For elderly users, though, the meaning of these tools runs deeper than efficiency. They also introduce a new kind of presence into daily life.

At Kangyuxuan, a private elderly care home in Beijing, some residents have built routines around their digital assistants, including checking medication schedules, logging sleep, or simply asking questions about a twinge in the knee.

Staff members say these interactions, while practical on the surface, carry an emotional undertone as well.

"They are not just using a tool," said Cui Xiaohan, a caregiver at the elderly care home. "They are getting used to being responded to."

In a country where family structures are changing fast and millions of elderly people live alone or with minimal daily company, that responsiveness matters. AI systems — always available, never impatient — can partially fill the silences left by absent children or overworked caregivers. This does not mean technology replaces human relationships. But it suggests that care, as older people actually experience it, is increasingly a hybrid affair — part human, part machine.

None of this, however, is seamless.

Although smartphone adoption among Chinese adults aged 60 and above has grown rapidly — with internet penetration reaching 53.7 percent by the end of 2025 — digital literacy remains a barrier, with many seniors struggling to navigate cluttered app interfaces, fragmented platforms and unfamiliar interaction patterns.

"A system can be brilliant under the hood, but if a 75-year-old cannot figure out how to use it, that brilliance counts for little," Cui said.

Some platforms have begun introducing simplified layouts, voice commands and even dialect recognition — adjustments that sound minor but determine whether a tool actually gets used.

"In February, Ant AQ, an app developed to help the elderly with health checks and medical consultation, started to provide a mode that is more suitable for the elderly," said Shen Yunfang, head of communications at Ant Health.

"Specifically speaking, we developed a mode that is able to understand different dialects, considering that many of the elderly could not speak in standard Mandarin," she said.