that time—combined. A child born today can expect to live more than 32 years longer than a child born in 1900 when life expectancy was 47. And, over the next two decades, the number of people age 65 and older will nearly double to more than 72 million—or 1 in 5 Americans. And most 65-year-olds today will live into their 90s. Some researchers believe that the first person who will ever live to 150 is alive today.

The force behind this truly remarkable achievement can be summed up in one word—innovation.

Innovations in acute care have reduced death rates among children and young adults—making it possible for people to live productively with conditions that would have killed them a generation earlier.

Our medical and health care professions have brought us new procedures, new drugs, new medical devices, and new research that have improved the lives of millions. Innovative programs like Medicare and Medicaid have provided access to adequate medical care to older persons and to the poor and disadvantaged. We also invested in public health—sanitation, hygiene, living conditions, clean air and drinking water, smoking cessation, and improvements in diet and exercise—where innovative solutions have improved the quality of life we all enjoy.

The result of this innovation is that a 10-year-old child today—maybe it’s your son or daughter, or a grandchild, a sibling, or a neighbor—has a 50 percent chance of living to 104.?And the older he or she gets, the odds continue to rise.

While this new longevity is transforming our lives and giving us potentially many more years of active and productive life, it means little unless we also increase the years we maintain good health.?Unfortunately, the gap between our longevity—our lifespan—and our time in good health or years without disease—our health span—is increasing.?We must reverse that trend

Healthy longevity is a lifelong pursuit.?It doesn’t begin at age 50 or 60 or 65.?It requires us to focus more on physical and mental fitness rather than diminishment alone—on preventing disease and improving well-being rather than simply treating ailments. We also need technological innovations that empower us to become active partners in ensuring our own health and well-being across the lifespan.?

As we extend healthy longevity, the growing number of older people will be a key driver of economic growth, innovation, and new value creation. By joining forces with the tech community, AARP believes we can spark new solutions that will extend healthy longevity and productivity.

Capitalizing on such an unprecedented opportunity, however, requires new approaches to how we live and age and a commitment to technological innovation across all sectors of society to developing products and services that help people live better as they age—what we call AgeTech.

AgeTech is the growth opportunity of the future as global aging is transforming economies around the world. The latest research from AARP’s Global Longevity Economy? Outlook study , shows people aged 50 and older contributed $45 trillion in global GDP in 2020, and that number is expected to grow to $118 trillion by 2050. And according to the AARP 2023 Tech Trends survey, people reported that they spent an average of $911 annually on personal tech in 2022 (up from $821 in 2021.)

Innovations in AgeTech are providing tools and technology to bring meaningful change and help solve the challenges of aging. And, as more startups and large organizations see financial benefits to developing products in the AgeTech category, consumers will benefit from the continuing innovation which ultimately improves their everyday lives.

There has never been a better time to be involved or invest in AgeTech. That’s why AARP is joining with the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)?, to launch the AgeTech Summit at the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. At the Summit, industry leaders who view aging as the growth opportunity for the future will participate in a dedicated program of key speakers and panel discussions all focused on innovation in the AgeTech space. AARP’s AgeTech Collaborative booth stage will host more than 20 stage panel discussions around this emerging category.

AARP is leveraging its expertise to accelerate AgeTech, by facilitating partnerships and collaboration across industries and sectors.?Central to this effort is the AgeTech Collaborative? from AARP, an unparalleled innovation ecosystem bringing together cutting-edge thinkers in the longevity tech space to champion meaningful advances so that everyone can choose how they live as they age.

AARP’s decades of exclusive longevity insights, breakthrough collaborative ecosystem and community of innovators makes the group uniquely poised to lead the future of AgeTech. ?Since we launched the AgeTech Collaborative? in 2021, it has grown to more than 100 participating organizations and more than 70 portfolio startups.

At AARP, we are continually looking at innovative ways to help people live better as they age, both in the short term in coping with day-to-day challenges and in the long term as they figure out how to take advantage of generally longer and healthier lives. Through our AARP Innovation Labs , we’re helping to shape the future of aging, promote healthy aging, support family caregivers, and help older Americans build financial resilience and combat social isolation. Our goal is to create a society that supports healthy longevity across the life course:?

• Where people have access to affordable health care at all ages,
• Where all people will be prepared to live longer, healthier lives,
• Where they will have more tools and knowledge to be proactive about their health and wellness,
• Where they will have access to a robust market of innovative health-related products and services that support longer, healthier lives, and
• Where we will all be better equipped to care for each other as we age.

Aging is about much more than demographics. More and more, people are embracing age as a period of continued growth. Instead of seeing only retirees, we’re beginning to see a new type of experienced, accomplished workforce. Instead of seeing older people as a drain on society, we’re witnessing an exploding consumer market that is bolstering the economy. And instead of seeing a growing pool of dependents, we’re seeing the growth of intergenerational communities with new and different strengths.

Much of this change is driven by technological advances that lead to innovative solutions that empower people to live better as they age—for example, bringing smart technologies into the home to assist individuals in living independently longer in those homes, monitoring and managing their daily activities, and keeping them connected to family and friends to avoid becoming isolated.

Innovation is also driving more imaginative uses of digital technology for self-care—wearables for monitoring and tracking vital signs, online support communities, health care navigators or care coordinators to help manage older adults’ health care and facilitate long-distance caregiving. And it is leading communities to develop comprehensive strategies to change their physical infrastructure and the way they deliver services, including housing and transportation services, to make communities more livable and age friendly.

Technological innovation seems to be moving faster every day.?And our goal at AARP is to make sure that as companies continue to innovate new solutions to life’s problems, they are also innovating to help people live better as they age.

Innovation will be the key to helping people take advantage of generally longer and healthier lives in the coming years and decades. Empowering innovators—and just as crucially, establishing a medium where they can communicate with one another, and their consumers—is critical to ensuring that this inventive energy truly makes a difference in helping people live better as they age.?That’s what AgeTech does and why it is the growth opportunity of the future.