The Tech We Need to Fight Workplace Ageism | Piyachart Phiromswad | TED

So by the year 2050,

there are going to be more than two billion people

who are older than 60 years old,

and it has been estimated that around 80 percent

of these two billion people

will live in low- and middle-income countries,

which is roughly the developing countries.

It is currently a common belief, globally,

that senior citizens should not work,

do not need to work,

and therefore, there is no reason for companies to create jobs for them.

I think this kind of thinking,

the thinking that senior employment is inessential,

is actually the seed of a major problem that could impact a lot of lives,

especially the lives of people in developing countries.

To explain to you why, let me show you a diagram,

and let me call this diagram a negative aging spiral.

Imagine a 50-year-old living in a developing country.

The chance that this person will work later on will be slim,

so this person is not going to invest in their skill,

might not even invest in their health,

because there's no return from this investment.

Then, at the age of 60,

this person is going to stop working,

because it's a common thing to do in these countries.

And then after that, many bad things could happen.

For example, this person might not have enough savings,

or maybe no savings at all,

and now there’s no more employment opportunity.

This person might feel lost, feel hopeless, feel lonely.

This person might even feel

like there's no purpose to continue living.

So it seems like, for many people in developing countries,

there's going to be suffering through the process of population aging.

Is there anything we can do differently?

For me, as an economist

who has been working on this topic of population aging,

especially in the context of developing countries,

for many years,

I have been puzzled by these questions,

but I think I've got an answer.

I think the best catalyst that we can use to break the negative aging spiral

and unlock the power of population aging

is to create something called senior employment technologies

and use it to democratize senior employment.

What is senior employment technology?

It is a technology that can be used to reduce or remove

physical and cognitive barriers for work for senior citizens.

Like people wearing glasses today,

which we use to erase or remove our vision problem,

senior employment technology

is something that we can use to transform senior employment

from scarcity to abundance.

But unfortunately,

this aspect of technology has been overlooked

by a lot of people.

When we actually think about it,

senior living assistive technologies are quite common,

but not so much in terms of senior employment technologies.

And in the context of, for example, developed countries,

these technologies do exist to some extent,

but in the context of developing countries,

these technologies are largely nonexistent.

So if we could create senior employment technologies

and use our imagination to think about what it could be,

what would it look like?

Let me give you guys a couple of examples.

The first group of senior employment technologies

is something that can be called physical augmentation technologies.

There are two types of physical barriers to work.

The first one is physical barriers at work.

So as we age, we tend to lose some of our physical abilities.

For example, we lose our muscle strength,

we might lose our hand and finger dexterity.

Now, let's imagine the possibility

we could create cheap and accessible exoskeleton technologies,

which is a suit that a senior citizen could wear,

and this suit can be used to augment, for example, trunk muscles,

and the senior citizen can actually use it to lift something heavy,

but it doesn't feel that heavy.

Now, if we actually think about it,

this aspect of technologies could be pretty important

in the context of developing countries,

because a lot of people in developing countries

actually use their body or their labor, a lot, for work.

Next, let’s imagine the possibility we could create

cheap and accessible collaborative robots, or "cobots" in short,

which is often in the form of robot arms,

and these robot arms can be used as an extra steady hand

that a senior citizen could use to recover their hand and finger dexterity,

especially for work that requires precision.

One interesting use case for this

could be ... senior surgeons in developing countries.

We can all agree that we wouldn't want a surgeon with a shaky hand

to do anything near our body.

But these technologies can help senior surgeons

with amazing skill, amazing knowledge,

to still make a significant contribution.

And we know, in the period of population aging,

surgeons, doctors will be in great shortage.

The next physical barrier to work

is the physical barrier in getting to work itself.

So as we age, things like getting stuck in traffic

or being in congested public transportation for so long

only to take a long walking distance

could be a major barrier to work for many senior citizens.

Now, if a job does not require a physical presence,

let’s imagine the possibility that remote working technology such as Zoom

or maybe, in the future, the metaverse,

can be used to completely remove the journey to work itself,

and allow senior citizens to work from anywhere,

any time, or maybe any country.

If a job does really require a physical presence,

let’s imagine the possibility of smart city technologies.

One aspect of smart city technology

is focused on optimizing city transportation resources

by collecting data, information,

from sensors or cameras,

and using it to improve the journey to work for senior citizens

so that their journey to work can be better and safer.

The second group of senior employment technologies

is something that can be called cognitive augmentation technologies.

So as we age, we also tend to lose some of our cognitive abilities.

For example, we tend to lose our ability to memorize things

or our abilities to compare pictures, objects,

which is called perceptual speeds.

Let’s imagine the possibility that maybe our cell phone, our laptop

or maybe virtual reality glasses

can be equipped with cognitive augmentation software

powered by artificial intelligence,

which can be used as a companion brain.

So in the future, this device can be used to help senior citizens,

senior workers,

to show them work-related information as needed,

so they don't need to memorize everything --

which would be great for me right now, too --

(Laughter)

help enhance, for example, perceptual speeds

when senior workers, senior citizens need to identify objects or find defects,

and they can actually make the final decision better and faster.

Of course, beyond the physical and cognitive barriers

that I have mentioned,

we still need to find a way to remove social barriers to work,

which is called ageist beliefs.

It's the belief that senior citizens

are always less productive than younger workers

for any kind of occupation.

I think senior employment technologies can take us one step closer

to removing, or maybe significantly reducing ageist beliefs.

I think if we can do this thing, we can break the negative aging spiral

and create something that can be called a positive aging spiral.

Imagine a 50-year-old living in a developing country,

but in this case, this person actually invests in their skill,

this person actually invests in their health,

because they know this investment will be valued.

And not only that,

this person actually looks forward to the next journey in their lives.

Then at the age of 60, senior citizens who are qualified to work,

or could become qualified to work,

because of senior employment technologies,

and need or want to work,

should be able to work.

If we can do this,

I think we can achieve and become a wealthy and healthy aging society.

So by using these senior employment technologies ...

When we think about technologies ...

some technologies might seem scary,

some might seem concerning.

But I think senior employment technologies is the right kind of technology

that our world, our society needs more right now.

And we can use senior employment technologies

to transform and democratize senior employment,

from scarcity to abundance.

And I think we can use it to transform the lives of many people

from suffering through the process of population aging

to flourishing in the process of population aging.

Thank you very much.

(Applause)