# ACILIA will be a low-cost kit with SaaS platform that integrates an embodied conversational agent using AI capabilities to provide educational information and emotional coping support

> **NIH NIH R43** · BENTEN TECHNOLOGIES, INC. · 2020 · $549,149

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Currently, 5.7 million people live with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia (ADRD) in the United States,
and this number is projected to reach 13.8 million by 2050. Two-thirds of individuals with ADRD live at home and
as a result, approximately 15 million unpaid care partners, mostly family members, are increasingly required to
perform complex tasks which causes them significant stress. The major contributors to care partners’ stress are:
1) having low confidence in their competency in their caregiving tasks, such as managing activities of daily
living (ADLs), instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) and behavioral symptoms of ADRD as they change
over the course of the disease and 2) being socially isolated with feelings of loneliness.
Benten proposes to address these problems through creation of the Avatar Companion to Improve the Lives of
Informal care partners of individuals with Alzheimer’s (ACILIA), a home kit with SaaS platform that integrates an
embodied conversational agent using AI capabilities (i.e., emotion analysis, sentiment analysis and life-long
machine learning [L3] algorithm), with home speakers, a smart watch, and mobile app, to support the CPs on the
care journey. ACILIA will provide just-in--time guidance and support to care partners in addition to stage-
appropriate education and training on how to manage caregiving tasks. It will also engage in natural
conversations with the care partners detecting sentiments of stress and offering advice and support and
connection to a virtual community. ACILIA aims to assist in reducing the family care partners’ stress levels by
improving their competency and capabilities in providing care and by providing companionship and support,
which will reflect positively on their quality of life and that of their loved ones living with ADRD and aging in place.
During this Phase I project, we will develop of a prototype ACILIA using input from an advisory board of informal
care partners and people living with ADRD. We will also conduct a pilot test for feasibility of ACILIA among 20
individuals who are in early-middle stage ADRD and their informal care partners to evaluate the usability and
acceptance of ACILIA prototype. Successful completion of Phase I will lead to Phase II and evaluating its
outcomes. improving informal care partners’ competency, reducing their feeling of loneliness, and reducing their
stress levels in an adequately powered randomized controlled trial (RCT).

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10083570
- **Project number:** 1R43AG069659-01
- **Recipient organization:** BENTEN TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
- **Principal Investigator:** Tony Xuyen Ma
- **Activity code:** R43 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $549,149
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-09-01 → 2022-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10083570

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10083570, ACILIA will be a low-cost kit with SaaS platform that integrates an embodied conversational agent using AI capabilities to provide educational information and emotional coping support (1R43AG069659-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10083570. Licensed CC0.

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