Living abroad and taking care of your parents isn't always easy. Vassili Le Moigne, counselor to French citizens abroad in the Czech Republic, experienced this firsthand. After his father died, his mother found herself alone. "She had a health problem, and I was worried. But with the time difference, the busy days... it was complicated." to call her every day,” he tells LesFrançais.press.
When AI checks in on mom
That’s where the idea for InTouch was born. A very simple application: it makes a call every day to the elderly person. No screen, code, or app to install is required. All you have to do is pick up the phone. The speaking voice is generated by AI, but the tone is human, the questions are personalized, and the conversation is natural. "Elderly people get used to it quickly. It's often children who are a little embarrassed at first, as if they were delegating their role to a machine. But in fact, it doesn't replace anything, it complements it," Vassili explains.
The smartest thing is that InTouch doesn't just say "hello, how are you?." The AI gets to know the person, with the help of loved ones who fill out a short questionnaire. To avoid generic chatter. "We have a base of 400 questions, on life, memories, interests... If the person likes history, we refine: Louis XIV or the pharaohs?," explains the founder. The tone and pace are also designed to adapt to the age or abilities of the person being called. Specialists in aging helped refine everything. The idea is that it remains fluid, pleasant, and never intrusive.
And then these discussions, without realizing it, made the memory work. Sometimes the AI asks: "What would you say to yourself at 16?" Enough to launch touching and not at all mechanical exchanges. The children then receive a short report, with the mood of the day. Practical for keeping an eye on things from a distance, without having to call all the time.
Launched from Prague, InTouch now speaks almost 40 languages and operates in around a hundred countries. The team is as diverse as the users: Czechs, Slovaks, Iranians, French... They all work together to keep the tool running and adapt to the needs of different markets.
What's next? The app will soon allow you to send voice messages to the elderly person, so that grandchildren can also participate. This will create a real intergenerational chat loop.
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