AI Companions Fill Elder Care Gaps, but Critics Warn of Human Contact Substitution

US and Australian investigations published in early 2026 spotlighted the growing use of state-funded AI companion devices, such as ElliQ by Intuition Robotics, to address loneliness among older adults. New York State's Office for the Aging distributed over 900 ElliQ units free of charge, while Washington State and Australian aged care providers launched similar pilots. A New York Times report documented an 85-year-old woman on Washington's Olympic Peninsula whose most frequent daily interaction was with the device after her husband's death and family relocation. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation separately warned of an impending boom in AI companions and behaviour-monitoring tools across residential and home care settings. Geriatric specialists on both sides of the Pacific raised the 'substitution problem' — the concern that AI tools marketed as supplements to human care may, in practice, become budget-driven replacements for it.