ARIA

Project outline

The problem

Across Portugal, 517,000 people aged 65 and over live alone (INE Census 2021). In 2024 the GNR's Censos Sénior operation found 42,873 older people living alone, isolated or vulnerable. Portugal has fewer than one long-term care worker for every 100 people aged 65+, against an OECD benchmark of about five.

Europe faces the same gap. Around 4 in 10 women and 1 in 5 men aged 65+ in the EU live alone (Eurostat), and the EU needs about 808,000 more care workers by 2040 just to keep today's ratio (European Labour Authority).

Their families care deeply, but they work, often live far away, and can't call every day. Small things slip: a prescription runs out, the fridge empties, a fall goes unmentioned.

What Aria does

Aria is an AI voice companion that rings an older person on the phone they already have. There's no app, no screen and nothing to learn. She has a warm, patient chat: how they're feeling, whether they've taken their medication and eaten, and the home checks that matter to that person. She knows their interests, family and recent news, and she looks at the local weather so she can warn about dangerous heat or cold.

After the call, Aria acts on what she heard:

• Urgent worries (a fall, missed medication, not eating) reach the family by text straight away. In an emergency, Aria also tells the person to call 112.
• Everyday needs become ready-to-send requests: a repeat prescription to the GP, a shopping list to the family. Each one waits for a family member to tap approve.

The family stays in control

The family dashboard shows the day at a glance, alerts, and every action Aria took, with timestamps: concern, request prepared, approved, sent. In the carer settings the family can edit everything Aria draws on, including medications and dosages, shopping staples, interests, family, where things are kept, letters and appointments, and notes for the next call. Changes apply from the very next call.

Safe by design

• A person approves every everyday request before it goes out; only urgent alerts skip the queue.
• Aria only acts on what was actually said. A topic that never came up is recorded as "not discussed", never as a yes or a no.
• A prescription request names a medicine only when what the person said matches one medicine on their list. If it's unclear, nothing goes to the GP and the family is asked to check.
• Aria asks before passing anything on, and respects "don't tell my daughter".
• If asked, she is honest that she's an AI.
• She never diagnoses or gives medical advice.
• Data is stored in an EU-hosted database with row-level security on every table. No raw call transcript is shown on the dashboard.
• A request only shows as sent once Gmail or Twilio has accepted it.