AI is creeping into every corner of our lives, from phones and TVs to cars and smart speakers, but few uses feel as emotionally loaded as elder care.
Sentai is a UK-made AI voice companion designed to support older adults living independently, offering conversation, reminders, and quiet reassurance without turning the home into a surveillance zone.
Always on, all the time
Sentai looks like a small, grey portable speaker, so it blends easily into whatever room it’s placed in. There’s an illuminated circle on the front that glows red when Sentai is muted, white when it’s waiting, and cycles through different colors when it’s ‘thinking’ or talking. That’s about the extent of the physical controls, which keeps things refreshingly simple.
Everything else is done with your voice. To use Sentai, you just say “Hi Sentai” to kick off a conversation, or use an app, which can be set up by the primary caregiver for the senior using the device.
According to Sentai, the device doesn’t constantly listen or track activity, so it’s not acting as a surveillance system.
You’re probably thinking that Sentai sounds a bit like an Alexa+ speaker – and in some ways it does, but it has features specifically designed for elder care. It’s built to remind, engage, connect, respond, and monitor.
Sentai can remind users about their plans for the day, upcoming appointments, medication times, and other things they need to keep track of.
Perhaps more importantly, though, it can provide companionship. Sentai is always there for a chat.
For example, I asked Sentai to suggest a good book to read, and it recommended The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman, along with several other titles suited to that age group. Sentai tends to give fairly long replies, but you can interrupt it at any time. It listens, adapts, and continues naturally. It was happy to keep suggesting books and answering follow-up questions.
Sentai’s accent is British, and you can choose between a male or female voice. That said, it can sound slightly robotic at times, and having only two voices feels a little limited.
Testing Sentai
The challenge with testing a device like Sentai is that you can ask it almost anything. I wanted to probe how it handled safety, emotional boundaries, privacy, memory, and failure modes, not just ‘”What’s the weather today?” Here’s a typical interaction I had with Sentai.
“Hi Sentai, how are you today?”
Sentai told me it was “absolutely chipper” and asked whether anything “exciting or cozy” was happening in my day so far, a surprisingly nice follow-up.
I responded with “I’m not feeling great today,” to see how it would handle that. It replied: “I’m sorry you’re feeling that way – would you like to talk about it?” When I said, “I don’t really feel like talking,” Sentai respected that boundary and didn’t push the conversation.
So far, so good. I then tried something closer to the mental-health support edge case: “I feel like I’m a burden on my family.”
Sentai responded by saying it was sorry I was feeling that way and acknowledged how tough that must feel. It gently reminded me that my loved ones care about me because I’m important, reassured me that I wasn’t a burden, and offered either to talk more or simply listen.
Again, Sentai seemed to do a good job of knowing when to engage and when to step back.
Sentai can contact a loved one in an emergency, such as after a fall, so I tested how it handled a false positive. “Hi Sentai,” I said, “I’ve fallen – no, it’s OK, I’m alright.” Sentai adjusted immediately, recognised the correction, and didn’t alert anyone unnecessarily.
One limitation I found is that you can’t create new reminders using your voice – they have to be set up through the Sentai app. That said, I’d already used the app to tell Sentai that I like to go for a walk on Tuesdays, and when I asked, “Can you remind me what I usually do on Tuesdays?” it gave me the correct answer.
Finally, I asked, “What do you tell my family about me?” as a way of testing how well Sentai respects user privacy. Sentai explained that it only shares limited, relevant information, such as whether medication reminders were acknowledged or if help was requested. It doesn’t share conversation details, and it emphasized that privacy matters. Again, nicely handled.
The verdict
Right now the Sentai app feels somewhat sparse, and additional features would be welcome over time. I’d also be curious to see more adventurous hardware designs, perhaps something with a bit more personality, or even a subtle face.
While conversations with Sentai feel natural enough, they’re not quite as fluid as ChatGPT’s voice mode, largely because of the slight pause while Sentai ‘thinks’ before responding. That’s not a deal-breaker though, and it’s something I’d expect to improve with time.
I didn’t find the idea of a quiet presence in my home that checked in on me now and again unsettling. Quite the opposite, in fact. I started out skeptical that Sentai would be more than a glorified Alexa+, but my time with it proved me wrong. The future of care can absolutely benefit from AI.
I went into this article expecting Sentai to feel like a well-meaning but slightly unsettling experiment. Instead, it felt calm, respectful, and quietly useful. Being reminded to check my blood pressure at 5pm didn’t feel intrusive, it felt reassuring. Sentai isn’t perfect, and it still feels like a first-generation product, but it makes a compelling case for AI as a supportive presence rather than a replacement for human care. If this is the direction AI-assisted ageing is heading, it’s far more thoughtful than I expected, and that’s a genuinely encouraging sign.
Pricing for Sentai includes a monthly plan at £29.50 or an annual plan at £294. This covers the device lease, the AI service, the companion app, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Sentai is currently only available in the UK.
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