People don't wake up asking for AgeTech—they want to feel safe, remain independent, stay connected, and have more time with the people they love. Best Buy Health is approaching aging not as a narrow healthcare category, but as a major consumer transformation touching nearly every part of everyday life. We spoke with Chemu Lang’at, Senior Vice President and General Manager at Best Buy Health, about what it takes to move an AgeTech solution from an interesting demo to a scalable partnership, why human support makes technology more useful, and how AgeTech Collaborative™ from AARP is helping shorten the distance between promising ideas and real consumer experiences.
Take me to the moment when aging and longevity became a business priority for your organization. What were you seeing that made it impossible to ignore?
There wasn’t one single moment. It was the convergence of demographic shifts, what we were hearing from families, and what technology was making possible. A decade ago, our consumer insights started to reveal something striking: Customers were coming into our stores and telling us after making purchases that they needed help finding technology to support aging at home. They were piecing together solutions on their own. We saw an opportunity—and a responsibility—to make that journey simpler.
In the U.S., the population age 65 and older grew 38.6% in just a decade, reaching 55.8 million in the 2020 Census. Globally, the share of people age 65 and older is projected to nearly double, from 10.5% in 2025 to 19.6% by 2060.
But what really changed the conversation was the economics. AARP’s 2026 Longevity Economy Outlook estimates that Americans age 50 and older generated $12.5 trillion in economic activity in 2024, equivalent to 43% of U.S. GDP.
We stopped looking at aging primarily as a healthcare need and started viewing it as one of the largest consumer transformations underway. Our opportunity at Best Buy Health is to bring together technology and human support around the outcomes people actually care about: staying safe, independent, connected, well, and fulfilled.
That is now reflected directly in our strategy through our Lively/Jitterbug product line, products from strategic partners, and a curated selection of AgeTech, wellness, and smart-living solutions.
Aging isn't a niche. It may represent one of the fastest-growing areas of need and one of the largest consumer markets hiding in plain sight.
What’s one assumption about older adults or the aging market that your organization has had to rethink?
Over the years, we have had to rethink what “senior technology” means. People want great technology that continues to work beautifully as their needs change, and human support can make that technology more useful over time.
A smart lock can provide convenience at 45 and independence at 75. A smartwatch can support fitness today and safety tomorrow. With care teams, Blue Shirts, and Geek Squad helping people choose, set up, learn, and adapt technology to their needs, support can evolve right alongside them.
That distinction matters because aging is incredibly individual. In one of our recent planning sessions, we discussed why we can't simply lump older consumers together. We need to organize around outcomes and moments of need, then curate simple solutions based on accessibility, usability, affordability, and real-world application.
Importantly, there are often multiple stakeholders in the decision-making process: the older adult, the person who loves or cares for them, and the payer, who may be one of those people or someone else entirely. These relationships require trust, empathy, and acceptance and can sometimes be difficult to navigate.
That changed our thinking from “What product should we sell an older person?” to “What problem is this family trying to solve?”
People don't wake up asking for AgeTech. They wake up wanting Mom to be safe, Dad to stay independent, one less thing to worry about—or simply more time.
When you evaluate an AgeTech startup or solution, what separates something interesting from something you could actually pilot, adopt, or scale?
A practical test or demo gets my attention. A great operating model creates the path to scale.
We ask a few simple questions: Does it solve an important problem? Which problem, and for whom? How did you get from the problem to the solution? Do the economics work? Is it accessible and trustworthy? Can we support its growth? If the pilot succeeds, is there genuinely a path to scale?
That last question is important. I recently told an audience of founders, “Interest is an emotion; commitment is an operating decision.” Inside a large company, enthusiasm from one champion isn't enough. Scale requires a strong business case, viable economics, and alignment across legal, privacy, security, operations, quality, customer experience, and organizational priorities.
AgeTech adds another test: A technology cannot be brilliant in the lab but difficult to use in someone's living room. At Best Buy, we are obsessed with the end-user experience and think in great detail about how that experience needs to come to life and how it will be supported after purchase. Best Buy Health's model deliberately pairs technology with human-led services and ongoing support because adoption and engagement matter as much as the device itself.
My favorite question for an innovator or founder is, “Don't just tell me why we should pilot it. Tell me what has to be true on Day 91 if the pilot works.” That usually separates a compelling product from a scalable partnership.
What’s one specific way being part of AgeTech Collaborative™ from AARP has helped your organization, and what resulted from it?
The biggest value has been turning what could have been a traditional partnership into a learning ecosystem.
AARP brings consumer insight and trust; AgeTech Collaborative brings exposure to emerging solutions; and Best Buy provides the technology, services, and reach to help customers discover, experience, and adopt them.
Internally, we have been working with AARP—specifically with AgeTech Collaborative—to identify and vet solutions suitable for an omnichannel experience. We are seeking to use a living-lab model built around curated products, education, services, and consultative support rather than making customers navigate a dozen unrelated categories to solve one real-life problem.
We recently launched Everyday Support for Caregivers, bringing together AARP resources with services from Wellthy, Norton, and Instacart in one caregiver-focused offering. For me, this progression matters, and we expect to learn immensely from it: insight → ecosystem → experimentation → something a family can actually use.
We have also been piloting solutions from two AgeTech Collaborative startups—RAZ Mobility and JubileeTV—with both proving successful and generating valuable lessons for all of us.
AgeTech Collaborative helps shorten the distance between a promising idea and a real consumer experience while connecting the right stakeholders.
What do you most want startup founders to understand about where aging and longevity are creating real opportunities for collaboration and growth?
I would tell founders: Don't build for “old.” Build for life.
The longevity opportunity is much broader than technology for aging or medical devices. It includes sleep, mobility, connection, fraud protection, home safety, smart-home technology, hearing, caregiving, AI, wellness, transportation, and the services and support that make all of those technologies easier to use. Best Buy's existing active-aging assortment already spans safety, medical alerts, hearing, vision, wellness, and smart-home technologies.
There is also an enormous economic engine behind it. Americans age 50 and older already generate $12.5 trillion in annual economic activity, and AARP projects that contribution will approach $24 trillion by 2060.
Yet this market doesn't need more fragmented gadgets or systems. It needs solutions that work together, fit naturally into everyday life, promote health and wellness, and preserve people's independence and dignity.
That's where startups and scaled enterprises can become powerful partners: Startups bring speed, invention, and focus; enterprises bring trust, distribution, service, and scale.
The companies that lead in longevity won’t simply create better technology; they’ll make better living possible.
Join Chemu and Best Buy Health at HLTH USA 2026 November 15-18 in Las Vegas. Register here.
