An AI companion for people living with dementia, paired with a place to keep track of the days — free for every family. Company and practical suggestions, not treatment.
We are looking for caregivers to field test Yadira.
Families, care homes, and dementia organisations — use it with someone you care for and tell
us the truth about how it goes. Read what that involves →
Or write to Contact@Yadira.net.
No credit card. The patient-facing companion is free for families, always.
"The need doesn't go away when the person does.
Yadira gives it somewhere to go."
When someone with dementia reaches for a person from their past, correcting them causes pain — meeting them where they are brings peace. That principle, called validation therapy, has guided memory care for decades. Yadira borrows it as a way of talking, not as a treatment it delivers: a companion who is consistently, gently there — every hour, every repeated question, with the same warmth every time.
About Yadira
Built so no family has to navigate it alone.
Yadira is an AI companion for people living with dementia, and a working toolkit for the people who care for them. The companion talks, listens, remembers, and reassures — by text or in a natural human voice, around the clock, with the same patience at 3 AM as at noon.
Built for the XPRIZE "Build with Gemini" challenge. It started with a simple observation: when someone reaches for a person from their past, the need doesn't go away because the person is gone. Correcting them causes pain. Meeting them where they are brings peace. Yadira was built to be that meeting place.
Yadira never scolds, never corrects a confused timeline, and never runs out of patience — the principle behind validation therapy, which has guided memory care for decades. We have not tested that principle ourselves and we make no claim about outcomes. Yadira is company, suggestions and a record of the days: not a medical device, not a treatment, and never a replacement for human care — which is why a one-tap help button always reaches a real person.
Where we draw the line
When someone asks for a husband who died, correcting them is cruel and re-bereaves them every time. Yadira meets the feeling instead — she knows who Beth was, what she meant, the blue Ford and the Sunday eggs — and she says so with warmth. That is the idea behind validation therapy, and it has never required pretending.
Yadira is always Yadira, and if she is asked who she is, she says so. She does not speak in a dead person's name or voice — because they cannot agree to it, and nobody can agree on their behalf. We built that feature once. We took it out.
You can lend Yadira a real voice, if someone living asks to give it. A daughter three time zones away, recorded on purpose, revocable at a word. Consent from the person themselves, or not at all.
Why choose Yadira
Families already spend real money trying to ease this loneliness. Here's how the options compare.
| 💚YadiraAI companion | 🤖Elsycompanion robot | 🐱Robot catrobotic pet | 🍼Reborn dolltherapy doll | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Holds a real conversationlistens, responds, never runs out of patience | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Remembers your family's storiesthe tomatoes, the blue Ford, the wedding waltz | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Holds the moment they ask for someone gonemeets the feeling without correcting them — and without impersonating anyone | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Helps you keep track of the daysdaily mood check-ins, and patterns read back from your own notes | ✓ | partial | ✗ | ✗ |
| Help button that reaches a real humanone tap alerts the caregiver, and can ring their phone | ✓ | partial | ✗ | ✗ |
| Something warm to physically holdtouch matters — we won't pretend otherwise | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Nothing new to buyruns on the tablet or phone you already own | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| What it costs the family | Freealways, for families | ~$250plus a monthly subscription | ~$140one-time | $300–$2,000for a genuine one |
Prices are approximate U.S. retail. In fairness: a warm thing to hold genuinely helps — Yadira works happily alongside a robot cat or a beloved doll.
Features
A calm companion for the person living with dementia. A clear-eyed toolkit for the person caring for them.
Warm, patient conversation that validates instead of corrects — and answers the same question the hundredth time with the same kindness as the first. With a natural, human voice.
Yadira remembers what they share — the tomatoes, the blue Ford, the wedding — and carries it into every future visit. A disconnection is a pause, not a forgetting.
Each day starts at camp with Yadira — a pygmy hippo, named for the hippocampus, the brain's memory-keeper. A gentle mood check-in that quietly enriches the caregiver's picture of how they're really doing.
A familiar phone-call experience — it rings, they answer, they just talk. No typing, no screens to figure out.
Ask Yadira about your loved one's sleep, moods, and hard moments — answers grounded in the notes you've kept. Plus suggested routines, and patterns read back from your own logs. Practical suggestions, never medical advice.
Soothing sensory spaces for anxious moments — and a one-tap "I need my caregiver" button that alerts a real human immediately.
Emotion is read from the audio itself — so "I'm fine" said flatly isn't treated the same as "I'm fine" said brightly. The companion hears how it was said, not just what was said.
A lockable full-screen patient view that hides every caregiver control and survives a restart — so a care tablet truly belongs to the person using it.
When someone surfaces into sudden clarity — knowing a loved one has died, or what the companion is — Yadira never argues them back. And the family is told immediately.
Pricing
A daughter should never reach for a credit card to hear her mother's voice. So the companion is free — and caregivers' professional tools and facility partnerships keep it that way.
Sponsorships keep Yadira free for families who couldn't otherwise afford connection. Every dollar goes to running the service — not ads.
Sponsor a family