New and future consumer trends and the impact of AI on seniors’ consumer behaviour and health care

This is a theoretical study whose purpose is to outline new and future consumer trends among the elderly. Current innovations and technologies, changes in society, and greater attention to consumers’ lifestyles have undoubtedly allowed for a gradual increase in the average life expectancy of individuals and in the number of older people. Some new patterns of consumer behaviour can be noticed among seniors; these have not yet been fully recognised or ultimately well understood. Seniors were chosen in this instance in view of their growing importance and decision-making power in today’s societies and the fact that, as market participants, they respond to the changing environment, globalisation and its impacts on consumption, lifestyle and emerging new consumer trends with more and more intensity. The analysis shows that the development of neurobiology and neuroscience as well as new technologies for studying consumer behaviour will contribute to the evolution of consumer trends based on emotional stimuli and relying on brain examination and experimental methods. New technologies will be increasingly used as a tool in the recovery of the elderly. Gerontechnology will certainly contribute to this, as it aims at adapting technical measures that support the lives of elderly people in regard to their health, housing, mobility, communication, free time, and work. It is conceivable that with significant progress in the above-mentioned field, personal robots will be able to perform complex tasks and help seniors in their everyday existence, while improving their quality of life. The more common use of 3D printers among seniors over the next dozen or so years will lead to the development of a digital personalised consumer trend that in turn will contribute to a reduction in consumerism and a modification of cocooning.