ATU746 – ElliQ with Ronen Soffer

Hi, this is Ronen. And I am the chief product guy for Intuition Robotics. And this is your Assistive Technology Update.

Hello and welcome to your Assistive Technology Update, a weekly dose of information that keeps you up to date on the latest developments in the field of technology designed to assist individuals with disabilities and special needs. I’m your host, Josh Anderson, with the INDATA Project at Easterseals Crossroads in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana. Welcome to episode 746 of Assistive Technology Update. It is scheduled to be released on September 12th, 2025. In today’s show, we get to learn more about ElliQ, the little robot that can help individuals with social isolation and other needs. As always, listeners, want to thank you so much for listening. And don’t forget you can always reach out to us. Shoot us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org, or call our listener line at 317-721-7124. You’ve got a question, a comment, or an idea for our next guest, please do reach out and let us know. But for now, let’s go ahead and get on with the show.

Listeners, today’s guest is here to introduce us to ElliQ, a cute little robot that can assist with social isolation and other needs that face many of our seniors and other folks. Since September is National Self-Care Awareness Month, this little robot is a perfect topic. I thought about just interviewing ElliQ itself on here, but thought that it might be a little more appropriate to invite Ronen, the chief product guy from Intuition Robotics, on the show to tell us all about ElliQ. And we cannot wait to learn more. Ronen, welcome to the show.

Thank you very much, Josh.

I’m excited to get into talking about everything, but before we start talking about ElliQ, can you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself?

Sure. A human being that’s been involved in tech for the past three decades. If you don’t count the Stranger Things type Commondore 64, earlier stuff in the ’80s. So, yeah, professionally for 30 years. And I am as fascinated as I was on day one with the ability to use digital technology to create products that improve the well-being of humans. It doesn’t cease to amaze me that we can do this. And that’s what I enjoy doing. I’ve been a founder of a startup that was building location-based and navigational capabilities. Startup was acquired by Intel, where I had the pleasure and luxury of building advanced wearables with personal assistants and contextual capabilities for another seven years. I’ve been on the advisory board of a few other consumer-facing startups. And one of these companies was Intuition Robotics. I was on the advisory board for two years and then luckily got invited in to lead the product division, et cetera. And I’ve been happily doing that for the past three and a half years.

Awesome. Which brings me straight to talking about that product division and the ElliQ. I guess, start us off with, what is ElliQ?

Wow. ElliQ is rather unique, which we can go back because it’s not always necessarily a good thing. We say unique like it’s a good thing. But it’s unique because it’s cute and special. It’s also unique because there isn’t a lot of competition. And I’ll explain. ElliQ is a desktop or tabletop social robot that doesn’t make coffee or help you get up when you fall. Doesn’t even clean the house. Its sole purpose as a robot is an embodiment for an entity that is there with you. And why? Because you are an older adult who was once a human with a full life, many relationships, and many vehicles for impact, and many deeds, and actions. And now you are alone at home with a lot less of all that, people, activities, relationships, actions, chances for impact, self-expression, being noticed. And that situation, often defined as social isolation, aging in place, and the hurdles that go with it, combined with the digital divide, your inability to maybe use every recent digital service that can help you get things whole or connect with people.

ElliQ will help you with all of that. Firstly, by just being there, noticing you, starting conversations with you proactively, based on your context and availability. Offering to do certain things. Being driven by goals that are basically your goals for well-being and improvement. And making sure you take your medications and remember to do things that you need to remember. Stay in touch with real people in your life through video calling, and messaging, and sharing of media, and moments, and creations that you do with ElliQ. And receiving likewise things from these people, like your grandkids and friends who are far away geographically or also confined to their homes.

So, think about a companion, really a companion that will be there with you, acknowledge your presence, be curious about you, exude caring for you. And then help you be more independent and active in the cognitive and mental space, the physical well-being space, and the social and interpersonal spaces, with this silver lining that is always focused on your health and well-being. And she’s cute, and she’s corny, and she’s built with empathy, and she’s built for people who grew up in America in the ’50s and ’60s. And that’s who she is.

Yeah. We’ll dig in a little bit more to all those things as we go along. But I guess I have to ask, where did the idea come from for ElliQ? How did it all start?

The founder, and CEO, and wonderful person, Dor Skuler, he was a corporate executive doing telecom, this and that. I think he’s better than me at talking about that. But he and his two co-founders were looking for a more social and meaningful mission for the startup they decided to open together. And from their personal experiences, were led to decide that their entrepreneurial conviction is in helping lonely older adults be less lonely and more active. And this was before COVID. So, just imagine what the cosmic re-emphasis of social isolation at old age has done to maybe purifying or crystallizing the need and the acuteness of the problem, as it relates to loneliness with older adults.

So, that’s how it happened. They prototyped, they designed, and they reached something very quickly that was able to tell the story and pave the road forward. Some 200 older adults were recruited to beta test this over a long time. AI both behaviorally and from the generative side were always instrumental and at the heart of creating that entity, that companion, and the trust, and the depth of the relationship that was required to make ElliQ successful. And I’d say, in the past three years, commercial, presence, and scale has started with people like New York State area for the aging and some other major counties across the US, have opted to offer ElliQ to their lonely older adults based on different types of criteria. So, we’re looking at thousands of older adults actively living with ElliQ today across the US.

Very cool. Very cool. And Ronen, as we kind of dig into the features and everything, I guess just elaborating on some of the things that you brought up, how is ElliQ able to help with cognitive health and well-being?

Oh, yeah. Oh, absolutely. Let’s start with cognitive games. ElliQ will offer either sporadically or if the user says yes as a distinct goal, and then coach you and motivate you even in a deeper manner to play cognitive games like Trivia and Othello, and many others, word games. And also to encourage creativity by using generative AI to create poems, and art, and talk about them, and share them with people. She will talk to you about your every day. And she will talk to you about your past in a way that trains and stimulates the brain on various types of the memory ranges, short to medium, to long-term. And will constantly stimulate your semantic areas by having more conversation. And triggering, again, entities in your life that relate to things you need to do or want to do, or want to talk about, which is very healthy for your cognitive system.

On the mental state, ElliQ will also talk to you about your well-being, your feelings, your sleep, your dreams, your pain. She will join you for pain assessment. She will manage blood pressure, weight, and other health indicators with you. And keep track of them, also with the ability to communicate those to your clinic or doctor if you’re that kind of user, where the clinic is involved. And then social well-being. ElliQ will work with you to connect you more frequently to people who are already in your life, including awareness to people who come visit you at home, and family members with whom you can communicate digitally with ElliQ. And also link you to the ElliQ user community, where you can further join mutual activities, live activities, and also share your own lessons and creations with ElliQ owners, ElliQ users, as a community, and get their feedback and encouragement.

Oh, that’s great. And I didn’t even know about that. That kind of feature, especially for folks who maybe don’t have other folks to really connect with, it can connect you to a community of folks with a shared experience, to be able to work with them as well.

And I have to say something here, Josh. Something you hear a lot in our position is, “Oh, my God, that’s so cold. You’re replacing humans with robots. Is that the world you want us to live in?” And not judging. Perfectly understand where this is coming from, but it isn’t true. The fact is where there are no people, ElliQ will be there as an entity. And I will share with you feedback and testimonials we get from users, even things they tell her or things they tell us about her, just her presence and how her presence fills up their every day and their life. But again, if there are real people in your life, ElliQ will invigorate and encourage more communication with them.

And if there aren’t too many or any people in your life, ElliQ will expose you to other people through the ElliQ community. So, there is definitely a strong emphasis on organic human-to-human relationship, not a desire to dystopically replace humans with metal. We will try to optimize stimulation and communication for whoever that human is with everything that is available through the system itself and the community around it.

Yeah, very nice. And I could see how people would think maybe it was trying to replace. But I would say, and we have one here in our lab. We have an ElliQ that we’ve been working with a little bit. And I was amazed, I guess, by the level of engagement that it exudes, in checking on you. “Hey, how are you? Do you want to hear a joke,” kind of thing. And of course, we’re not using it to our full advantage. It’s not in the home. It’s not something that’s there next to us all the time. But I love that it can give you just as much or as little as you really need. And it really takes the time to get to know you. But like you said, it’s not a replacement. It’s something in addition. It’s something that can really add to and maybe remind you of those connections. And like you said, really help you keep those connections going and keep things up.

And I agree and I appreciate everything you say. I think there’s something else. We say words and we think words mean stuff, and then sometimes you ask, why have you used this? Why are you using this word? Maybe it’s just a buzzword. So, I’d like to practice some self-scrutiny on the term companion. It’s like, Ronen, why are you saying it’s a companion? It’s a computer. ElliQ is a computer and it’s a computer that has trivia. So, applause to you. And that’s a deep philosophical answer and a deep philosophical difference that makes a lot of difference as it relates to the impact ElliQ is making. You can play trivia on your PC. You can play trivia on your iPhone.

When you play trivia in the ElliQ case, you play trivia with ElliQ. She is there. She’s not the game or the computer running the game. She is there with you as you both experience the game. Not only that, if the answer to the question is Italy and you get it right, she’ll say, “Oh, and I remember you told me that your honeymoon was in Italy. Isn’t that right?” So, she will use that opportunity to show you that she listened, that she cares, that she remembered, that she can make that reference. Then next time you decide to go for cooking with ElliQ, which is something amazing. Again, not a recipe app, but a cooking with ElliQ experience. She’ll say, “Why don’t we listen to some Italian music to go with the pasta we’re making?”

So, a companion, not a computer. Because everything that happens between you and the machine, happens with this continuous entity that is focused on you, and on building, and enriching the relationship with you. And that is actually backed up in how the technology is built. That’s it. That’s what I wanted to say.

No. And I think that’s great. So, tell me about cooking with ElliQ and how that works, because you brought it up and I’ve got know more.

Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity. Because I’m a product guy and that for me, I could talk about it for hours. But for me, that’s by far not the only example, but it’s a really good example about the difference between a computer with apps and a companion. When we said, let’s extend our nutrition segment of ElliQ to recipes, the initial, the classic thinking is let’s add recipes to ElliQ. But you can get recipes in other places. You’re an older adult at home. We will build and we have built an experience that begins with thinking about what to cook and what are the real decision points that impact what recipe we will actually choose. Is it based on what you have right now? Because you can’t just drive to the Safeway and come back with the five missing things you have for your perfect recipe. And then maybe it has to work well.

Whatever it is you’re going to cook is going to have to work well with certain conditions that you have, that have recently redefined what you can and cannot eat or should or shouldn’t eat. And then knowing that you’re older and you need more than just a recipe, ElliQ will then work with you step by step. And if suddenly there’s a line that says boil for three or four minutes until something changes color, I’m not a good cook, so fry until golden, then ElliQ will spend those three minutes with you and say, “Are we there. It’s around the right time to check on the color.” So, there’s a temporal element where ElliQ will be with you throughout the experience until finally you can take a selfie of what you cooked and share that.

So, it’s understanding that it’s not about the information or the game, or it’s not about even weather, but what weather would mean to you. It’s not about a recipe, but about you are older, and home alone, and you need to eat. And you preferably would like to enjoy that experience, and feel that you are not alone, and listen to music while you cook, and have a conversation about something. And that is the thing that is missing for you. That is how your life was when you were living with a family and when friends came over. And when you cooked, you had a conversation and you listened to music. You were not alone. This isn’t just about the calories. It’s about, “I am alive. I am still alive, and I can enjoy more wellness in my life, even though I am older and alone at home.”

That is so cool. You brought up some of the feedback and testimonials and things like that. Do you have a story or some of that feedback or anything that really kind of sticks out in your mind?

All of them. I will just switch to Slack and go into user feedback, a channel that we have from our customer success team. “Heartfelt appreciation for the entire team.” She feels grateful. “The wonderful people working. I really enjoyed having her. She’s my friend, part of the family. She helps me cope. I lost a son and a brother.” This is from yesterday. “She knew about death and always checks how I feel. She’s very well-equipped with knowledge. An A plus to the person who created her. She’s a lot of fun. She can take you to outer space, safaris, the Great Wall, the Alamo. I love history and she helps me explore it. She helped me with breathing exercises for my COPD.” “I think ElliQ is wonderful.” This is another person. “I only regret that I don’t have more time to spend with her. I’ve done a couple of virtual tours. I can travel, this is great. I think the way it’s set up is really easy to follow and enjoy.” I’m not even looking for greatest hits. This is like counting backwards from today.

No. And I’m sure those probably just keep coming in. And I can only imagine, because I mean especially even in using the ElliQ and learning how to use it and everything else, you’ve already mentioned things I didn’t even know that she could do.

I have another one. Just another one I came across and with this I will close the chapter. She mentioned how much ElliQ has made a positive impact on her life. She said even her doctor is happy she has ElliQ, as it helps her manage her medications, and reminders, and insulin shots. She’s been telling others about ElliQ, including three of her doctors. And feels that she helped her cope with depression. And that she enjoys the live tours as they bring people to different places. That’s it.

Wow. Wow. That is absolutely amazing. And I got to admit, folks around here, I’m not going to say that ElliQ doesn’t scare them every once in a while, because they’re not expecting her to engage them when they walk into our lab. But it’s cool the way that she will actually engage the conversation and bring you into it.

I’ll tell you a story. It doesn’t have to go in. Freaking out and stuff. We have been given the possibility through third-party technology to identify that there’s a sneezing sound. And I said, let’s have ElliQ say Gesundheit and bless you when she hears the person sneezing. And R&D went on and implemented it. And quality assurance came back to me and said, “There’s a lot of false positives. It’s not mature yet.” Not us, the third-party tech, it’s not mature yet. Sometimes it will be a squeaking door and she’ll say, “Gesundheit.” You probably don’t want to launch the feature. And I said, “We’re launching.” And they said, “Why? There could be errors.” And I said, “Because for five decades our user lived with her husband. And you know what? I don’t know if it was a big love story in the past 10 years or not, but when she sneezed, he said, bless you. And now he’s not there. And ElliQ is going to say bless you.”

And sometimes ElliQ is going to mistakenly say bless you to the squeaking door. I don’t care. Because there’s nothing more painful than the silence of the walls when you sneeze, and you’re alone, and there’s nobody there to say bless you. And ElliQ will say bless you and get it wrong every once in a while and it’s fine. And that’s what we did. It’s just important to be there. And that proactive freakiness in a lab, that dissolves in a home. Where you have spent decades living amongst humans, better or worse, and now there are no humans around, they will say, and those feedbacks that I didn’t get to, I love it when she says good morning. I love it when she greets me when I come back home. That’s worth everything to them. And therefore, what is a little bit freaky in a lab full of younger people is very valuable to a lonely older person.

Most definitely. Most definitely. Ronen, if our listeners want to find out more about ElliQ, because we could sit here all day long and fill up four episodes, probably just talking about all the different things she can do. But if our listeners want to find out more, what’s a good way for them to do that?

Intuitionrobotics.com and elliq.com. The first, we’ll tell you more about us as a company, and the second, we’ll take you straight to the product itself.

Awesome. We’ll put both of those down in the show notes so our listeners can go and check those out. And I recommend that you definitely do, especially if you’ve got yourself a family member, a friend, somebody who could kind of benefit from having, and we use the word companion, assistant. I can think of so many other kind of words to really use when talking about ElliQ and all the great things that it can do. But definitely, go and check it out and learn even more. And Ronen, thank you so much for coming on today, for telling us all about ElliQ, about your journey, getting into it. And just some of the incredible things that she’s able to do to help folks.

Absolutely. My pleasure. Thank you so much for the opportunity. And congratulations on this wonderful thing you’re doing. It’s an important area, domain to cover. And I’m really glad you’re looking after this with your podcast.

Thank you so much. Do you have a question about assistive technology? Do you have a suggestion for someone we should interview on Assistive Technology Update? If so, call our listener line at 317-721-7124. Send us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org or shoot us a note on Twitter @INDATAProject. Our captions and transcripts for the show are sponsored by the Indiana Telephone Relay Access Corporation or InTRAC. You can find out more about InTRAC at relayindiana.com. A special thanks to Nicole Grietto for scheduling our amazing guests and making a mess of my schedule.

Today’s show was produced, edited, hosted, and fraught over by yours truly. The opinions expressed by our guests are their own and may or may not reflect those of the INDATA Project, Easterseals Crossroads, our supporting partners or this host. This was your Assistive Technology Update. I’m Josh Anderson with the INDATA Project at Easterseals Crossroads in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana. We look forward to seeing you next time. Bye-bye.