Intuition Robotics CEO and co-founder Dor Skuler knew he wanted to make a huge, positive impact in the world following his time as a senior executive at the software company Alcatel-Lucent.
“My daughter asked me if what I”™m doing is so important that I”™m never home,” Skuler recalled. “While I truly believe that networking is important, I didn”™t feel it”™s important enough.”
In 2016, Skuler teamed with Roy Amir and Itai Mendelsohn in founding Intuition Robotics, a Tel Aviv-based company focused on creating a product to help alleviate social isolation, made for and with input by older adults.
Skuler was inspired by his grandfather”™s experiences with home health aides, one of whom found success by forming an empathetic relationship by sharing some of the older man”™s interests.
Skuler called attention to a “caregiver crunch,” wherein the number of U.S. caregivers are inadequate to meet the ever-increasing elderly population in need of care. He realized the potential of technology in providing aid.
“For us to be able to impact this huge issue of older adults and their loneliness and social isolation and to help them motivate themselves to live happier, healthier lives,” Skuler said, “we need to be able to create technology that has empathy, that can build a relationship.”
The result was ElliQ, a voice-activated robot that provides companionship and assistance in a proactive manner, such as initiating conversations or providing internet access in an intuitive fashion. ElliQ can remind people to take medications at certain times, and it also offers a wellness coach-worthy slate of activities ranging from cognitive games to stress-reduction activities to an assessment of general and emotional health. ElliQ can also engage people to pursue painting sessions.
“ElliQ will invite you to paint with her,” Skuler said. “You”™ll say what you want her to paint and then, using generative AI called DALL-E, ElliQ will generate that picture.”
ElliQ launched in March 2022 and is currently being used in nearly all counties of New York, according to Greg Olsen, director of the New York State Office for the Aging, which has partnered with Intuition Robotics. He noted the enthusiastic reception among older adults to the robot companion ”” according to recent data, 28% of users converse with ElliQ, about 25% look at things in entertainment with the help of ElliQ and 27% looking into health and wellness.
“The initial data that”™s come out already is exceeding I think what (Intuition Robotics) had in terms of acceptance rate, minutes-use a day, the interactions, how many days a week it”™s being used,” Olsen said. “We”™re really impressed so far.”
The Intuition Robotics team aims to make their robot a long-term solution, with Skuler acknowledging that “this population doesn”™t need a short-term intervention. They need a roommate to move in with them and support them and grow with them and build a relationship with them.”
Skuler and Olsen stressed that ElliQ is not meant to replace interactions with human caretakers and families, but instead supplements and promotes such relations. ElliQ motivates seniors to interact with family members, such as by encouraging them to send a selfie to relatives or facilitating video calls with them.
“It”™s not a human being replacement, it doesn”™t replace our community services,” Olsen said. “But we have to understand we live in a tech environment and there”™s many tools in the toolbox we can make available to let the consumer choose what works best for them and measure these things to see if they”™re effective or not. That”™s what we”™re going to continue to do.”
