I’m a computer scientist. Here’s how we should help aging parents with technology.

This past Christmas, I helped my parents choose a water filter. The latest “smart” models all came with a smartphone app that promised to monitor filter life, track water quality and automatically request service. Yet my father, age 75, and mother, 67, were quick to reject them in favor of a nondigital model. “Every time it updates or I forget how to use it, we’ll have to call you,” my dad said. As an only child living 8,000 miles away, I didn’t need convincing. My parents are aging in place and don’t need traditional caregiving—they cook, drive, and manage their home just fine. Instead, I provide what I call technology caregiving: helping them with their digital activities of daily living, such as online banking or booking theater tickets. But as the tech industry shifts toward artificial intelligence agents and generative user interfaces—promising to make devices smarter than ever—I am bracing for this invisible workload to become heavier, not lighter. I know this not just because I’m a caregiver for aging parents, but through my job as a computer scientist studying human-computer interaction.

[Debaleena Chattopadhyay is an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Illinois Chicago.]