When did you last buy something because it said AI on the box?
For most of us the honest answer is never. Then look at the nightstand and the kitchen counter.
The watch that asks if you fell. The hearing aids that turn down the restaurant and turn up the person across the table. The doorbell that can tell a package from a person.
Each of those runs on artificial intelligence. Here that means software that learns patterns from data and makes a call on its own.
Nobody sold it to us under that name.
It still lands at your kitchen table. The cost of the thinking is folded into the price of the device. You pay it at the register.
AARP has surveyed older adults about technology every year since 2016. Its latest round reached 3,838 people last fall. The numbers show where AI really gets in.
In 2025, 30% of adults 50 and older used some form of AI. A year earlier it was 18%.
Only 19% use a chat program like ChatGPT or Copilot. Another 59% say they have no interest at all.
Stack the two figures and the gap shows.
30%
of adults 50 and older used some form of AI in 2025
19%
use a chat program such as ChatGPT or Copilot
At least 11 points of that 30% met AI somewhere other than a chat window. A watch. A phone. A hearing aid.
The schedule explains the gap. The first boomers turned 80 this year.
At 80, a product earns its place by keeping you upright and in your own house.
Among AARP’s respondents 80 and older, 46% now say technology helps them live a healthy life. In 2024 it was 39%.
Seven points in one year. That jump came in the age group the tech business used to skip.
Where the cohort’s money sits this quarter, and which devices it buys in each aisle.
Chatbot surveys make this cohort look late. The device receipts tell the real story.
About half of the older adults AARP surveyed already use or want AI health devices. They buy them for the fall, the heartbeat, and the hearing. The software comes along for the ride.
The limit sits in the same research. Trust, privacy, and data security top the worries of about half the older adults who hold back from new tech.
Three in five say technology is not designed with their age in mind. AARP also finds older adults want this AI built into products they already own. They want it free, or covered by insurance.
A customer who expects the thinking for free puts a hard ceiling on what anyone can charge for it.
The arithmetic
AARP Research, 2026 Tech Trends and Adults 50-Plus (Brittne Kakulla, December 2025, updated July 20, 2026): online survey of 3,838 U.S. adults, September 9 to October 6, 2025; annual series since 2016. AI use among adults 50-plus: 18% in 2024, 30% in 2025. AI platforms such as ChatGPT or Copilot: 19% use, 21% interested, 59% no interest. About half use or are interested in AI-powered health devices. Adults 80-plus agreeing technology enables a healthy life: 39% in 2024, 46% in 2025. Three in five say technology is not designed with their age in mind. Trust, privacy, and data security are the top concerns of about half who hesitate to adopt new tech. AARP Research, Older Adults and Artificial Intelligence Use: preference for AI integrated into existing products, free or covered by insurance. Boomers Trade’s own arithmetic: 30 - 19 = 11 points, on the assumption that chat platform users are counted among AI users; 46 - 39 = 7 points. The first boomers were born in 1946 and turn 80 in 2026.
AARP put out its last tech survey in December. When the next one lands, skip the chatbot line and read the 80-plus line. That is the group the schedule delivers next. It buys on trust, one device at a time.
Andrew
Boomers Trade is written by someone getting older right alongside you, and watching who profits from it.
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