Retirement goes digital: 65+ers doubled YouTube use since 2023, AI use jumps too

Retirement is turning into a full-time software project. Adults 65 and over have almost doubled their YouTube consumption on TV from 2023 to 2025, and older Americans spend over four hours a day in front of screens, according to the surveys described in Business Insider. And it is not just watching. The same reporting says AI trial is accelerating too, with AI use nearly doubling from 2024 to 2025, rising from 18% to 30% among older people who are experimenting.

That is the backdrop behind the story of Brian Rezendes, a 64-year-old who retired in April from a retail job in rural North Dakota. He told Business Insider that his retirement years were supposed to be relax, travel, stay active, but now he is “neck-deep” in conversations with chatbots, vibe coding websites, and building YouTube channels. His wife, he said, sometimes feels neglected when the computer wins. Rezendes is not alone. The interviews include 15 retired Americans who say they and their friends are glued to screens, sometimes to a fault, trading what could have been downtime for learning the best AI tools and “staying current.”

Zooming out, this is a demand shift with a timing problem for companies. If the first wave of “tech adoption” among older adults used to be slow and optional, the reporting describes it as unexpected and omnipresent. Retirement communities have swapped traditional hobbies like watercoloring for AI education. Some post-career Americans who moved abroad described tech as the rage in their beachfront expat communities. And for some retirees, starting an AI-powered business replaced the golf course. In other words, the screen is not just entertainment anymore. It is becoming identity, income, and workflow.

But the story is not simply “older people love AI.” Several interviewees raised the risk side out loud. Relying too heavily on AI can mean losing agency and receiving potentially faulty information. Some also worried that being too invested in tech crowds out the active routines that retirement is supposed to restore. The most telling detail is that many people described themselves as unable to “close their MacBooks” even when they knew they should. That is a behavioral design and product question for anyone building consumer tech, healthcare support tools, or productivity software.

The health angle is where it gets especially consequential. Dee Humphrey, 73, in Schenectady, New York, has used a companion robot called ElliQ for over three years, and she described waiting for a new version as producing “withdrawals because I can't do anything with her.” At the same time, other respondents connected AI to medical guidance and clinical follow-up. Edward Perry, 72, said he used AI after a terminal cancer diagnosis to “help me with living as rich and full a life” including managing his health and finding ways to be more present with family. Jan Friedlander, 81, used AI to guide her treatment while battling cancer and macular degeneration, then also used it to research clothing and plan vacations.

And then there is Pat Smith, 73, who has a more technical background in consulting and pharmaceuticals. She described a clear positive loop: she submitted her lab work to ChatGPT after having a reaction to an antibiotic and then followed up with her doctor and allergist. But she also bemoaned what she called the disappearance of human customer service and the “portalization” of medical care, meaning the system routes people through online interfaces rather than humans. Her response was to monitor her tech usage, maintain a regular exercise schedule, and work on mosaics. That balancing act is a second-order reality: as services move online and partially into AI-assisted flows, older users may need guardrails, escalation paths, and confidence-building interfaces, or they will self-regulate with varying levels of success.

There is also a workforce angle that executives should not ignore. The article points out that cutting-edge tools have become a retirement fascination, but many older Americans are unexpectedly working into their later years, often because AI-related skill requirements show up in real jobs. In the “Working with tech” section, Marcia Sweet, for example, runs a tech support business in Bradenton, Florida, with her home synced with robot vacuums and smart lights. She said she cannot afford to stop working because the extra money goes toward financing eventual long-term care, and she hopes AI can supercharge her business.

Laura Noren offers another pivot path. She is 61, left a registered nurse career, and went into IT classes at a local college in Michigan about a decade ago. She described the learning curve as massive because many classmates were 18-year-olds steeped in tech, and she did not wind up in a tidy “retire by 60” scenario. Plans changed when her husband left his job earlier than planned as a corrections officer and she was managed out of her company. Now she works as an Amazon Flex driver so she can care for her “technophobic” 84-year-old mother with memory issues. Her IT and tech skills show up in practical tasks like teaching her mother to add phone contacts to favorites and avoid scams.

Finally, even people who thought retirement would mean fewer Zoom calls are getting re-zoomed. Mark Bayer, 63, said when he decided to retire from his community banking career at 60, he expected no more “damn Zoom meeting.” Instead, he began teaching English as a second language over Zoom and reenrolled in college to be exposed to new ideas from younger minds.

So what should decision-makers take from all this? The market is expanding, fast, and it is not just passive users. Older adults are learning AI, building content, running businesses, and using robots and chatbots as companions and assistants. At the same time, the risk surface is expanding with it: flawed outputs, reduced human support, and the behavioral pull of screens. If you run a product, a board, or a platform that touches health, services, or consumer tech, the strategic stake is clear. You either design for autonomy, clarity, and safe escalation for older users, or you create dependency that users then compensate for manually. Either way, the retire-on-it world is already here.