Real-time engagement platform Agora is powering an artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled smart cane developed by Lgenie, allowing older adults to interact with the device through low-latency voice conversations designed for outdoor and everyday use.
The collaboration highlights a broader shift in AI adoption, with developers increasingly embedding conversational AI into physical devices used in healthcare, smart homes, education, robotics, and mobility instead of limiting the technology to chatbots and software applications.
“The smart cane is one of the earliest examples of AI moving from screens into the physical world. The technology adapts to the person, instead of expecting the person to adapt to the technology,” Agora Physical AI Product head Xiao Dong Feng said in an email interview with BusinessWorld.
The AI-powered smart cane designed to support older adults enables users to ask questions and seek assistance through natural voice conversations while walking, without having to stop and operate a smartphone or other screen-based device.
Mr. Feng said the challenge was not building an intelligent AI model, but ensuring that the device remains dependable in real-world conditions.
“An older adult doesn’t judge the product by the sophistication of the model. They judge it by whether it responds when they’re standing at a busy intersection, whether it still hears them when traffic is loud, or whether they have to repeat themselves several times before getting an answer,” he said.
Lgenie integrated Agora’s Conversational AI Engine to improve reliability, which combines speech recognition, speech activity detection, and full-duplex voice streaming to support low-latency conversations, real-time interruption handling, and stable audio performance even under changing network conditions.
According to Agora, the deployment achieved an average response latency of about 400 milliseconds, while also improving conversational stability and interruption handling during user interactions.
Mr. Feng said making conversations feel natural is equally important because users should be able to speak the way they normally do instead of adjusting their behavior for the technology.
“Good AI answers questions, but great AI reduces hesitation. When people stop wondering whether the AI will understand them and simply continue talking, that’s when technology begins to feel genuinely useful,” he said.
He added that users who initially spoke cautiously to the device eventually became comfortable interrupting the AI, asking follow-up questions, and changing topics naturally.
“People don’t consciously decide to trust technology. Trust develops when they stop thinking about the technology altogether,” Mr. Feng said.
Agora said AI-powered assistive devices could play a growing role in countries such as the Philippines, where the number of older adults is expected to increase in the coming years.
The company said the Philippines is expected to become an ageing society by 2030, with people aged 60 and above accounting for more than 10% of the population. At the same time, smartphone adoption is projected to reach 92% by 2030, while more than half of mobile connections are expected to run on 5G networks.
Mr. Feng said AI should complement rather than replace caregivers by extending assistance beyond the moments when family members are physically present.
“Family members provide empathy, judgement, and emotional support that technology cannot replace. Where AI can make a meaningful contribution is by extending care beyond the moments when a caregiver is physically present,” he said.
Looking ahead, Mr. Feng said the next phase of AI development will focus less on making models more intelligent and more on making AI dependable enough to integrate naturally into daily life.
“The best AI won’t constantly demand our attention,” he said. “It will quietly provide support at the moments when it’s genuinely useful.”
Through its partnership with Lgenie, Agora said it aims to expand the use of conversational AI across healthcare, education, smart home technologies, mobility, and other connected devices that require reliable real-time interaction. — Kaizzer Angela Marie V. Manuba
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