# New York extends its ElliQ robot program, and the results it cites come from the maker’s own report

URL: https://onticpost.com/elliq-robot-new-york-older-adults/
Published: 2026-10-16
Updated: 2026-10-15
By: Hill, Onticpost

> New York's aging office extended its ElliQ robot program on October 8, 2026. Its results come from the maker's own report, and no cost or device count is given.

The New York State Office for the Aging, known as NYSOFA, said on October 8, 2026, that it has extended its partnership with Intuition Robotics to keep the ElliQ robot, an AI companion device, in the homes of older New Yorkers at risk of loneliness and social isolation. The office’s release says more than 3,500 older adults applied to the program in 2025 alone, and that 94% of users report feeling less lonely. The release gives no cost, no number of new devices and no end date. The report behind most of its results carries the line “By Intuition Robotics 2026” on every page.

**Takeaway points**

- On October 8, 2026, NYSOFA said it had extended its ElliQ partnership with Intuition Robotics, citing program data in which 94% of users report feeling less lonely.
- The results the state cites come from a report copyrighted by Intuition Robotics and built from the device’s own usage data and a survey scale, and the state’s release states no cost and no new device count.
- No independent evaluation and no privacy terms for the program have been published by the state, and we have not tested ElliQ.

## What did New York announce about the ElliQ robot on October 8, 2026?

New York announced an extension, not a new program. The release, headed “NYSOFA Extends Partnership to Provide ElliQ AI Companion Program for Older Adults, Announces New Program Data”, says the office will “continue bringing” ElliQ to older adults, and that the extension “follows three years of measurable outcomes”.

The program is older than the extension. NYSOFA announced it on May 19, 2022, saying it would deliver the technology “into the homes of over 800 older adults”. Intuition Robotics, which the state’s 2022 release describes as a startup based in Israel, called New York “our first state government partner” at the time. In August 2023 the office reported results from what it then called a pilot.

The Robot Report, a trade outlet, covered the news on October 13, 2026, under a headline saying NYSOFA “expands” the partnership “to bring ElliQ to more seniors”. The state’s own release uses the words extends and continue. It does not say that more devices will be handed out.

NYSOFA’s director, Greg Olsen, is quoted in the release calling ElliQ “an essential tool to help combat the loneliness epidemic”. Dor Skuler, the chief executive and co-founder of Intuition Robotics, is quoted describing “three years of measurable, record-breaking engagement results”. Both are the speakers’ claims.

## How many older adults in New York have an ElliQ, and in which counties?

The most exact count is 834 older adults, as of May 2025, in a report dated February 2026 that the state publishes on its website. The October release does not repeat it. It says only that “hundreds of older adults across New York have received ElliQ through the program” since 2022.

The report says those 834 people joined “through a screening process managed by county and locality-based Area Agencies on Aging”. NYSOFA works with 59 such agencies, according to the same report. The office’s program page adds that “A limited number of ElliQ units is available, only in participating counties/offices and subject to the availability of funding.”

The report includes a colour map of the state, labelled June 2024 to June 2025, that sorts counties into four bands of clients: 1 to 25, 26 to 50, 51 to 75 and 75 or more. It prints no number for any single county. Some counties are left unshaded, and the legend does not say what an unshaded county means.

The client profile in the report is narrow. For June 1, 2024, to May 31, 2025, it gives the average client’s age as 75 years, and 80% of clients as women.

The figure for demand does not hold steady across the documents.

| Document | What it says about applications |
| --- | --- |
| NYSOFA release, October 8, 2026 | More than 3,500 applied “in 2025 alone” |
| Project report, February 2026, introduction | More than 3,500 had applied as of May 2025 |
| Project report, February 2026, map page | “over 3,500 requests for ElliQ this year” |
| NYSOFA webinar slides, January 2026 | A chart of client interest since January 1, 2025, whose line ends below the chart’s 3,000 mark |

The release counts 3,500 in one calendar year. The report’s introduction places the same figure in May 2025, which we read as a running total. The webinar chart, titled “NYSOFA Client Interest”, ends short of 3,000 at the close of 2025. None of the documents explains the difference.

## How much does the ElliQ program cost New York State?

The state’s release does not give a cost. The Robot Report wrote that NYSOFA and Intuition Robotics “created a new three-year, $2.1 million agreement” with the extension. We could not find that figure in any state or company document, so it rests on that outlet alone.

The cost of the first phase was never stated on its own either. When NYSOFA announced the program in 2022, it said the Fiscal Year 2023 State Budget included $2.9 million for several of its initiatives against social isolation. ElliQ was one. The others named were animatronic companion pets, a family caregiver training platform, ride sharing for older adults and online classes. The release did not say how the $2.9 million was split.

| Figure | Source | What it covers |
| --- | --- | --- |
| $2.9 million | NYSOFA release, May 19, 2022 | Fiscal Year 2023 budget for several initiatives, ElliQ among them |
| $2.1 million over three years | The Robot Report, October 13, 2026 | The new agreement, as the outlet reports it |
| Not stated | NYSOFA release, October 8, 2026 | The extension |

Without a published number of devices for the new term, no cost per person can be worked out. Hard figures on robot money are more often found in filings than in press releases; one example is our report that [Agility Robotics Digit earned $1.78 million in 2025, its merger filing with Churchill Capital Corp XI shows](https://onticpost.com/agility-robotics-digit-revenue-spac-filing/).

## How were the ElliQ loneliness results measured?

The results come from the device and from a survey, gathered by the maker. The February 2026 report says its data “reflects anonymized ElliQ usage data collected directly through clients’ interactions with ElliQ”, along with client responses to the “Cobot scale”, which it describes as a patient rated outcome measure designed for companion robots. The report covers the program’s third year, June 2024 to May 2025, and every page is marked “By Intuition Robotics 2026”.

The report does not say how many clients answered the survey, how they were asked, or whether anyone who left the program was counted. It describes no comparison group of older adults without ElliQ.

These are the results the state cites, as the state’s and the company’s claims.

| Claim | October 2026 release | February 2026 report |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Feel less lonely | 94% | 94%, up from 93% the year before |
| Improved overall wellbeing | 97% | 97% |
| Positive difference in daily life | 88% | 88% |
| More connected to the world | 79% | 79% |
| Find ElliQ useful | 92% | Not stated |
| Customer satisfaction | Not stated | 4.6 out of 5 |

The monthly figures match too. Both documents say 88% hold two-way conversations with ElliQ and 81% take part in physical activity that ElliQ encourages, and 92% share updates on their wellbeing.

The state’s earlier headline needs care. NYSOFA’s August 2023 release was titled “NYSOFA’s Rollout of AI Companion Robot ElliQ Shows 95% Reduction in Loneliness”. The one page report it pointed to says something narrower: “95% of clients report that ElliQ is helpful in reducing loneliness and improving wellbeing”. A share of clients who found the device helpful is not a 95% fall in loneliness. The state’s program page still repeats the 2023 wording.

## Why do the ElliQ interaction figures differ between the state’s documents?

The documents give at least four different averages for daily use, over periods that overlap, and none defines an interaction.

| Document | Period | Average interactions a day |
| --- | --- | --- |
| NYSOFA release, May 2022 | Users in general, at launch | 20 |
| Engagement report, July 2023 | Up to July 2023 | 37, for “the average active ElliQ user” |
| Project report, February 2026 | June 2024 to May 2025 | 41, against 29 in year two |
| Webinar slides, January 2026 | 2025 | 49.81, against a national average of 38.36 |
| NYSOFA release, October 2026 | Not stated | 48, “up from 29” |

The October figure of 48 is higher than the 41 the February report gives for its own year, and the release calls it program data from 2026 without naming the months it covers. The baseline of 29 is the report’s year two figure, which is lower than the 37 the 2023 report gave for the first year. The webinar slides, which carry the line “Proprietary and Confidential” from Intuition Robotics, are posted on the state’s own website.

Companion robots for the home are being sold on very different terms elsewhere. We reported that [Flourish sells its Flourish One home robot as experimental, with no warranty and no returns](https://onticpost.com/flourish-one-home-robot-price/). New York’s program reaches people through state funding and local aging offices instead, so its terms are set by the agreement with Intuition Robotics, which has not been published.

## What has not been published about New York’s ElliQ program?

The agreement itself has not been published. The release states no cost, no number of devices, no start date and no end date for the extension, and Intuition Robotics’ own blog, as we saved it on October 15, 2026, had no post on it; its newest post was dated May 25, 2025.

No independent evaluation has been published. The NYSOFA program page says the office is working with Intuition Robotics “to test the efficacy” of the technology, but every outcome figure in the state’s documents traces to Intuition Robotics’ data and Intuition Robotics’ reports. No university, auditor or other outside body is named as having checked them.

The privacy terms for the state program have not been published either. ElliQ “remembers what users tell it”, according to the state’s program page, and the January 2026 webinar slides list daily health and wellness check-ins and the recording of health measurements among its features. The February report says 26% of clients report health measurements to it in a typical month. The only line on control of that information in the report concerns the family caregiver app: clients “choose who to share information with”. Who holds the program’s data, for how long, and what the state can see is not stated in any document we found.

Onticpost has no ElliQ device and has not tested it. Every figure above is the state’s or the company’s, taken from the documents we saved.

## Sources

- [NYSOFA release, October 8, 2026](https://aging.ny.gov/news/nysofa-extends-partnership-provide-elliq-ai-companion-program-older-adults-announces-new)
- [NYSOFA and Intuition Robotics, ElliQ project report, February 2026](https://aging.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2026/02/nysofa-elliq-project-update-2026.pdf)