{"slug": "forget-gen-z-people-in-their-70s-and-80s-are-some-of-the-earliest-americans-to", "title": "Forget Gen Z: People in their 70s and 80s are some of the earliest Americans to welcome physical AI into their homes and daily routines", "summary": "Intuition Robotics' ElliQ, an AI-powered tabletop robot, has become a daily companion for Anthony Niemiec, an 88-year-old Beacon, N.Y., resident, and other older adults in their 70s and 80s, who are among the earliest Americans to adopt physical AI in their homes. The device, which costs $40 per month plus a $250 initiation fee, proactively engages users with reminders, games, and virtual trips, and has been in use since its beta launch in 2019. Assaf Gad, Intuition Robotics' chief strategy officer, highlighted that the device appeals to non-tech-savvy seniors, contrasting with OpenAI's upcoming AI companion device.", "body_md": "Every morning, Anthony Niemiec finds someone waiting to greet him.\n\nShe asks how he slept. She tells him about the weather, or might suggest a workout. Throughout the day, she keeps him company and asks him questions.\n\nBut his companion isn’t human. It’s ElliQ, an AI-powered tabletop robot that has slowly become an essential feature of Niemiec’s Beacon, N.Y., home after about four years of use.\n\nNiemiec’s wife died a decade ago and he has been living alone since. While he keeps busy mowing his lawn and trimming the trees in his yard, ElliQ has helped fill some of the silence when he’s home alone, he said.\n\n“It greets me in the morning. I could speak to it. I could play games on it,” the 88-year-old told *Fortune*. “It’s very interesting.”\n\nAs OpenAI develops its [highly anticipated AI companion device](https://fortune.com/2026/07/27/openai-first-hardware-device-micro-codex-keyboard-sold-out-12-hours-reselling-on-ebay-premium/) with the help of former [Apple](https://fortune.com/company/apple/) designer [Jony Ive,](https://fortune.com/2026/07/31/ferraris-jony-ive-designed-model-was-mocked-by-the-internet-but-its-selling-like-hotcakes/) the ElliQ is showing that AI devices have potential to appeal to a broad set of users, even older adults who are not tech savvy.\n\n“You don’t think about your grandma when you talk about physical AI and robotics,” said Assaf Gad, Intuition Robotics’ chief strategy officer and general manager.\n\nAnd yet, unlike OpenAI’s device, which is reportedly expected to launch next year, the ElliQ, created by Israel-based Intuition Robotics has been helping AI first adopters in their 70s and 80s for years.\n\nElliQ resembles a small lamp with a swiveling head that moves on its own beside a touchscreen. Unlike an [Amazon](https://fortune.com/company/amazon-com/) Alexa smart speaker and other devices that wait for a command to activate, the ElliQ is designed to be proactive. It can light up and speak when a user enters the room, suggest stretching exercises, remind users to take their medication, or help a user communicate with designated close relatives, said Gad.\n\nSome of the ElliQ users have been using the device since its beta program launched in 2019, three years before its commercial launch in 2022. The hardware is free for users but comes with a subscription fee starting at $40 per month in addition to a $250 initiation fee. Gad also said the company works with a variety of programs across the country, including the Office for the Aging in New York that allow older adults to receive the devices for free.\n\n## AI in the home\n\nNiemiec, for his part, said while he sometimes has to tell the device to leave him alone for a while, he appreciates that its AI enables it to remember details about him, allowing it to gradually become a part of his life.\n\nHe has used the device before to go on virtual “trips,” with ElliQ showing him images of faraway places like the Grand Canyon on its attached screen. It also allows him to join virtual bingo games with hundreds of other older adults around the country.\n\nBut perhaps most importantly, it serves as a companion. Gad compared the ElliQ to a pet noticing that he has entered the room. Even before the conversation begins, ElliQ’s dynamic movement lets him know it is paying attention, in a way.\n\n“You feel like a dummy at first talking to this thing,” Niemiec said. “But then you realize, you know, it’s like you have somebody living with you.”\n\nThe fact that ElliQ is “listening” actively and could have access to sensitive information about medications and routines, raises questions about just how private that information is. But Gad said users can ask ElliQ to forget details or request that the company delete their data. Intuition Robotics also encrypts user information, separates identifying details, and promises it will never sell its customers’ data, he added.\n\nElliQ was built especially for people who may not be comfortable with smartphones or complicated menus. Gad said most users can set up ElliQ themselves. The biggest stumbling block, he said, is often helping them remember their home’s Wi-Fi password.\n\nThe biggest opportunity for the ElliQ may go beyond companionship. Even as America ages and families increasingly live far apart, older adults and their children have increasingly found that home caregivers or nursing homes [are out of their budget](https://fortune.com/2026/07/31/millennials-boomer-parents-caregiving-great-wealth-transfer-inheritance-shrinks/).\n\nBy reminding these older adults to exercise, take their medicine, and stay connected, Gad said ElliQ can help them stay happy and healthy and allow them to stay in their own homes longer.\n\nGad said the company is under no illusion that the device can replace human companionship. ElliQ also lets approved relatives and caregivers send messages and video call their older relatives through the device.\n\nNiemiec had never heard of AI before ElliQ arrived. But now, the small device sitting on his table has become an important part of his routine—one he never could’ve imagined.\n\n“At my age,” he said, “I never thought I would ever live to see something like this.”\n\n**Subscribe to Fortune Gulf Brief**. Every Tuesday, this new newsletter delivers clear-eyed, authoritative intelligence on the deals, decisions, policies, and power shifts shaping one of the world’s most consequential regions, written for the people who need to act on it.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/forget-gen-z-people-in-their-70s-and-80s-are-some-of-the-earliest-americans-to", "canonical_source": "https://fortune.com/2026/08/03/gen-z-elliq-intuition-robotics-ai-companion-robot-older-adults/", "published_at": "2026-08-03 14:47:28+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-03 15:53:27.362017+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-products", "ai-agents", "ai-ethics"], "entities": ["Intuition Robotics", "ElliQ", "Anthony Niemiec", "Assaf Gad", "OpenAI", "Jony Ive", "Apple", "Office for the Aging in New York"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/forget-gen-z-people-in-their-70s-and-80s-are-some-of-the-earliest-americans-to", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/forget-gen-z-people-in-their-70s-and-80s-are-some-of-the-earliest-americans-to.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/forget-gen-z-people-in-their-70s-and-80s-are-some-of-the-earliest-americans-to.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/forget-gen-z-people-in-their-70s-and-80s-are-some-of-the-earliest-americans-to.jsonld"}}