  Technology has the opportunity to assist older adults as they age in place,
coordinate caregiving resources, and meet unmet needs through access to
resources. Currently, older adults use consumer technologies to support
everyday life, however these technologies are not always accessible or as
useful as they can be. Indeed, industry has attempted to create smart home
technologies with older adults as a target user group, however these solutions
are often more focused on the technical aspects and are short lived. In this
paper, we advocate for older adults being involved in the design process - from
initial ideation to product development to deployment. We encourage federally
funded researchers and industry to create compensated, diverse older adult
advisory boards to address stereotypes about aging while ensuring their needs
are considered.
  We envision artificial intelligence systems that augment resources instead of
replacing them - especially in under-resourced communities. Older adults rely
on their caregiver networks and community organizations for social, emotional,
and physical support; thus, AI should be used to coordinate resources better
and lower the burden of connecting with these resources. Although
sociotechnical smart systems can help identify needs of older adults, the lack
of affordable research infrastructure and translation of findings into consumer
technology perpetuates inequities in designing for diverse older adults. In
addition, there is a disconnect between the creation of smart sensing systems
and creating understandable, actionable data for older adults and caregivers to
utilize. We ultimately advocate for a well-coordinated research effort across
the United States that connects older adults, caregivers, community
organizations, and researchers together to catalyze innovative and practical
research for all stakeholders.
