Our story
A grandmother, a phone, an idea born in Quebec
People often ask where Amical comes from. The answer is not a market study. It is a family story, in Quebec City.
Alone all the time
The grandmother of Tony, our co-founder, lived with Alzheimer's in a long-term care home in Quebec City. She was one of the most visited residents in the entire facility: five children took turns every day, grandchildren came on weekends. And yet, she kept telling her daughter she felt alone all the time.
When the family left after a three-hour visit, she would say: why are you leaving? you just got here. She had already forgotten we had been there. She lived entirely in the present moment. Her phone had been taken away because she called her family too often. She had been left in silence.
An iPhone is an abstract painting
Tony tried to show her an iPhone and an iPad. She would look at the home screen and see, in his words, an abstract painting. She did not even recognize the object, and forgot everything five minutes later. She also had a 250-dollar robot cat, because she loved cats but could no longer feed a real one.
The founding intuition was right there: instead of inventing a new device no one recognizes, why not put a companion inside an object seniors already know how to use, like a telephone? You pick up the handset, you chat. No screen, no buttons, nothing to learn.
From Silicon Valley back to Quebec
Tony spent about ten years in Silicon Valley: first designer at Osmo, then on the Google artificial intelligence team that would become Gemini, designing conversational assistants. In 2024, he came back to Quebec to be closer to his family. He was tired of being the uncle from the States.
The idea for Amical was born from a conversation between Tony and Dr. Félix Pageau, a geriatrician and ethicist, during a talk on the ethics of new technologies to medical students at Université Laval. The Alzheimer Society of Quebec gave him the advice that shaped the company: it is an interesting idea, but you are working with vulnerable people, so surround yourself with experts. That is why Amical has had scientific councils from the very start.
Why "Amical"
The voice companion was first called Pauline. We renamed the product because someone living with Alzheimer's could confuse the device name with the name of a loved one. Pauline remains the default voice, and a different name can be chosen to avoid any confusion.
The name Amical comes from Ami, the French word for friend, and Call, for the phone call. And of course, amical means warm and welcoming. The word alone says where the project comes from and what it tries to be.
Designed, built, and tested in Quebec
To our knowledge, Amical is the first concrete generative artificial intelligence project serving Quebec's seniors. The device is the classic rotary-style phone we all know. Everything was conceived, built, and tested here, with Quebec researchers and care institutions.
Since the project began, Tony has volunteered with Les Petits Frères, a Quebec organization that supports isolated seniors: gentle calls, home visits, holiday gift deliveries. The more I do it, the more fun it is. Seniors have a lot to teach us and a lot of wisdom. That is the heart of Amical.
To learn more about the team and the mission, visit our About page.