The Market Has Already Voted — and It Voted AARP
The conventional wisdom says artificial intelligence is a young person's game. The numbers say otherwise.
Anthony Niemiec is 88 years old, lives alone in Beacon, N.Y., and has been using an AI-powered tabletop robot called ElliQ for about four years. His wife died a decade ago. ElliQ greets him in the morning, tells him the weather, suggests workouts, and keeps him company through the day. 'It's very interesting,' he told Fortune. 'It's like you have somebody living with you.'
Niemiec had never heard of AI before the device arrived in his home.
The product and the price point
ElliQ is built by Intuition Robotics, an Israel-based company. The hardware resembles a small lamp with a swiveling head mounted beside a touchscreen. Unlike a passive smart speaker that waits for a command, ElliQ is designed to be proactive — it lights up when a user enters the room, suggests stretching exercises, sends medication reminders, and connects users by video call to approved family members and caregivers.
The hardware itself is free, but the service carries a subscription fee starting at $40 per month plus a $250 initiation fee. The company also works with government programs — including the Office for the Aging in New York — that allow older adults to receive the device at no cost.
Some users have been on the platform since its beta launch in 2019, three years before the commercial release in 2022. OpenAI's competing companion device, developed with former Apple designer Jony Ive, is reportedly not expected to launch until next year.
Built for the non-tech-savvy
ElliQ was engineered from the ground up for users who may not be comfortable with smartphones or layered menus. Assaf Gad, Intuition Robotics' chief strategy officer and general manager, said most users can set up the device themselves. The most common obstacle, he noted, is helping them remember their Wi-Fi password.
On privacy — a legitimate concern given that the device actively listens and retains details about medications and daily routines — Gad said users can instruct ElliQ to forget specific information or request full data deletion. The company encrypts user data, separates identifying details, and has committed to never selling customer data.
The real market opportunity: keeping people out of nursing homes
Gad is direct about ElliQ's larger commercial thesis. As America ages and families live farther apart, home caregivers and nursing-home placements have become unaffordable for a growing share of households. By prompting older adults to exercise, take medication, and stay socially connected, ElliQ aims to extend independent living — a value proposition with both personal and fiscal weight.
Gad acknowledged the device cannot replace human companionship. But the product is not trying to. It is trying to fill the gap between a phone call and a care facility.
CEO Times take
This is free enterprise solving a problem that government transfer programs have only made more expensive. The market for aging-in-place technology is enormous, underfunded by venture capital relative to its demographic scale, and now being validated by actual paying customers — not focus groups.
The $40-per-month subscription model is sustainable precisely because it delivers measurable utility: fewer emergency calls, longer independent living, reduced caregiver burden. Capital rewards clear rules, and the rule here is simple — give older Americans a tool that works, price it honestly, and let them decide. Niemiec decided four years ago. The rest of the market is catching up.
