The data: Smart speaker owners are using their devices for more health-related tasks, per the M3 MI 2026 MARS Consumer Health survey.

Among those behaviors:

• 34% ask health-related questions such as finding a doctor or asking about a condition treatment, up from 26% in 2024.
• 34% set health reminders such as taking medication or setting up a doctor’s appointment, up from 21% two years ago.
• 23% now use them for fitness tracking or to ask for advice. That question wasn’t asked in the 2024 survey.

Why it matters: Health is becoming another core use case for smart speakers. These devices have long handled everyday tasks like playing music, checking the weather, and controlling smart-home devices. And the market is already large enough for new use cases to matter: more than one-third (33.8%) of US adults will use smart speakers this year, per our forecast.

Younger adults lead smart speaker use for health, but older adults are catching up. More than half (58%) of adults ages 18 to 34 use them to set health reminders, 48% ask health-related questions, and 46% use them for fitness tracking. Older generations underindex on health-related tasks, but their usage has nearly doubled in the past two years: 21% of users ages 65+ now use their smart speakers to ask health-related questions, up from 11% in 2024, and 15% use them for health reminders, up from 8%, per M3 MI.

Implications for smart speaker companies and healthcare brands: Older generations are the bigger opportunity. Smart speakers can move from occasional utilities into a regular part of consumers’ health routines. Younger adults already use them for reminders and questions, but usage among older adults remains relatively low even as it rises. Older consumers' recent uptake rates suggest untapped demand. Companies that treat adults ages 65+ as an afterthought risk missing the consumers most likely to benefit from voice-based medication reminders, symptom check-ins, patient education, and fitness support.