What the surveys keep missing

The genre of "AI is helping seniors" articles arrives roughly every six weeks. The list is always the same: voice assistants, smart bulbs, wearables, medication reminders. The conclusion is always the same: useful, but caregivers still matter.

What these surveys keep missing is the part that's actually hard. Not the features. The setup. The patience required to teach an 84-year-old who has never used a voice command. The 3 a.m. moment when the wearable thinks a hug was a fall and the alarm wakes everyone up. The judgment calls a caregiver makes weekly about which of these tools is worth the friction and which is making the day harder.

The technology is the easy part to write about. Living with it is the part nobody's covering.