Technology Updates: ‘Excuse me, are you S’porean?’: Lions Befrienders’ upgraded AI agent calls seniors in familiar voice

Source:

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/health/excuse-me-are-you-sporean-lions-befrienders-upgraded-voice-ai-calls-seniors-in-familiar-voice

ChatGPT:

Lions Befrienders has upgraded its Singlish-speaking AI voice agent to better support Singapore’s rapidly ageing population, using it to automate daily check-ins with seniors living alone. The enhanced system, tested by 100 seniors including 69-year-old Mr Tan Hwee Leng, now responds almost instantly and sounds far more natural than the earlier 2024 version, which many users found mechanical. The AI asks about availability, interests and volunteering, and adapts when seniors say they are busy, helping reduce loneliness through familiar, human-like conversation.

The social service agency plans to officially launch the upgraded agent by March 2026, enabling outreach to scale significantly despite manpower limits. Lions Befrienders currently supports more than 10,000 seniors and operates 10 active ageing centres. The new system helps automate missed-check-in callbacks and flags urgent cases—such as seniors feeling unwell—so staff can respond quickly. It aims to minimise social isolation and complement staff who typically make 15-minute personal calls.

Developed with Seasalt.ai and Twilio, the agent is linked to a senior database, allowing hundreds of personalised conversations daily, with plans to increase capacity into the thousands. Twilio also enables SMS/WhatsApp interactions and provides transcripts for case files. The AI is being trained to understand more local languages and dialects including Malay, Tamil, Hokkien and Cantonese, with support from A*Star’s MERaLion model. Future upgrades will include emotion detection, enabling the system to sense changes in tone or distress.

Voice AI is gaining traction in healthcare, and Twilio notes growing interest in patient engagement and virtual assistant use cases. Seniors like Mr Tan are enthusiastic, anticipating a future where the AI can inform them about activities without needing to visit a centre, making support more accessible and personalised.