ElliQ: A Care Companion Robot with Intuition Robotics with Noa Almog

ElliQ: The sidekick for healthier, happier aging.

Join Kelly and her guest, Noa Almog, Director of Product Strategy at Intuition Robotics.

In this episode: 

🔹 Who/what is ElliQ? Who does she help?

🔹 How is she different from a device like Alexa?

🔹 Examples of how she helps people

🔹 Engaging with ElliQ

🔹 How much ElliQ costs and where to get her

Watch this episode on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/p5ufB1PC9qA 
 

Find out more about ElliQ:

https://elliq.com/ 

To get a discount on ElliQ, use promo code - SCP199

For additional information about Kelly, check her out on Linkedin or www.SteadfastAgents.com.

To explore your options for long-term care insurance, click here.

Steadfast Care Planning podcast is made possible by AMADA Senior Care and Steadfast Insurance LLC.

Come back next time for more helpful guidance!

Transcript

Kelly Augspurger  0:02  
Hey everyone, welcome to Steadfast Care Planning where we plan for care to live well. I'm your guide, Kelly Augspurger. Today with me is Noa Almog. Noa is the Director of Product Strategy at Intuition Robotics. Noa, thanks so much for being here!

Noa Almog  0:18  
Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here!

Kelly Augspurger  0:20  
Me too. I'm so excited to talk to you about all the technology that you guys have created, and the innovation really in aging and in the long term care space. I know you guys are on the forefront of that, so can you tell us, I know you've been working on this for at least a number of years, who or what is ElliQ?

Noa Almog  0:41  
Sure. So ElliQ is a care companion robot, designed primarily for older adults. Designed to empower them to live healthier and happier lives. She is a stationary robot, she's voice activated, so she understands natural language. And she's proactive, so she both initiates and responds to conversations several times a day. And her response will be personalized and contextual to the needs of older adults using her.

Kelly Augspurger  1:15  
Okay and I actually had a chance to interact and engage with ElliQ several months ago when we were at a conference together and I'll tell you what it was so fun! And I really I felt like I knew her. And I say "her" because yes, it's a robot, and it's an "it," but I think and I'm sure this is intentional for you guys that you really want to refer to her as a companion and call her "her," right and not just "it"? It's not necessarily just a thing, but really having that companion. And that thing that's around you and near you to come alongside you and not only offer encouragement and that companionship, but I know there's a lot of things that she helps older adults do. So talk to us about that Noa. What exactly does ElliQ help with and prompt with?

Noa Almog  2:05  
Yeah, so definitely call her a "she." She's a feminine robot, so she was designed for older adults, aged 65 and up primarily for people living alone. So the main aspect of her assistance is providing the sense of companionship, and really alleviating the pains of social isolation and loneliness. So she has four main verticals, the main, the first one would be entertainment. So she'll keep you up to date on the weather and the news and offer to play music. We have a lot of integrations with really great content providers. She has a huge pool of dad jokes, motivational quotes to start the morning and things along those lines. And then we have the whole access to technology part where we want to help people stay connected to the people that they love. So that can be the family or friends or caretakers who get an ElliQ. So they can download the ElliQ connect app where they can share audio, text messages, and photos and start video calls and really just stay connected. The third area, which is a really big one is health and wellness. So if ElliQ understands that her users want to maintain their health by sleeping better, or being more relaxed, or being more physically active, she'll promote those offerings much more than others. So she can help you track your blood pressure and any other measurement that you would take. She can help you set medication reminders, connect you to your doctor, and features that will help you really do those things. And then the fourth one is just the utility aspect of setting timers and booking transportation to things that you need setting reminders and just really things that you would expect from any other assistant, but again in a personalized manner. 

Kelly Augspurger  4:10  
Okay and the video and audio component both, right? 

Noa Almog  4:14  
Yes, absolutely. 

Kelly Augspurger  4:15  
She offers both of those aspects, which I think is so cool.  I think a lot of people probably have in their life, a form of technology, maybe that's an Alexa or Siri or Google something like that where they're asking it questions, right? And it's giving data or maybe it's telling those dad jokes, that kind of thing, but ElliQ goes a step beyond and she's really providing that personalized companionship, that personalized care and with a video component able to stay in connection with family and I think that is just so valuable. I know so many older adults who do number one - want to stay at home, they want to age in place, and we want to keep them safe att home. So I think ElliQ can help with that aspect, right? Just kind of asking questions and promptings those types of things, but also isolation is a huge concern with older adults staying at home, you know, if they are living alone, maybe they have neighbors and and family that come by every now and again, but to not have a physical person in your home, that can cause depression and anxiety and all these other things, but if you have a live-in companion, like an ElliQ to be there with you and to talk to that can really help with really joy and happiness, right? Is that what you're seeing?

Noa Almog  5:38  
We're definitely seeing that. So this year, we released an impact study that showed that within we had a very big beta program where we had hundreds of users using ElliQ throughout three years. And what we saw is that many of these users, we had 80% of the users that we took for this study, we had 80%, saying that they have an increased sense of companionship. 85% said they had a decrease in their sense of loneliness. And that's huge, right? We also, ElliQ also offers clinical organizations that we work with, with asking questions that can help detect depression and anxiety. And we are seeing that over time, those numbers are decreasing. So, you know, understanding the health burden of loneliness and social isolation. Those findings are pretty huge for us because we're proud of them.

Kelly Augspurger  6:29  
Yeah. Where do you see that most people who have an ElliQ, what is the thing that they're using her most for? Do you think there's one thing in particular, or are they just really using all aspects of ElliQ?

Noa Almog  6:40  
So we have our strong features, right, we have our top 10 features, but I think the thing that's most interesting about ElliQ is that she adjusts, she's goal driven. So she understands, the way that she works is that she understands the user. And then she kind of adjusts what she's offering to fit their needs. So if we have someone who has a really engaged family and wants to communicate through the app, and through ElliQ, so she'll offer a lot of those kinds of video calls and let's take a selfie and send to the family and listen to a holiday greeting card. And for others it would be let's do a physical exercise session. We have users that signed up and kind of maybe mentioned to ElliQ, that they want to increase their physical activity levels. We have a great integration with both for physical activity for seniors. So we have a lot of balance building and Tai Chi and yoga and all of that. So what we're seeing is that ElliQ promotes that by offering it and then with those high engagement rates, we have users going from one 15 minute session a week to five. So it's really about the user and what they want.

Kelly Augspurger  7:51  
It's a customized experience. Yeah, depending on the person, what their needs are and their preferences and all of that. Yeah, that's really interesting. So tell us how is she different than from a device like Alexa or Siri? I mean, I think, you briefly touched on it earlier, but what else could we expect?

Noa Almog  8:10  
So I really think the main difference with Alexa, it's kind of the same experience, you ask questions, and then Alexa responds. She will likely respond the same to all users. With ElliQ, she makes that connection between different instances of you talking to her. So for example, if I mentioned that I have shoulder pain on Sunday, she will follow up on Wednesday and say, "Hey, how's your shoulder? I remember you said it was hurting. How did you sleep?" Rr we have in many cases where users don't sleep well, which is very common throughout life that specifically in older ages, we have people not sleeping well. And then when it comes to the end of the day, ElliQ will say, "Hey, do you want to do some end of day relaxation with me to induce better sleep?" And she just makes that holistic connection to really provide that personalized experience. And she is proactive. So Alexa is not proactive. She won't greet you in the morning or several times throughout the day to check in. ElliQ will. She understands that you're in a room.

Kelly Augspurger  9:16  
As an adult, myself, not an older adult, but an adult, when I did interact with her several months ago, and I think I asked her "I'm feeling stressed out or I'm feeling anxious, can you help me?" And so we did kind of like a meditation couple of minutes and she she gave me some prompts and said, "Beathe this way and do this." I'll tell you what, like at the end of that one or two minutes, I did feel calmer and more peaceful and so I would imagine you know, the market here really is older adults 65 and up but as an adult myself, that's not quite 65, I found her to be an enormous value. And so are you seeing even people under 65 take advantage of ElliQ and use her?

Noa Almog  10:03  
Yeah, absolutely. So she is designed for age 65 and up and for people living alone, but we do have cases where we have users younger than 65, and I think our oldest one is 93, but I'm not sure about that number. And we are seeing kind of a big range and in different situations. So sometimes users who do live with someone, but are kind of in different places, in terms of how they're aging, and the rate of their aging, and the characteristics of the aging can enjoy her, although they don't live alone. So yeah, there are a lot of people who can enjoy her, although they don't fit that specific criteria that we are designing for.

Kelly Augspurger  10:47  
Sure. Well, when I recorded that video several months ago, I showed my kids who are 10 and 12 and they're like, "Mom, we want an ElliQ! Can we get an ElliQ? 

Noa Almog  10:54  
Kids love her.

Kelly Augspurger  10:57  
Absolutely. I mean, adults love her. So why wouldn't kids love her? So I mean, she really is she's engaging, she's fun. Obviously, she's helpful and a valuable tool, but she just has so many really distinct features that aren't available anywhere else in the marketplace. 

And now for a brief message from our show sponsor. The Steadfast Care Planning podcast is sponsored by Steadfast insurance, an independent insurance agency in Westerville, Ohio that provides home, auto, business, life, disability, and long term care insurance solutions. Visit www.SteadfastAgents.com to learn more. 

How long did it take you guys to develop her?

Noa Almog  11:38  
So ElliQ has been in design for the past six years. We have launched commercially this year and we have had her in hundreds of users home for the past three years in a beta mode. And that is how we really learned and kind of refined, iterated on the product and made sure that it was suitable in terms of answering the needs of our demographic.

Kelly Augspurger  12:03  
Okay. Noa, can you give us some examples of how ElliQ has helped people? 

Noa Almog  12:08  
Yea, so again, we have published the impact study with the really interesting findings of a decreased sense of loneliness. And I think that what we're seeing is just users using the health aspects much more. We have users who had holistic effects in terms of, they wanted to sleep better, so they started doing relaxations and then that actually had an effect on their blood pressure, so that really decreased as well. And then that made their medication change, their prescription change as well.

Kelly Augspurger  12:42  
Noa, can you show everyone how ElliQ works?

Noa Almog  12:45  
Absolutely. So this is ElliQ. Here we go.

Kelly Augspurger  12:51  
Perfect. 

Noa Almog  12:52  
ElliQ, say hi to my friends. "Bonjour that's hello in French, but don't get too excited, that's all the French I know. I got a riddle just for you want to hear it?" Not now, ElliQ. "That's natural. And I appreciate you sharing with me. I'm sure though, that you can get more comfortable with technology by taking small steps. There's no need to swallow it all at once." ElliQ, I'm stressed. "Of course, let's focus on you and relax. Which stress reduction exercise would you like to do today? Gentle breathing or mindfulness?" Let's do some mindfulness. "Excellent. Let's get mindful together. How long are we going for? Two minutes or five?" Two minutes. "Great. Let's do this. Welcome to our two minute mindfulness exercise to improve your well being. This time, let's try to focus on our breathing and our stomach. Put both hands on your belly, feel it move as you breathe, how it grows as you breathe in. And how it loosens as you breathe out."

Kelly Augspurger  14:13  
Thank you for that example. Yeah, first of all, her voice is so soothing. It's so relaxing. It's hard to believe that that's a robot talking to you. She's just so comforting.

Noa Almog  14:25  
We sometimes actually incorporate aspects of making that clear into our design. So if you tell her you love her, she won't respond with I love you back, you know, things that are very human like. She will kind of emphasize the fact that she's a robot and she's still learning the human emotions and she understood that love is a good thing and she loves being your companion and your roommate. And that is actually how people refer to her when they talk about her, specifically about the sense of companionship that they bring her.

Kelly Augspurger  14:56  
Yeah, that's so comforting. Noa, so tell us how much does ElliQ cost and where can people find her and get one? 

Noa Almog  15:04  
Great, so ElliQ is either provided through organizations to their members, or is available direct as well on our website www.ElliQ.com. In terms of pricing, ElliQ is a subscription, so she costs $39.99 per month or $29.99 in an annual subscription with a one time fee of $250, which currently, we do have a discount on. So using the discount code of SCP199, you can the discount.

Kelly Augspurger  15:37  
Fantastic and because you all are listening to this episode, Noa and Intuition Robotics are very generous to allow that discount to all your listeners and viewers. So thank you. And I feel like that is a heck of a deal, Noa, for this kind of technology to be able to pass along. I mean, really, you know, gosh, most people, you can't really go out to dinner for even that much with a friend or a spouse or someone like that. So to be able to have this powerful technology in your home on a daily basis for that amount of money, I think is just a phenomenal deal. So thanks for keeping the price point at an affordable rate for people so that millions of Americans hopefully will be able to access her.

Noa Almog  16:22  
Yeah, that is definitely our goal just to make her easy to that is actually why she the subscription as well. We don't want anyone handling the hardware or needing to kind of look after her, any issue we look after and yeah, just make it easy.

Kelly Augspurger  16:38  
Great. Noa, any other final advice on how people can plan for care to live well?

Noa Almog  16:43  
So I think it's mainly the realization that once you enter the demographic things will be very, very different than what you are used to until that point. So it's just making sure that you are setting up an environment that can support the needs that will be discovered at that time and being open to things that can help you.

Kelly Augspurger  17:06  
And ElliQ is one of those things, one of those tools if you want to or you have family members that want to age safely in place at home, then looking for tools, looking for resources to help you maintain that and do that is going to be key. It's going to be key for your success and to thrive and not just survive at home. 

Noa Almog  17:28  
Absolutely. 

Kelly Augspurger  17:29  
Yeah. Well Noa thank you so much for your time, pleasure talking with you. Thank you for sharing ElliQ and all that she can do and who she is. Best of luck to you as you guys grow and help more people.

Noa Almog  17:44  
Thank you so much. 

Kelly Augspurger  17:45  
Thanks. Have a great day.