At the Broca Hospital in Paris, elderly patients are taking part in trials involving a small cast of robots. One of them, NAO, leads cognitive exercises, asking patients to finish well-known proverbs. "I'm going to give you the beginning of a proverb, and you can try to tell me how it ends," it tells them. Another, Paro, is a robotic seal fitted with sensors that respond to movement and sound, offering therapeutic comfort. A third, Miroki, is built for conversation.
For 72-year-old Michele, the encounter is novel but not disturbing. "No, I'm not worried, but I prefer human contact," she says. Her reaction is one of many. "There are all sorts of reactions," says Lea Vecchioni, a psychologist and research engineer at the Broca Living Lab. "Some patients are almost amazed. They find it remarkable to see in real life the sort of things they've only seen on television." Others, she notes, "clearly reject the technology and the robots".
Testing what machines can add to therapy
The Broca team is investigating whether these devices can help patients engage with different forms of therapy. "The robot can act as a facilitator that helps engage patients in therapy sessions," says Maribel Pino, a cognitive psychology researcher and research director at the lab. Possible applications include cognitive stimulation, speech and language therapy, physiotherapy and psychomotor rehabilitation.
The work sits within a broader European push to apply robotics and AI to health and social care, from demonstrations at the European Parliament to humanoid machines shown at trade fairs. In France, the focus is less on spectacle than on the daily realities of dementia care.
A personalised voice in southern France
In the south of the country, a separate experiment is putting AI to work in a residential setting. At La Septfontoise in Tarn-et-Garonne, staff are testing Livana, a system designed to support residents when they become agitated. It operates through a phone and generates personalised conversations. Before the trial began, staff gathered biographical details about residents, with consent and cooperation from their families, covering interests and life stories.
That material is used to shape both the system's voice and the content of its interactions. "The voice can have elements that help soothe the resident, based on their interests and life story," says psychologist Elodie Jammes. The approach is being explored as a non-drug option for residents living with Alzheimer's or other neurodegenerative conditions.
For Ghislaine Verines, director of La Septfontoise, the technology could offer another layer of support for residents and staff alike. "The aim of the trial is to explore non-drug approaches that can improve residents' wellbeing, while also providing additional support for care staff," she says.
Tools, not replacements
Pino is careful to define the limits of robotics. "I don't think robotics should be thought of as a replacement tool," she says. "They are still tools, however sophisticated their conversational abilities or presence may become." And there is one thing, she adds, that technology cannot provide: "They will never replace the essential human relationships people need."
The French trials illustrate the range of ways AI and robotics are being explored in dementia care. Some devices aim to stimulate conversation; others focus on therapy, comfort or personalised support. But the researchers behind them are clear that the purpose is not to substitute for caregivers. Instead, the experiments are testing what technology can add to care while keeping human contact at its centre.
