Aging and longevity are key themes driving technology innovations and markets, and walking the miles of aisles of CES 2026 demonstrates the expanding landscape of the role of tech in healthy living across the lifespan.

I spent time at the AARP AgeTech Collaborative space this week as I did last year (here was my write-up of AARP and CES 2025 for historical context).

In experiencing this year’s portfolio of AgeTech collab partners, from start-ups to Fortune 100 companies in the mix, was informative, inspiring, and even energizing as someone who has been a member of AARP since turning 50 some years ago. The growing ecosystem of devices and products serving peoples’ health and well-being shows us that innovators already see the opportunity to serve the fast-growing market for self-care among people 50 years of age and up. And their demand for tech was quantified in AARP’s research report, 2026 Tech Trends and Adults 50-Plus, published in December 2025.

AARP conducted an online survey of 3,838 U.S. adults in September and October 2025 to inform the report. Let me first share some important insights from this report to set the context for talking about the AgeTech collab for 2026. 

 

 

 

 

 

The over-arching insight is that over the past decade, tech device ownership among older Americans has undergone big shifts: in growing smartphone adoption, wearable device ownership, and tablet demand, shown in the first graph from the report. In 2025, people 50+ own an average of 7 devices compared with 4 in 2016.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Older people see value in tech, which now plays a vital role helping folks stay connected. The striking data point here is the growing cohort of people 70 years of age and older who use and rely on tech to stay in touch with family and friends, expanding to 3 in 4 of this oldest age cohort. 

 

 

 

 

 

Two in three older Americans see technology through a positive lens, with most people 50+ say tech helps them make daily life easier, make aging easier, enriches their lives, and enables them to age in their home, as the bar chart illustrates.

With these bullish demand-side statistics in mind, come with me to the AgeTech Collaborative.

 

 

 

 

 

Across from the AgeTech Collaborative space where several dozen companies were featured covering wellness and prevention, care management, diagnostics, nutrition, and large enterprise offerings from soup (General Mills’ Progresso, with boosted protein) to smartglasses (via EssilorLuxottica audio glasses), AARP built a multi-room immersive space based on the theme, “Aging Without Limits: The Future of AgeTech,” subtitled: “Step into an immersive experience that redefines what it means to age.” We first pass by several aspirational statements, such as this one where we are charged to imagine a future where growing older is the most creative act of your life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s the next space, demonstrating various tech categories and the current stats on older peoples’ adoption of the various device areas (as discussed in the AARP report). This was an interactive area where we could probe various tech issues and gain insights.

 

 

 

 

 

Given the overall tech-bullish profile of the current older person in America, we leave the immersive space inspired and hopeful — where aging is, “not a decline, but an awakening.”

Back across the hall, I met up with a couple of dozen of the many examples of currently-available devices and products people can use from wellness to diagnosing (e.g., ultrasound at home in the growing hospital-to-home phenomenon), nutrition (think microbiomes, nutrition intelligence), and care management (e.g., sleep and brain health, osteoporosis/bone density boosting, and robotic teammates to help with medication adherence). These innovators join the now 695 participants in the AARP AgeTech Collaborative, including startups, investors, business services, enterprises, and testbeds.

So here I am, upon exiting the immersive space and getting a picture of me, with my superpowers and the help of all kinds of promising devices and products to help me age well, add life to my years, and create my future empowered and positive.

Welcome to the Age of Longevity, with AARP imagining, supporting, and helping build that ecosystem.

Stay tuned to Health Populi next week as I’ll address some key trust and privacy issues which could compromise older peoples’ adoption of new tech — especially as AI gets embedded within the promising products.