The major traditional themes (artificial intelligence, robotics, digital health, mobility, immersive technologies) no longer appear as separate domains, but increasingly converge around a common, cross-cutting factor: population longevity.
This is not a declared strand or a single thematic area, but a structural paradigm that spans products, services, platforms and design models. Longevity emerges as a concrete response to demographic ageing, to the growing demand for autonomy, safety and quality of life, and to the need to rethink the relationship between citizens, technology and public services.
The solutions showcased at CES 2026 clearly show that the theme of longevity is no longer confined to healthcare, but involves the entire ecosystem of digital services and smart cities. Smart homes and home automation are evolving towards safer, adaptive and personalised domestic environments, capable of preventing risky situations and supporting daily life.
In parallel, telemedicine and digital home-care services are consolidating as standard tools, integrated with wearable health-care devices for continuous and preventive health monitoring. Alongside these areas come monitoring of environmental health, energy efficiency and the development of assistive robotics, increasingly oriented towards supporting people in everyday activities and enabling them to remain in their own living context.
Bringing these insights into the national context makes the theme even more relevant. Italy is among the countries with the highest life expectancy in Europe and is experiencing a steady increase in its elderly population. The longevity of Italian citizens is not only a challenge for the healthcare and welfare system, but also an opportunity to redesign public services, organisational models and digital platforms.
Long-lived citizens express specific needs: simplicity, reliability, proximity of services, and human and digital support. In this framework, technology must become enabling rather than obstructive, reducing complexity and increasing inclusion.
From the discussions that emerged at CES, a number of priority workstreams for public administration and ICT operators can be identified:
- new digital services for long-lived citizens, such as caregiver management, emergency services dedicated to older adults, social-connection platforms to combat isolation, and the management of proximity initiatives such as urban gardens;
- smart city solutions based on pervasive sensor networks for monitoring, tele-assistance and urban safety;
- simplified online digital procedures, redesigned with a “mobile first” and user-centric approach;
- the simplified citizen file, as a single point of access to essential services;
- targeted training programmes for specific segments of public employees, who are called upon to manage services increasingly oriented towards fragile citizens or those with limited digital skills.
One of the strongest pieces of evidence from CES 2026 concerns the design of digital platforms. The dominant trend is to prioritise the simplification of applications and the essentiality of functions, moving away from redundant and hyper-complex solutions.
Longevity thus becomes a design criterion: designing digital services that work well for an elderly citizen means, in practice, designing better services for everyone. Accessibility, clarity, fewer steps, understandable language and service integration are no longer optional, but structural elements.
In this scenario, the need for an industrial and operational approach clearly emerges. Maggioli, with its historic experience alongside public administration, can interpret longevity not as an abstract concept, but as a concrete field for designing services, platforms and organisational models.
A longevity-oriented approach means integrating technology, processes and skills, supporting authorities and territories in building digital services that are truly inclusive, sustainable and centred on people’s real needs. Not a futurist vision for its own sake, but a pragmatic response to a demographic transformation already under way.
The strong message that CES 2026 delivers to the Italian as well as European contexts is clear: longevity is not a problem to manage, but a strategic driver for rethinking digital innovation. Those who can design simple, accessible services oriented to long-lived citizens today will build more robust, inclusive and enduring platforms for the entire community.