It started with
my mother.

My mother is 86. She has difficulty with movement and very little remaining vision. I wanted to find a way for her to enjoy music, listen to books and call the people she loves, on her own terms.

Every device asked too much of her.

I tried phones, tablets and devices from specialist shops. Holding them could be difficult. Using a touchscreen was harder still. Finding an icon, dialling a number or answering a call all depended on things she could no longer do comfortably.

I tried Alexa and Google Home, too. In her experience, the assistants often misunderstood. She grew tired of repeating commands just to play some music. They still felt like another electronic device to operate.

Audiobooks seemed promising. But finding them on CD proved difficult, and downloading a book meant navigating the internet and reading a screen. The story was there. Getting to it was the problem.

Then a conversation sparked an idea.

One day, while driving, I was talking with ChatGPT’s voice mode. The conversation felt fluid. I could interrupt, ask another question and adjust the pace and tone to suit me.

I began to wonder what that kind of conversation could mean for my mother. What if she could ask about a news story and explore its background? Learn something new? Simply follow her curiosity?

What if she could just talk, and the technology could meet her where she is?

A companion that knows the context.

That was the beginning of Kai. I imagined a companion that could recognise the people in her life: that “my son” and “my little one” both mean me, and that asking to speak to me could lead to a call.

Something that could read her a book and remember where she stopped yesterday. Or play the music she loves, without asking her to find her way around a screen or a streaming service.

Kai would not be a person, or replace the people who love her. But it could offer another way to enjoy the day and stay connected to them.

Built around her. With others in mind.

The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to build something she could feel comfortable with. Something she would want to use because it brought a little more of her world within reach.

That is why we are developing Kai. It begins with my mother, and with the hope that it can be useful to other people and families facing similar difficulties.

The founder of Kai
Eutektic Life