Health tech firm Cera is using droid-like robots to carry out 3,000 care visits a week to elderly and vulnerable people in the UK.
The company said that it is working with social care providers to trial the use of the assistive robots which stay in service users’ homes to remind them when to eat, drink and take their medication.
They also gather data on the health and wellbeing of individuals which is shared with care teams to determine if health interventions are needed.
A spokesperson from Cera said that the robots have been used since January 2025 and it is trialling multiple robot models.
Ben Maruthappu, chief executive at Cera, said: “As the population ages and demand for care grows, we urgently need new solutions to deliver high-quality care, at scale, across the UK.
“Human carers will always have a vital role to play in society, but robots can enhance and complement their impact, tackling patient loneliness and boosting wellbeing, while supporting the sector through its staffing and funding pressures.
“We believe robots have an important role to play in the future of care and, given our scale, our sector-leading technology and dataset, Cera is well positioned to lead this movement.
“We are excited to roll out this new technology, improving care quality in a far more sustainable way.”
Cera’s AI platform provides access to 200bn patient health data points, which helps to inform the robots’ programming.
The initiative is intended to support local authorities facing workforce and resource shortages by enabling social care teams to prioritise in-person visits for individuals with more complex care needs.
An estimated two million UK adults are living with an unmet need for care, according to an Age UK report, published in September 2024, and more than 14,000 hospital beds are occupied daily by patients who are fit for discharge but unable to return home due to social care shortages.
Cera aims to use the robots to contribute cost efficiencies for the NHS and government – reducing the cost of care by up to 80%.
The robots also help support individuals with dementia or memory challenges by reminding them about important family events and visits from friends and loved ones.
By monitoring how much patients are engaging with their prompts and reminders, the robots can let care staff know how patients are doing without the need for a physical or virtual check-in – enabling them to spot when a patient is unresponsive or disengaged over a longer period of time.
A spokesperson for Cera said that they could not confirm how many robots are in use or in which areas of the country they have been deployed.
Earlier in March 2025, NHS England announced that it was rolling out AI software developed by Cera that can predict a patient’s risk of falling with up to 97% accuracy, potentially preventing up to 2,000 falls and hospital visits daily.