Symbiotic Domestication: How Older Adults Negotiate with Generative AI Agents in Everyday Life

As generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) becomes increasingly embedded in everyday life, its implications for digital inclusion in later life remain underexplored. Drawing on domestication theory, this study examines how older adults integrate Doubao, a GenAI agent, into everyday life. Using an eight-week longitudinal qualitative design, we followed 24 older adults through interviews, workshop observations, and WeChat group interactions. Findings reveal four interconnected dimensions of domestication: cognitive anchoring through folk theories, embodied negotiation with voice-based interfaces, temporal alignment with everyday routines, and expanded social roles through agency. Over time, participants moved from tentative experimentation to more stable engagement, incorporating GenAI into domestic practices and social interactions. Building on these findings, we introduce symbiotic domestication to describe the reciprocal adjustment between users and conversational AI. The study extends domestication theory and advances understanding of digital inclusion among older adults in the age of GenAI.