115. Empowering Older Adults with AI-Powered Digital Literacy with Stefano Selorio

In this episode of Raising Tech, host Matt Reiners sits down with longtime friend and tech-for-good visionary Stefano Selorio, founder and CEO of Carevocacy. They discuss Stefano's journey as a caregiver-turned-entrepreneur, the origins of Carevocacy, and how their latest innovation, Apo AI, is revolutionizing digital health literacy for older adults.

You’ll hear how Carevocacy has served over 23,000 older adults and why making tech accessible through simple tools like SMS can create powerful change. Stefano also dives into the pilot partnership with Parasol Alliance’s Tech@Home program, revealing early data and heartwarming insights into how residents are embracing AI, from fixing printers to asking deep life questions at 3 AM.

What You’ll Learn:

• How Carevocacy empowers older adults through digital health literacy
• Why Oppo AI was built with accessibility, scalability, and empathy in mind
• Ways senior living providers can partner to enhance resident tech support
• The real-world impact of SMS-based AI on social connection and independence
• How Parasol Alliance and Carevocacy are combining forces to drive digital inclusion

Resources Mentioned:

• Learn more about Carevocacy: www.carevocacy.com
  
  
• Connect with Stefano on LinkedIn: Stefano Selorio
  
  
• Learn about Parasol Alliance’s Tech@Home: Parasol Alliance Resident Support
  
  
• Read the McKnight’s Senior Living article on the pilot program: https://www.mcknightsseniorliving.com/news/ai-pilot-will-put-personal-tech-coach-in-senior-living-residents-pockets/

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Transcript

Matt Reiners: [00:00:00] Welcome back to another episode of Raising Tech. I am so excited for today's guest. , His name is Stefano Solorio, , who's the founder and CEO of Care advocacy, an ed tech company that helps older adults be tech savvy. , Carey's latest product Oppo is a tech space digital health literacy coach that's powered by ai.

And before we kinda get into it, I just wanna share how I know Stefano . Our first time ever meeting, he learned how it was a conference. Gosh, a couple hours away. He dropped everything, hopped in a car and met me at a strange hotel. , And ever since then there's been a, a friendship, a mentorship.

, I've just been really excited about everything that he's done along the way, and really excited to jump into everything in a, a little bit of anything here today. So, Stefano, thanks for [00:01:00] joining me here today. 

Stefano Selorio: Yeah, I was, , you know, it's crazy. We've known each other for what, about six years now?

Probably six, five or six years. , Like even just like. When you first talked to me about your first child, and so I was like, it's crazy how how much we've known each other. Yeah. , You make it seem like I was trying to stalk you or anything. Okay. You had told me you were there and, , I just happened to show up and, you know, it wasn't too far and it was a conference here around in Miami.

So, , look, from, from then on, I, I'm so happy that we've known each other. You've been, not necessarily just a friend, but really a mentor in navigating the senior living and tech space. Everything I, before I go into a little bit about that, I did wanna contest something that I heard from a different interviewee that you, you were talking to our good friend, Kyle R.

Okay. In that episode, he claimed to be your best friend in the industry. I just wanna say, does Kyle Rand have like a trophy that says Matt second [00:02:00] best friend? I don't think so. Wow. 

Speaker 3: Wow. Like, do you, this, is 

Stefano Selorio: this a guy? Have this, did I, did I get this trophy just for this podcast? Maybe. But this proves it even more.

Matt Reiners: , 

I'm gonna start charging people for claiming to be my best friend now. I feel like there's some money to be made there, but, , that's too funny. Well.

I'm a little taken aback, but hey, we wanna start this episode engaging. I love it. 

Stefano Selorio: Yeah, I, you know, I was waiting to pull this out. 

Speaker 3: , Yeah, so 

Stefano Selorio: anyways, love Kyle, by the way. , So I hope you, if you 

Speaker 3: see this, 

Stefano Selorio: that'll be so funny. But yeah. . Thank you so much for that introduction and happy to be here. Matt.

You know, I've been working on Carevocacy for about six years now and , we've served over probably 23,000 older adults. , Those who were under Medicare Advantage in senior living value-based clinics and those who participated in a lot of nonprofits and organization. So we definitely have been around and served a lot of [00:03:00] people and I'm so excited because.

We are in this new era of digital literacy and digital health literacy where we're using AI as this tool to kind of scale the work that I think a lot of people should have access to. So yeah, I'm happy to be here. 

Matt Reiners: Yeah. No, that's awesome. , And it's been really cool to kind of see some of those stories and I, I've even used it and it's been super helpful to me.

And you know, Stefano, I know we talked a little about, about care advocacy, but what's your story really? What led you to start Care advocacy, gosh, six years or so ago? 

Stefano Selorio: Yeah. , Wow. . I think it goes back even before launching Carevocacy. When I, , was even interested in the aging or age tech space, , I actually, my family and I were caregivers to my grandma and we still are to this day.

So it's been about like eight, nine years. I feels like 10, to be honest with you, , of being. Caregivers, family caregivers, to my grandma who's living with Alzheimer's, and at the time I was actually in college. And that affected a lot of the [00:04:00] decisions I had to make on prioritizing, whether you know her care, my education, my career, and you know, sometimes.

Life throws challenges and opportunities at the same time. And I really decided, you know what? I'm gonna work with the cards that I was dealt with. And, you know, I, I was, I knew I was gonna be a caregiver for a very long time. I knew I still wanted to go to school or at least find some sort of career. And I just realized like, let me try to see if I can meld the two worlds.

, And that's where I was like, fell in the love of, fell in the love of like, working in technology for older adults and trying to figure out exactly what was needed in the industry. . And I think, I think for a lot of us, like I sometimes end up being the guy that like gets used to ask about technology questions all the time.

Like we've either done that for our parents, our grandparents, or just even like our friends. And you know, I looked into that space and I realized like. Maybe this is the best way for me as someone who's a newcomer into this space to just enter and just to learn and see how it worked. And, , [00:05:00] that's a little bit about my story of like why I started in this first place of like, I think it's really comes from a place of not only as a real caregiver, , and a current caregiver, but also a technologist and like looking at technology as a way to not necessarily replace things, but more so to help people scale the work that they're doing and ultimately measure those things.

Matt Reiners: No, I love that. And I think it's, it's such a, a needed thing too, right? , In terms of like what I've seen even with my own loved ones and kind of the digital literacy there. I mean, my mom still calls me when she doesn't have the right input on the tv. Hopefully she's getting a little bit better with that.

But, , it's been really cool to see your journey. And I was thinking back too, like you should have a trophy for the person that's filming the most tiktoks over the years. , So. That we'll have to work on that outside of this. , And, and now I'm curious about apo, right? Yeah. So, you know, vacancy's new AI product, ai, the, the busiest of buzzwords out there.

But can you kind of walk us through what exactly is APO and how does it work as a digital health literacy coach for older adults? 

Stefano Selorio: Yeah. So before I even get into exactly how it [00:06:00] works, I wanna paint a picture to our audience here today and and really kind of demonstrate like how digital literacy normally works in the real world without ai, right.

I think what traditionally happens is that when we try to provide someone some sort of education about technology, it's usually like that one-on-one approach. That group class we typically, typically do, which is still very important to this day. But what typically happens when it comes to those rooms or situations is that.

People who are not able to join are or are not physically able to join are sometimes left out of that conversation. , Sometimes , people are not comfortable in that kind of environment to ask questions because they might be looked down upon about those questions. And sometimes how do you like really answer the needs of especially older adults who may be curious outside of the classroom setting or outside of that private tutoring setting.

And so that's kind of like really the problem that we were trying to solve of like. How do we not only make it scalable, not only make it measurable, but ultimately accessible for folks who are just [00:07:00] like lifelong learners about technology? And it's, and you'd be surprised, like technology, you know, ex , opens up doors more than just like, how do I use the iPhone?

I think it ultimately creates. Opportunities, like job opportunities. I think there's some older adults that we worked with that ultimately was seeking out, you know, entrepreneurship through using technology. And , and you had mentioned like content creation. We had some older adults that were able to learn how to navigate TikTok to create content about themselves.

So those are just kind of the fun things that I think traditional ways of digital literacy can do. And I think for what we were deciding to build with Apple ai, it was more of like, how do we supplement. The ways that people are currently receiving this education and then helping those who are delivering it as well.

And it's very simple. They actually just go on our website or they work with one of our partners, like, , partners like Paris, all to kind of really sign up. Put in their phone number, email address, and then from there, within [00:08:00] 60 seconds, they receive a text message from our phone number and they can ask questions to that phone number twenty four seven without the fear of judgment.

, And ultimately just be curious and just ask questions on the go. That's really it. , We use SMS because we feel like it's a more accessible approach. There's no need to download an application for it and. Like, I think it's amazing because we get to see these like conversations where I think a lot of older adults know that it is an artificial intelligence tool, but they feel a little bit more expressive than normally what they would do with someone who they might lead onto.

And I think that's a really interesting thing to see, especially in senior living, especially with older adults. 

Matt Reiners: I would agree. I think what I love about it, and I've tried to break it many times here, , is the SMS based platform, because I just think it kind of fits into a way that a lot of people are using technology already, right?

There's not an app you have to download, there's not something you need to sign up for. , It just, well, originally I get access to it. You do, but it's not, , [00:09:00] that difficult. And, , but then the SMS, I think base platform just makes it easier for everybody and anybody. , And I'm wondering from like your point of view, 'cause like we talked about in the beginning, that you've worked with like Medicare Advantage plans and senior living communities.

Like how do you, and how does like APO integrate in those environments and what kind of partnerships have proven most impactful to you in your, , offering here? 

Stefano Selorio: Yeah, I think one of the things that we always like to focus on is like meeting people where they're at. And I think the first things that we did when we first launched APO was like, work with.

Community-based organizations. And these are typically nonprofits groups that, , either have been doing amazing work to serve older adults, , who are needing resources, you know, from the community. And typically what happens is they don't necessarily know where to tap into those resources because either they don't have the literacy to, to address those things.

, And so. One thing we did was partner up with local nonprofits that were serving older [00:10:00] adults, and we've seen so much, so much of an impact of like just giving 'em that access to information that they never thought of. I think what's so great about the tool that we're building is, , almost like democratizing the world around digital literacy and, and AI access, especially to a population who sometimes we deem to be like, maybe they're not.

Look. They might be interested into it, but you can see the trends more than ever. I'm sure you'd know too, Matt, of like how many people really, really love AI and kind of want to learn more about it and how to best use it for their case. , But even then, like we, we work with, , underserved populations.

We work with Medicare Advantage, we work with senior living residents as well. , We work with a variety of types of older adults, different backgrounds. , I think what's so great is that. Because the tool is delivered through SMS, it speaks in multiple languages to be able to, you know, accommodate those different types of learners.

And it's not really trying to be annoying, it's trying to be very, , reactive to what are those questions and the [00:11:00] things that they're trying to look at. So I think that's kind of what's. Amazing about the tool. I'm excited more of like how it can be integrated with some of our partners, because again, we've made it so easy for not only the frontline of users, but then also with the people that we've worked with as well.

Matt Reiners: Yeah. No, and, and I agree, and I think when I, when I look at a lot of these things of where it fits in and, and how it can be helpful, like, to your point of like where AI is being used, there's too many people I talk to, they're like, we wanna use ai. And I'm like, where do you wanna use it? And they're like, we don't know.

So it's kinda like, okay, well, like the way, and the way I look at it is, okay, you can use like AI in. Solving a problem. So what's the current problem? Or use it as like kind of an educational coach that's simple to use. Right. I think too many times we tend to overcomplicate things and I think the ability to do stuff like this and even get questions on the fly or things you're not sure with, , you know, I think it's, it's super beneficial.

Like, , earlier today I had to put [00:12:00] up. , Christmas lights, and I'm asking Chad, GPT, how do I properly use this ladder that I got that has like 26 different ladder settings. , So it's just kind of, you know, not so much on the, , technology education piece, but more home improvement, which I've been using AI too much for.

, Yeah. , Don't tell my wife that, but, , yeah. 

Stefano Selorio: I would say that, , it doesn't have to be necessarily tech related, right? It, it's more about like, , daily, daily living activities. If you think about it, , , that term that we hear a lot, especially when it comes to older adults, it's like how do we, how do we kind of maneuver how and the things that we have to do?

, I was just gonna mention that one of the craziest things that I've, I've experienced working with this tool is seeing how. They're almost like taking ownership of like this thing that they wanted to like work on. We would probably would taken them like. Probably like months to get onto because one, no one they would either visit, you know, traditionally what would happen, especially with some of our learners, is that they would do research with their friends and their family.

And usually, typically friends and family might take a [00:13:00] long time to respond to that, or may they may get a little bit annoyed by that. , Or they might go to traditional means, which is, you know, go to a local library or go to a local university. I think what's happening here with the tool that we built is like giving them.

The tools already. And I think I've, I've talked with this with you, you know, before and, and with other people, I think we're like the. One of the first tools, I think that's really front facing for older adults and for residents instead of just being this platform at the backend where we say we are using ai, but it doesn't really touch necessarily the end user, which are, you know, older adults.

And we've made a safe environment for folks to test out those questions, to be curious to, to be able to know that this is built off of not only the heart of. Current caregiver, but in partnership with a bunch of organizations that understand that we need to deliver AI in a safe and , kind space. 

Matt Reiners: Yeah, and I think it's a great point.

, 'Cause yeah, so many times, and I see like all these technology [00:14:00] providers out there, right? And they all boast about their ai, but it's all on the back end, right? And they talk about resident engagement being ai, but it's really just. Allowing the staff to like, help connect people and all that sort of stuff.

, But not necessarily putting the AI in residents hands. And it's funny 'cause I'll go to some communities where the residents are like chomping at the bit to get access or like talking about chat GPT and almost sometimes more forward along in the, in terms of their thinking than some of the staff at times.

So it's kind of this, , happy medium of, of what that could look like? , Yeah, 

Stefano Selorio: I, I would describe it as give, give someone a canvas and the paintbrush and the paint and just let them make the art on their own. And I think that's what we're seeing right now. We're seeing a lot of folks who.

I feel like we are the paintbrush and like giving them the tools to basically create that picture. , And funny enough, they can create a picture now with AI as well too. So I just think it's a really, really cool, , thing to witness and to be part of, especially in this new age of AI [00:15:00] and older adults.

Matt Reiners: No, I love that. , And now I know, you know, so we've recently started working together and we've piloted apo, the couple, , parasol Alliance clients that are utilizing our tech at home service. , I'm just walking, can you, , can, can you walk us through how that collaboration came together and really how do you envision the future of it?

Looking from your end, and of course I'll share my thoughts too, but you go first. 

Stefano Selorio: Yeah. You know, I think at the end of the day, we're not here to. Necessarily replace or, , make any changes to traditionally how I think a lot of older adults like to take in education. I think it is so important for them to have that trust built with someone who can help them navigate through that.

And that's what you call the. Digital navigators and , you can call them, you know, your parasols tech at home instructors, we call them digital navigators. We call them, , people who are just you, sometimes tech wizards or tech tutors. But that is still like an important relationship to have. I think what we're trying to help is supplement that relationship even more and [00:16:00] build on top of it, especially when that tech tutor isn't with that resident anymore.

And I think when we had that conversation about working together. Seeing where we could better improve the resident engagement side of things and the resident experience of things. And we were really aligned, I think, with what Tech At Home is doing for, for communities. And I think we as a technology provider was, was really thinking about, okay, we wanna work with a partner that already has those trusted relationships and we could just be the person that helps you scale the work that you do.

And, . You know, I, I think there was an article recently that about a few weeks ago on McKnight kind of sharing a little bit about, , that pilot and this relationship we have, , we are piling APO in about two senior living communities right now and kind of seeing how they're. Using it. We have a few metrics that we're measuring.

I'm happy to share as well too about that because we just finished our first month, so there's a little bit of like early quantitative and qualitative data that [00:17:00] I like. I'm excited to share because you can already see that, as I said, you, when you give someone the brush and you allow them to have the room to paint.

There's so much art that you can see and it's, and it's interesting enough, like from our data, we're seeing questions that are not even necessarily tech related. And I think that's like showing a little bit of like how the possibility of social connection can play into when you have a tool that is used for specifically around tech, but then you give them the room and the space to.

Be creative about it. So, , yeah, I could, I could go into a little bit of data, but I, I, I wanna hear your thoughts of like what you think this, this, , this tool can be used for what you guys are doing. 

Matt Reiners: Yeah. So, you know, I think when I first started at Parasol, you know, a little over a year ago, , I set up a bunch of calls with what I would call.

It, technology, innovation, friendlies, , on the provider side, just to kind of hear about their pain points, what's working, what's not working, if they could wave a magic wand and what would they fix? [00:18:00] And everybody talked about the resident technology support and I heard varying levels of excitement. Of interest to support that from the staff level.

, You know, I won't quote 'em directly, but someone had basically said that, , hey, don't get me wrong, we love the residents, but if we started taking their tech tickets, we're gonna be in each of their rooms for 45 minutes. Just, you know, hearing all their stories and, Hey Matt, I love to hear that, but like, we've got other things we gotta get done.

And the more and more people I talked to really just made it apparent that there's this huge gap in terms of like. Resident technology support and what that is gonna look like and what's that gonna evolve? And I'm, you know, I know we've got the Tech at home program, but I, what I really love too is kind of the blending of helping some of those technology and then also kind of the ai, which you know, a lot of people, again, the buzziness of it is just kind of like overwhelming and nauseating at times.

But I was looking for like a simple AI to kind of help with some of this stuff and that's what, you know, and it kind of worked out great that. You know, we had this longstanding friendship, , where, [00:19:00] and you know, second best 

Speaker 3: friend by the way, second and best friend. I mean, granted, I 

Matt Reiners: never drove Kyle home, , to his hotel and.

, Downpour rain, which I think I'm still nervous about, but, , , but yeah, no, and I think it was a combination of, and I still have your 

Speaker 3: coat by the way. 

Matt Reiners: You still have my coat. Sweet. Thanks. I forgot about that. , But I think it's just like a combination of a few of those things that really brought it together that I was excited to like, get it in resident's hands and see if the, like.

You know, 'cause a person can be there so many hours per day, but if you kind of have this tech assistant 24 7, technology questions happen all day every day. Right. Yeah. And just trying to give people that, that friend in oppo to make sure that they're set up for success, , was what I was really excited about.

, And I know you mentioned the data. I would love to like hear more about like what you're seeing so far. 

Stefano Selorio: Yeah. One thing I was gonna touch on what, what you just said, you know, I come from a. Like a, a family with like healthcare background. And one of the things that we definitely support, , is around ways to prevent certain things.

Right. And I think a lot of people don't understand when it comes to [00:20:00] technology issues. You know, we tend, the typical thing that we do is just, you know, we fix it up for them. And it's a really bandaid solution for helping older adults, I think. , And so. Our hope and goal for this tool is to not necessarily just give them the bandaid solution, but to give them the tools to really just learn on their own.

And I think that ultimately will reduce those tech tickets, right? , But also reduce this frustration not only on the. A resident and the older adult, but more so on the caregiver side. Right. And the staffing side, I think that is like, we tend to not necessarily talk about when it comes to like technology, education or issues is that those are those tiny little, , inquirers or requests can be a little bit reduced when you start to kind of give them the tools and empower them to learn about technology on their own.

, And def again, it's not replaceable, you know, to all these other ways to, to help them, but it again, it just adds that little bit of. Thing that I think people can use AI for to help scale that. . [00:21:00] Yeah, so let's talk a little bit about the data. 'cause I'm really excited about sharing some of the things that we've seen in the first month of this relationship with Parasol.

, And again, if you've seen the, the, the article out there, we are working with two communities, , evergreen Oshkosh as well as Clark Lindsey, And so those are the two communities that we've seen that have been really great in adapting this. , , This technology, and I will say we, I have a few things I wanted to share because typically what we do is we separate the data in two categories, which is quantitative and qualitative data.

So usually the quantitative part of it is like the number of users, the number of messages, the number, , daily activity that comes from those text messages. And then the qualitative data is, is I think, the most fun part of the data that I like to look at, which is like, what are the questions? Like, what are they asking?

How are they asking it? We we're looking at the way that they're structuring their sentences. , When are they asking those questions, which is so important. That's a combination of that quantitative and qualitive data because [00:22:00] sometimes you have people, we have, we have residents that are asking questions at three in the morning, and I.

I, I think it's amazing of like, you know, the mind never stops and never, you know, stops learning. And I think that's great. So I'll share a little bit about some of the, , quantity data a little bit. , In the past like month, , from October 1st to November 1st, we've seen a huge surge in messages, obviously up to around 32 to a hundred messages total in that month.

So on average, we're seeing about one to two messages every day. , And then we're also seeing some residents really. Are more engaged with it when it's introduced to them in a classroom setting. But then they, like when they're able to have it, , actually using it on their own time, right? They're not necessarily having to wait for someone to help them guide them through that.

So we're kind of seeing that through the data. And then some, I'm looking at my notes right now, but some of the. Qualitative parts is obviously the basic technology. Questions about like how to use the iPhone, how to use ai. I think the most requested question we've [00:23:00] had, and we talked about this before we recorded, is how to navigate their printer.

And, , the printer is like the biggest thing that they're asking about. I think that's great because, , they're kind of like trying to figure it on their own, which normally what would happen is when you get a tech, you know, ticket request is, I think they would have to code to their apartment and the, and their place to fix it for them.

And I've done that myself personally, but the, the fact that they're asking and how to navigate through that printer and talking about the model and, you know, making sure they're following the steps has been really cool to see. , And then I think what we're. Looking at and I, it's just like a little tiny, you know.

I would say hint to where this tool can lead to is that we're also seeing a lot of questions around that are not about technology, but more so about like life, , how to navigate a con difficult conversation, how to, , make sure that. They're asking the right questions to someone. And you would think that because of experience and, and, and friends and that they've had over the years [00:24:00] that they would not have to ask that.

But we're seeing a lot of these kind of social connection types of questions that is very interesting to navigate through and learn from, from the day that we get from Apple users. 

Matt Reiners: I love that. Yeah. And I think it's, you know, it's, and that's what I always saw with technology in here, like quantitative data is important.

You should definitely be tracking that. But it's the qualitative in those stories that come out that are like the coolest part about it, I think. , And it's so cool to kind of hear that. And I know we're gonna be reconnecting here to kind of talk through that and continue to see some of this impact.

And, hey, it's funny to see the printers 'cause like, I know I've asked. AI about my own printer at times when it doesn't work versus when it's working and it's just a, an, you know, a pain in my side all day, every day I feel like, , 'cause I still print stuff, believe it or not. , And I'm wondering like even outside of Paris law, 'cause you guys have obviously have helped over 23,000 learners.

Like, are there any common questions or challenges you're hearing from older adults when it comes to tech and digital health outside of using their printer? 

Stefano Selorio: Yeah, I think the thing [00:25:00] that we've been more focused on has really about giving access to older adults, , to their healthcare, their digital health.

And so, , our focus is really more about digital health literacy. And some of the common questions we received is like, how do they navigate their patient portal, their telehealth, their mem, you know, their Medicare or their insurance dashboard, , you know, without. Giving to any, any patient information to us, but they're just really asking about how they can best navigate that and access that information.

So we're seeing folks who are like, you know, getting connected with their digital doctor or their telehealth appointment because they're, you know, trying to ask these questions on how to best get online. , I think. We are seeing folks who, as I said, are entrepreneurs as well, or entrepreneurs at heart, but never really knew where to begin.

So they're using Apple as like, again, they're consultant, right? To kind of navigate them through how to best approach this business idea, , or this marketing idea that they have. Or like, let's say they wanna, you know, do a [00:26:00] social event with their friends and they want to have like a text message that.

Kind of makes everything into one little easy way to send to them. , They've used it for that. , And so I think what's so interesting is even though we built this with the intention of just making it be about technology, as I go back to that kind of example of like when you give someone in that brush and given the canvas, like they can paint a huge picture of what, of whatever that is on their mind, and I think that's what we're really helping people out.

Matt Reiners: I love that. Yeah, it's. It's one of those things, , you know, to your point about like being a brush, right? It's like a tool. It's just another tool for people that they can do to be more present, , feel more knowledgeable about their own life. I've seen even sometimes with using AI can help to eliminate some of those insecurities.

'cause it's almost like those, you know, that person, , to ask. I remember when I first got access to DBT, I was like. What the heck is an insurance premium? And please explain it to me. 'cause I feel like I still struggle with that all the [00:27:00] time. , I think 

Speaker 3: you're not the only one 

Matt Reiners: I know. I know. , 

Speaker 3: To this day there are older adults to ask that question.

Matt Reiners: Yeah. And, and I'm curious from your point of view, from like an outcomes perspective. 'cause I think for the individual it's pretty clear, right? Like for the end user of who's using that, how can they become more tech literate? But I'm wondering like where you see the value for organizations that serve them.

Stefano Selorio: Yeah. , One, I'm so excited because we were recently funded by the National Institute in Aging, and if you're not familiar with that, that is an entity under the National Institute of Health. And we were selected out of 200 applications, , 21 companies that were there. Those who either were starting their companies for the first time to those who have had a company for a while.

And it's exciting because to be part of this NIA program. It kind of gives a little bit of like, , an idea of like where we're heading and like making sure the technology that we're doing is evidence and research based. . I spoke about our friend Kyle, [00:28:00] who has definitely been able to receive funding from NIH grants and opportunities.

We're hopefully applying for those things and I think once we have that opportunity to really seek out that, we'll be able to really understand the better outcomes that we're looking at when it comes to addressing digital health literacy or digital literacy for older adults. , But when it comes to like residents, , and senior living, or even just our community partners.

I think what's so great about the data that we're collecting from these conversations, from these really, I think sometimes intimate, but also sometimes very, you know, , curious questions, is that our partners are, you know, senior living communities or whether it be our, our, our paying customers, , they'll be able to really understand how to best provide programming for.

This population. I think if you're able to see what's in the mind of someone, especially through a text, you'll be able to kind of create some sort of, of, with enough data, be able to create some sort of idea of what is the best way to serve that person. I think what's interesting is I mentioned before like we had [00:29:00] a user that was texting our tool up to like three, 4:00 AM in the night.

. I don't think is very uncommon for a lot of residents because I'm sure people and even myself sometimes have questions, you know, late in the night, you know, trying to just figure out something that's in my head. And it's like those are things that you can't necessarily track, , in some sort of other way.

And I think that's what's so cool about this tool is that we can do that. 

Matt Reiners: No, I love that. And I think too, one of the things you didn't mention, and I'll I'll say it for you. 'cause like I think a lot of these tech questions are falling on staff today, right? Like needing help with all this stuff, , and time, you know, it's one of those things that everybody wishes they have more of.

And I think there's an opportunity, , as more and more residents are moving into these communities with. The tech appetite's only increasing every single day and the tech expectation, right? It's, it's moving from a must have then a nice to have. And I just think like giving tools like this will ultimately set them up for success.

So you can again, focus on some of those. Things that allow you to be [00:30:00] successful in your job. I mean, I, I don't think you want to necessarily teach everybody how to, you know, upload photos from their phone or setting up their printer every single day. And I've heard even situations like this, like giving tools like APO or Tech at home can save some like key staff time, anywhere from like 20 to 30 hours a week.

I mean, could you imagine half your week doing resident tech tickets? Like it's just, yeah. It kind of blows my mind with that and, , the impact that it can have. , 

Stefano Selorio: Yeah, I, I think ultimately again, it's bettering that resident experience, bettering that staff, , burden, especially when it comes to folks who have to be the one in charge of addressing those tech tickets or tech issues.

, And ultimately I think you're helping that, , that resident to be a little bit more engaged with the community because. They can use those tools that we talk about, those platforms that a lot of these communities are introducing, whether it be activities, platforms, whether it be the, the calendar, the food platforms, all those kind of things, I think involves a certain digital literacy that's expected outta those residents.

And so how do you bring them along is by giving them some sort of tool that kind of [00:31:00] educate them through that. And so yeah, that's kind of like the outcomes that we're looking forward to as we try to work with more senior living communities. 

Matt Reiners: Yeah. I love that. And obviously you're clearly thinking for the long term here.

Like where do you see AI and digital literacy going in the next three to five years, especially for some of the aging populations? 

Stefano Selorio: Yeah. You know, . I would love to claim that we are the aging AI assistant for all older adults. I think we're getting there. , I think because again, you have to think about like, there are few providers that are really, , putting.

Putting the hands and the, and the, and really just putting AI into the hands of older adults as their first priority versus, rather than just be a backend thing. Right. And so I think it'll be interesting to see in the next five years of seeing where this tool is building upon just not only technology literacy, but really using it as a tool that could really help assist and make decisions for older adults.

, But in, in this grand [00:32:00] scheme of like how AI and, . It affects aging. I think ultimately we need to go back to just looking at the drawing board and seeing like what are the just tiny little pain points that we still see, especially in senior living or serving care for older adults, or let's say community based organizations.

How do we just like. Automated just by a little bit through the use of ai. I think that's what's so exciting about the tools that we're seeing right now. And then also, I highly encourage people to kind of build solutions like what we're doing right now, so that okay, that way it still not only empowers those staff, but also empowers the residents at the end of the day.

Matt Reiners: Yeah, I love that. , You know, and I would say too, I mean, based on what I've seen, I, I would say, I mean you guys are definitely on the path to that. I think there's a, a huge opportunity out there and, , you know, I think there's gotta be. Content and just like a curation tailor made to an older adult user.

Right. And making sure they're getting the right information, not the wrong information. 'cause I know, you know, there's [00:33:00] some information being out there from some of these other LLMs that just aren't, you know, Hey, I wouldn't want my, , my grandparents to be hearing some of that stuff. , 

Stefano Selorio: why I'm like encouraging, you know, all different types of parties in the, in the, in the spectrum of aging to be part of the conversation about AI because.

We are working with you guys as a technology distribution partner. , You've done amazing work in communities and, and helping people with their I, with their it. We've worked with community-based organizations. We've worked with Medicare. We're trying to bring all these partners together so that we can build an environment that is, I said safe.

And caring and really empathetic about the aging population because when we leave it to folks like that don't work with older adults or are not necessarily caregivers to older adults, we tend to create assumptions that is so harmful, especially when it comes to AI and, and I can talk a lot about like what happens with what's been wrong with AI and how it's hurting people.

But I think what's so interesting about the tool that [00:34:00] we're building is a simple way to just give them a fighting chance. To just give them an opportunity to open those doors. And that's why I highly encourage, like, if we're in, if this kind of episode encourages you to partner with an organization like ours, or even with Parasol, because that's, that's our motto, like that's our thing that drives us a lot of the work that we do, is that we can build a tool that's safe for people to use.

Matt Reiners: Yeah. I love that. And for listeners who wanna support or get involved or even learn more, , what's the best way to Conner, what's the best way to connect with you or explore working with Carey? 

Stefano Selorio: Yeah, I mean, the best way is, , definitely my email, which is stefano@carevocacy.com or, , as Matt and I connected for the very first time on LinkedIn.

So that's the best way to really, , go and, and check out the work that we've done. I share a little bit about not only my journey as a founder in the space. But also a technologist, but then also as a, as a caregiver. 'cause it really is, that's where I, a lot, a lot of my decisions come from is just making sure I have the mindset [00:35:00] and the, the perspective as someone who's currently taking care of an older adult.

, And you can definitely check out our website care bCarevocacy.com, as well as our social media channels. That's the best way to know a little bit more about Apple. 

Matt Reiners: Awesome. Well, for those of you, if this is your first, , introduction to Stefano, , up and comer, if not already here in the industry, and, , appreciate you making some time today, my friend.

Stefano Selorio: Yeah. Hey, as I said, , I, I, Kyle cannot compete against this, . So I just, for your listeners who're not watching the video, I'm holding up a trophy that says Matt's second best friend, by the way. But, , I'm one, I'm so happy to be here. And I just wanna say, if you have not had a chance to meet Matt, he is a generous person, like the most generous person I've ever met in this industry.

Like, it's crazy how, . How I've just one, I'm proud of you. Seriously. So I'm glad to be here and I, I, I can't wait to, to share more about the progress we've made in our pilot partnership with Parasol. 

Matt Reiners: I love it. Well, thanks again, Stefano, and , we'll have to get you a real trophy here for next [00:36:00] time, so thank you.

Speaker 3: Alright. 

Matt Reiners: Awesome.