44679An AI-voice-synthesis-driven personalised audio companion and its potential to counter acute loneliness for the elderlyClosedStudyInnovate UK**Loneliness has reached epidemic proportions** and is on its way to cost the British tax-payer billions every year. Researchers estimate that up to one in four people are sufferers and that cost to society amount to £6,000 per **person over ten years**. The "loneliness epidemic" has become such an omnipresent and expensive problem of our time that **the UK government has appointed a dedicated Minister of Loneliness** together with a long term strategy to fight it. **AflorithmicLabs, a London based deep tech startup**, tries to tackle this problem by leveraging recent improvements in **AI-driven speech synthesis and audio personalisation to help the ones that suffer most from acute loneliness: the elderly**. Social isolation - a lack of social contacts - has been identified as one of the key factors as more than a million older people say they go for over a month without speaking to someone. This project proposes **an inexpensive, always accessible, easy-to-use, digital companion app that can be opened by elderly persons anytime and regardless of their technical, motorical or psycholinguistic capabilities**. When acute loneliness is felt, the zero-click app can be activated and a message is read in the familiar tone and voice of a loved one. The solution alleviates the acute feeling of loneliness. For the user this means that the solution **does not rely on the availability of a loved one and can be used as an efficient self-service tool anytime**. User tests with an Alpha version of a prototype have illustrated the large potential of personalised audio for improving mental well-being across all age groups. AflorithmicLabs wants to use the learnings from this project to create applications for **related mental health issues, such as depression, pregnancy support including postpartum problems, addiction recovery guidance, grief support,** and **anxiety problems**.