At 83, they're using DeepSeek to grab orders; at 96, they're earning their retirement money with AI. This group of octogenarians and older are better at using AI than you are.
With a $60 deposit and $15,000 in debt, 82-year-old Luis is actively learning prompt strategies and starting a tech company. He wants to use AI to have a wonderful ending to his life; Scalettar, nearly 80, taught her 96-year-old husband to use AI for editing. AI has opened up a new world for many American seniors. They are more accepting of and better at using AI than many young people.
He has a $60 deposit and owes $15,000.
82-year-old Luis Bautista still has to work hard for his retirement.
The tech company he founded and his enthusiasm for learning AI are driving him forward.
He is learning prompt engineering strategies by surfing the Internet and watching YouTube.
Moreover, he is also looking into the information of companies admitted by Y Combinator to find venture capital for his startup.
All of this stems from an "epiphany" he had when he was 80.
The New World Opened by AI
When he was 80, Luis Bautista asked himself a question:
How should I end my life?
At that time, this sentence popped into his mind:
"To have a wonderful ending, you have to learn AI."
Of course, this isn't entirely for his last ideal in life.
His savings are less than $100, and his monthly $1,000 social security income is not enough to make ends meet!
To survive, he has to earn money for his retirement by being a life coach, a business consultant, and writing books.
Since he can't afford AI courses, he learns through free online resources and asking people around him.
The tech company he co-founded has become his greatest hope at present.
He believes that if this company can develop, he will have a prosperous period.
Luis Bautista is a co-founder of a tech startup that deeply embraces AI.
Bautista is not an exception.
Many American seniors like him are actively learning AI to plan their lives, apply for jobs, and return to the workplace.
AI has opened up a new world for them.
Is It Useful for Seniors to Learn AI?
Business Insider recently interviewed more than 130 working seniors in the United States, aged between 80 and 90.
Many of the surveyed seniors said they had never tried AI, thinking it was unnecessary to learn or suspecting it would harm them.
The main concerns of the opponents are:
Worried that AI will cause mental decline: A 94-year-old worker believes that AI will take away more of people's ability to think;
Worried that AI will replace jobs: An octogenarian is worried that AI will replace the jobs of older people who don't trust it;
Worried about AI fraud: Some people are also worried that the generated false information will make them more likely to be deceived.
More than 40 people said they are actively embracing AI and using it for work or daily tasks: Most of them are using the free version of ChatGPT, and a few have tried Claude and Gemini.
Some more "advanced" seniors regard AI as a productivity tool. They have taken machine learning courses or integrated some AI models into their work processes.
The main motivation for these active AI adopters to learn AI is to maintain their competitiveness in the workplace. Others hope to increase their income through it to enjoy their retirement life.
Some are forced to use AI at work.
For example, Herbert Dwye, an 84-year-old chief technology officer of an aerospace technology company, knows more about AI than most seniors.
But the reason he uses AI is simply that some of the software he uses relies on AI, and he hasn't delved into more in-depth uses such as prompt engineering.
So, he considers himself an "outsider" in using AI.
Different from Dwye, Phyllis Scalettar has chosen an "all-in" attitude towards AI.
Scaletta is a soon-to-be 80-year-old doctorate holder.
She runs an AI education and consulting company, helping clients (including seniors) improve their work processes, performance, and productivity.
Phyllis Scalettar runs an AI consulting company.
Embracing AI has allowed Scalettar to find the lifestyle she wants, and all of this makes her excited.
More importantly, AI technology has also provided a new stage for Scaletta's many years of life experience to show its value.
She is turning her early career experience into a business skill for the company she currently runs.
In 2023, after completing some AI courses such as machine learning, Scaletta became a certified AI consultant.
She believes that older employees shouldn't be afraid of new technologies. Any technological innovation, like the automobile when it first came out, would make people feel scared.
Catherine Collinson, the CEO and chairperson of the Transamerica Institute, believes that older Americans may be at the forefront of AI implementation.
They have all witnessed the huge technological progress since the mid-20th century. When they first entered the workplace, early computers had just emerged.
This is a labor group with 80 years of life experience and more than 50 or 60 years of work experience.
Like Scaletta, their life experience and work experience may also play a unique role in the AI era.
AI Has a Greater Impact on Older Employees
Although many studies believe that AI is more likely to replace some entry-level positions and has the greatest impact on newly graduated college students.
However, a study published in July by IMF economists Carlo Pizzinelli and Marina Mendes Tavares believes that older employees may be more affected by AI than their younger colleagues.
The reason is that they have lower mobility between employers or occupations and fewer re-employment opportunities.
Another disadvantage is that they may adopt AI at a slower pace than younger people.
The lack of training is also part of the reason.
Research shows that older employees are more likely to encounter occupational prejudice in terms of AI literacy.
A survey by Generation in 2024 found that:
13% of employees over 45 use generative AI tools at work. Most of them learn by themselves, and it has improved both productivity and work quality.
Among those who haven't used AI, 24% said they are interested in learning.
Although these older employees show a high level of acceptance of AI, American hiring managers haven't shown enough acceptance of them:
Only 7% of hiring managers said they are "very likely" to consider candidates aged 65 and above for jobs that frequently use AI tools. For applicants aged 25 - 34, this proportion is 57%;
More than half of the hiring managers said they are "unlikely" or "completely unlikely" to consider applicants aged 65 and above.
Mona Mourshed, the CEO of Generation, has noticed that many older employees have to continue working because of financial vulnerability.
But once they are over 45, the degree of occupational prejudice they encounter will increase significantly.
Scalettar's experience is a positive and powerful counterattack against this "occupational prejudice."
She is an active "preacher" of AI technology.
She has not only taught her 96-year-old husband how to use AI tools as a research assistant and a book editor but also developed training materials on prompt engineering and how to collaborate with AI assistants.
She regards sharing her experience of how to expand horizons and develop potential through AI with others as a gift she gives.
80-Year-Old AI Students
AI is integrating into our world.
Accordingly, courses about AI are also increasing rapidly, such as courses on AI basics, identifying AI false information, and career development.
Seniors are becoming a large group for AI courses.
Marisa Giorg, the course development supervisor of Older Adults Technology Services, said that older workers have always been eager for more resources to improve their AI literacy.
Therefore, they offer some basic AI courses, including content like "how to write social media posts using AI."
Giorg believes that at any stage and moment in life, one shouldn't stop learning or lose curiosity.
At a basic AI course site, nearly twenty students aged 60 and above participated.
For example, at an "Introduction to Chatting with AI" course in New York in August, nearly twenty students aged 60 and above learned how to use AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot.
Four of the students said they hope to use AI to apply for jobs, find new places to live, or engage in artistic creation.
Margaret Sass teaches AI courses for seniors at Boise State University. She believes that most students use what they learn for personal affairs, such as planning trips, and a few use it actively at work.
In Sass's view, learning AI can help seniors improve their creativity, which is beneficial to their mental health.
Currently, Sass is focusing on how to let seniors create songs or take virtual hikes with the help of AI, which can be done at home.
The "Key" to Make a Living
For many older American workers, AI has become the "key" to make a living.
For example, 83-year-old Katherine Cavanaugh is learning how to apply AI to the consulting company she founded. She has been using Perplexity and DeepSeek to take orders at work.
The company founded by Cavanaugh bids for course design contracts with hospitals and universities. She finds that AI is very helpful in preparing lessons or providing research suggestions for students' papers.
Cavanaugh said that her annual income is about $42,000, and her net worth is less than $100,000. Due to short-term contracts and unemployment during her mid-career, her financial situation is currently very tight.
Many older Americans like Cavanaugh are obtaining relevant certifications through AI learning to get the "key" to the workplace.
AI has lowered the thresholds of many traditional technology industries, thus creating more job opportunities for seniors.
Steve Preston, the CEO of Goodwill Industries International, believes that AI can help seniors cross many traditional technology thresholds and make it easier for them to start working in some jobs.
Take Jacqueline Steubbel, who lives in Tennessee, as an example. At 81, she is raising four children and used to be a text editor at a newspaper.
Two years ago, she found a job as a consultant on psychiatric drugs and alcohol addiction problems.
According to Steubbel, she has seen some videos teaching how to use ChatGPT and other tools at work. So, she also learned how to use AI to look up patients' medical histories and edit the text of a non-fiction manuscript of hers.
Countless seniors like Luis Bautista and Phyllis Scalettar are facing the impact and baptism of AI in a countercurrent way, embracing a technology that originally belongs to the "future."
AI has opened up a new world for them and also confirms this truth:
Innovation and progress will never stagnate or decline because of age.
Reference Materials:
https://www.businessinsider.com/workers-over-age-80-embrace-ai-2025-8
This article is from the WeChat public account "New Intelligence Yuan." Author: New Intelligence Yuan, Editor: Yuan Yu. Republished by 36Kr with permission.