Arising from the need to constantly monitor the well-being of the beneficiaries, we created Ella, a messenger chatbot with a heart. Designed to interact the same way a human does, Ella greets the user, checks in on their mood, reminds them on their medication, and even pushes interesting news articles for them to read, based on their response. When Ella does not receive a response from the user for 48 hours, she will alert the Red Cross to check in on the person.

Ella was first tested in April 2017 and has been in use since among selected ElderAid beneficiaries from the Singapore Red Cross and with plans to have more languages added and functions as we gather behaviour response from the beneficiaries.

Through Ella, we unlocked a new way of monitoring the elderly and continue to assist volunteers through data collection of the status and well-being of the beneficiaries.