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How ‘age tech’ might help you grow old at home

Carol DeMaio, 80, who has dementia, with her robotic dog Sabrina, named after a golden retriever who died, at her home in Garnerville, N.Y., on March 10, 2026. When DeMaio sleeps, the robot dog stays at the foot of her bed, reacting when she stirs awake.(Bryan Anselm/The New York Times)
Carol DeMaio, 80, who has dementia, with her robotic dog Sabrina, named after a golden retriever who died, at her home in Garnerville, N.Y., on March 10, 2026. When DeMaio sleeps, the robot dog stays at the foot of her bed, reacting when she stirs awake.(Bryan Anselm/The New York Times) Carol DeMaio, 80, who has dementia, with her robotic dog Sabrina, named after a golden retriever who died, at her home in Garnerville, N.Y., on March 10, 2026. When DeMaio sleeps, the robot dog stays at the foot of her bed, reacting when she stirs awake.(Bryan Anselm/The New York Times)

By Susan Shain / New York Times News Service 8 min read

Dr. Megan Jack, a neurosurgeon in Cleveland, often works 60 or 70 hours a week. And she’s completely unavailable when she’s in the operating room. That makes it tough to be a caregiver for her 76-year-old mother, who lives in a separate unit on Jack’s property, 30 minutes away from the hospital.

To help care for her mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease, Jack uses an array of high-tech tools, some of which didn’t exist just a few years ago. She manages her mother’s medications with a smart pill box. She changes her television channels with an app, sends appointment reminders through a digital message board — and, with her mother’s blessing, uses cameras for communication and monitoring.

“It’s been invaluable that I can both make sure she’s safe and make sure everything is going well,” Jack said, “but also give her the independence and the freedom that she still deserves.”

America is aging rapidly. Roughly 11,000 people are turning 65 each day in the United States. And many of them — 75% of people older than 50, according to AARP’s most recent survey, from 2024 — hope to spend their remaining years in the comfort of their homes, rather than in assisted-living or other care facilities.

One thing that could help fulfill those wishes is the budding field of “age tech,” which encompasses tools that support older adults. Industry experts say that age tech is making homes safer for older adults and is easing the minds of their caregivers, especially those who live far away or work outside the home.