Silver villages & age-friendly housing
A trend for wanting to ‘age in place’ and live independently will drive demand for assistive technology, purpose-built silver villages and retirement housing, which allow care and support to meet progressive levels of dependency.
Poor quality UK housing costs the NHS around £2.5bn per year in negative health effects.1
Market Opportunity
- Retirement housing
- Nursing homes
- Home-based assistive technology
Senior care & social robots
With a global shortage of caregivers, there is a growing role for eldercare technology – using digital tech, AI and robotics to provide routine help (lifting, carrying, feeding, washing), cognitive support and even social engagement.
Four in five care recipients in Japan are likely to accept some support being delivered by robots.2
Market Opportunity
- Care robots
- Remote patient monitoring
Longevity Tech
Understanding the biology of ageing in order to modify it could allow both health span and life span to be extended. Regenerative medicine, such as stem cell replenishment, is a growing market but needs to be viewed with caution.
The Three 'Rs' of regenerative medicine:
Replenish e.g. stem cells
Replace e.g. organ 3D printing
Rejuvinate e.g. young blood transfusions
Market Opportunity
- Anti-ageing therapeutics
- Preventative medicine
- Personalised treatments
Lifelong learning
Older workers’ employment and productivity is highly dependent on their ability to adapt: retraining and reskilling will be key. B2C and corporate demand will drive the need for ‘EdTech’ such as online courses, nano-degrees and virtual learning environments.
China now has over 70,000 elderly universities with over 8mn enrolled students.3
Market Opportunity
- Digital learning
- Educational tech
- Self-employment
Age-friendly lifestyle & wellness services
As more seniors embrace technology, digital lifestyle services will be able to leverage the ‘silver economy’ with age-friendly options for activities ranging from content streaming to online dating to food kits and fitness.
Baby Boomers are now spending 27 hours a week online.4
Market Opportunity
- Lifestyle: online dating; food delivery; fitness; entertainment; FinTech
- Wellbeing: nutrition; beauty & anti-ageing consumer products