Personal intelligent agents: empowering or marginalizing older adults?

Purpose This paper aims to examine the status of literature on the adoption and perception of personal intelligent agents (PIAs) among older adults. Design/methodology/approach A semi-systematic literature review approach was adopted. To locate pertinent articles, we searched 11 databases across multiple disciplines and utilized search engines like Google Scholar. The search was conducted using the following keywords and keyword combinations: older adults, elderly, PIAs and conversational agents. The selected articles included peer-reviewed articles published between 2013 and 2023 and written in English. Findings Older adults utilize PIAs for such tasks as entertainment, time and reminders, information searches, daily assistants, smart home control, healthcare and companionship. Additionally, older adults face challenges when using PIAs, including privacy concerns, uncertain information, out-of-context behavior, speech recognition, wake words and complex query processing. Originality/value It contributes to the body of knowledge on the use of emerging technologies by older adults and offers recommendations for future PIA design. It bridges a critical gap in understanding how older adults engage with and adopt PIAs.