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Ato is the Voice-First AI Companion to Combat Senior Loneliness and Empower Family Caregivers

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Ato is an AI Care Companion company on a mission to end senior loneliness and empower older adults through technology that respects their independence. Based in San Francisco and founded in 2025, Ato’s voice-first device and Family App help seniors stay connected, active, and engaged—while giving families peace of mind. With 1,300+ devices in the field serving users with an average age of 82 and unseen retention numbers, Ato is proving that technology can fight loneliness at scale without treating seniors like patients or children.

SAN FRANCISCO, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Ato (heyato.ai), an innovative consumer technology company, is proud to share the availability of its flagship conversational AI companion designed exclusively for older adults. Engineered from the ground up as a voice-first, screen-free device, Ato aims to ease isolation, support mental well-being, and provide unprecedented peace of mind for family caregivers.

Ato’s voice-first device and Family App help seniors stay connected, active, and engaged—while giving families peace of mind.

With over 50 million Americans currently part of the “Sandwich Generation”—balancing the care of aging parents alongside their own children—the demand for intuitive eldercare technology has never been greater. However, traditional “smart” displays often impose steep learning curves, relying on visual acuity, fine motor skills, and complex menus that can frustrate seniors.

Ato takes a fundamentally different, human-centric approach. The tabletop device is 100% screen-free and proactively initiates natural conversations based on the user’s daily routines, bridging the gap between independence and support.

“My grandfather Beto was curious, sharp, and full of stories—but technology always got in the way. Screens, tiny buttons, and confusing menus made him give up on devices that were supposed to help,” said Juan Cereigido, Co-Founder and CEO of Ato. “When conversational AI made it possible to interact with technology just by talking, I knew this was the moment to build something different. Ato empowers older adults with a companion that respects their intelligence and independence, while reducing the mental load on the families who care about them.”

Privacy-First Connection for Families While seniors enjoy meaningful, latency-free dialogue, families stay connected through the companion Ato Family App. The platform operates on a strict “Privacy First” framework, ensuring that caregivers stay informed without intruding on their loved one’s autonomy.

Key features of the Ato ecosystem include:

Conversational AI Companionship: A low-latency model that understands tone and emotion, remembers past conversations, and initiates daily check-ins.Peace of Mind Reports: The Family App provides activity summaries confirming the loved one is engaged, ensuring family members never hear or see the actual private conversations.Two-Way Messaging: Families can send short text messages directly to the device, to which the senior can seamlessly reply using their voice.Routine Reminders: Caregivers can easily schedule audible reminders for medications, appointments, and daily tasks.

“Ato helps ease loneliness, supports mental well-being, and turns daily conversations into real connection,” added Gaspar Habif, Co-Founder and CTO of Ato. “We talk to our users every week. That direct feedback loop with seniors is how we’ve built something that actually works for people in their 80s and 90s.”

Unprecedented Traction and Market Validation Founded in 2025 and backed by leading tech investors including Founders, Inc. and Guillermo Rauch (CEO Vercel), Ato has already shipped over 1,300 devices across its Early Access program. Boasting an average user age of 82, the platform has achieved an unprecedented ~60% retention rate—nearly three times the AgeTech industry average. The company is actively expanding its reach with assisted living pilots to further validate a B2B ‘per-seat’ licensing model, capturing value within the $600B caregiving economy.

About Ato Based in San Francisco, CA, Ato is an AI Care Companion company on a mission to end senior loneliness. Founded in 2025 by Juan Cereigido and Gaspar Habif, Ato develops voice-first smart devices and an integrated Family App to help older adults stay connected, active, and engaged while giving families peace of mind. For more information, visit https://www.heyato.ai/.

Media Contacts

Juan Cereigido — juan@heyato.ai

Gaspar Habif — gaspi@heyato.ai

Website: https://www.heyato.ai/

Media Contact

Juan Cereigido, juan@heyato.ai, 1 6283035276, juan@heyato.ai, heyato.ai

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prweb.com/releases/ato-is-the-voice-first-ai-companion-to-combat-senior-loneliness-and-empower-family-caregivers-302756517.html

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Chef Robotics Physical AI Models Can Now Automate Baked Goods Packing

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SAN FRANCISCO, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Chef Robotics, a leader in physical AI for the food industry, today announced that Chef robots can now automate tray assembly for baked goods packing. The application places baked products, such as burger buns, chocolate chip cookies, biscotti, butter cookies, biscuits, fortune cookies, granola bars, rusks, and shortbreads into trays and packaging containers before sealing.

Watch Chef robots in action.

Baked goods packing has historically been difficult to automate for high-mix production. Each item behaves differently on the production line—a granola bar compresses under the wrong grip, while a biscotti or rusk can crack if placed at the wrong angle. Surface textures range from glazed and smooth to crumbly and irregular, and strict presentation requirements leave little room for error. This variability has made it challenging for automation systems to reliably handle baked goods at production speeds, leaving food manufacturers dependent on manual labor and traditional bakery equipment.

To address this, Chef built its baked goods packing application on its existing piece-picking capability, which uses Chef’s AI-powered computer vision and physical AI models trained across diverse real-world production environments. This allows Chef robots to assess each item’s position, shape, and orientation in real time and determine how to pick the items from the pan and place them quickly and precisely without damaging them.

The baked goods packing application supports four distinct placement capabilities.

First, Chef’s vision system detects the angle at which each item sits in the pan and reorients it after picking, placing it on the tray at the exact angle required, regardless of its original position, enabling retail-ready presentation for SKUs that require precise angular placement.

Second, Chef robots can place multiple baked goods into the same packaging container in a single automated pass, completing full tray assembly without manual intervention.

Third, for packaging containers with multiple small compartments, Chef robots can precisely place items into each designated section, including multiple items in the same compartment, using Chef’s AI vision model to detect compartment positions and orientations in real time.

Fourth, Chef’s vision system identifies the exact center of each tray and places every item at a predefined offset from that center, ensuring a uniform, consistent arrangement across every pack regardless of how trays arrive on the conveyor.

For food manufacturers evaluating bakery systems and baked goods packaging automation, the application offers higher throughput, reduced labor dependency, and consistent presentation across shifts. The capability runs on Chef’s existing robotic hardware and software, allowing manufacturers to deploy it without requiring any changes to their production lines.

Chef’s baked goods packing application is available in the U.S., Canada, Germany, and the UK and is included as part of Chef’s robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) pricing model.

About Chef Robotics
Chef is the first company to have commercialized a scalable AI-driven food robotics solution. With over 104 million servings made in production, Chef leverages ChefOS, an AI platform for food manipulation, to offer a Robotics-as-a-Service solution that helps industry-leading food companies increase production volume and meet demand. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Chef aims to empower humans to do what humans do best by accelerating the advent of intelligent machines. Visit https://chefrobotics.ai to learn more.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chef-robotics-physical-ai-models-can-now-automate-baked-goods-packing-302756923.html

SOURCE Chef Robotics

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Chef Robotics Physical AI Models Can Now Automate Baked Goods Packing

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SAN FRANCISCO, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Chef Robotics, a leader in physical AI for the food industry, today announced that Chef robots can now automate tray assembly for baked goods packing. The application places baked products, such as burger buns, chocolate chip cookies, biscotti, butter cookies, biscuits, fortune cookies, granola bars, rusks, and shortbreads into trays and packaging containers before sealing.

Watch Chef robots in action.

Baked goods packing has historically been difficult to automate for high-mix production. Each item behaves differently on the production line—a granola bar compresses under the wrong grip, while a biscotti or rusk can crack if placed at the wrong angle. Surface textures range from glazed and smooth to crumbly and irregular, and strict presentation requirements leave little room for error. This variability has made it challenging for automation systems to reliably handle baked goods at production speeds, leaving food manufacturers dependent on manual labor and traditional bakery equipment.

To address this, Chef built its baked goods packing application on its existing piece-picking capability, which uses Chef’s AI-powered computer vision and physical AI models trained across diverse real-world production environments. This allows Chef robots to assess each item’s position, shape, and orientation in real time and determine how to pick the items from the pan and place them quickly and precisely without damaging them.

The baked goods packing application supports four distinct placement capabilities.

First, Chef’s vision system detects the angle at which each item sits in the pan and reorients it after picking, placing it on the tray at the exact angle required, regardless of its original position, enabling retail-ready presentation for SKUs that require precise angular placement.

Second, Chef robots can place multiple baked goods into the same packaging container in a single automated pass, completing full tray assembly without manual intervention.

Third, for packaging containers with multiple small compartments, Chef robots can precisely place items into each designated section, including multiple items in the same compartment, using Chef’s AI vision model to detect compartment positions and orientations in real time.

Fourth, Chef’s vision system identifies the exact center of each tray and places every item at a predefined offset from that center, ensuring a uniform, consistent arrangement across every pack regardless of how trays arrive on the conveyor.

For food manufacturers evaluating bakery systems and baked goods packaging automation, the application offers higher throughput, reduced labor dependency, and consistent presentation across shifts. The capability runs on Chef’s existing robotic hardware and software, allowing manufacturers to deploy it without requiring any changes to their production lines.

Chef’s baked goods packing application is available in the U.S., Canada, Germany, and the UK and is included as part of Chef’s robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) pricing model.

About Chef Robotics
Chef is the first company to have commercialized a scalable AI-driven food robotics solution. With over 104 million servings made in production, Chef leverages ChefOS, an AI platform for food manipulation, to offer a Robotics-as-a-Service solution that helps industry-leading food companies increase production volume and meet demand. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Chef aims to empower humans to do what humans do best by accelerating the advent of intelligent machines. Visit https://chefrobotics.ai to learn more.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chef-robotics-physical-ai-models-can-now-automate-baked-goods-packing-302756923.html

SOURCE Chef Robotics

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Air Products to Expand Industrial Gas Supply for Samsung Electronics’ Next-Generation Semiconductor Fab in South Korea

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New investment underscores the company’s long-term commitment to Korea and its leading role in the global semiconductor industry 

LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa., April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Air Products (NYSE:APD), a world-leading industrial gases company and serving Samsung globally, today announced it has been selected by Samsung to supply industrial gases for its new advanced semiconductor fab in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea.

Under the agreement, Air Products will build, own and operate multiple state-of-the-art production facilities and a bulk specialty gas supply system to supply nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and hydrogen for Samsung’s new semiconductor fab. The new facilities are expected to come onstream in multiple phases from 2028 through 2030.

Air Products has a long track record of executing multiple phase expansions in Pyeongtaek to support Samsung’s growing manufacturing needs. This latest project represents Air Products’ largest investment to date in the semiconductor industry and will establish Pyeongtaek as the company’s single largest operations site globally supporting the electronics industry. 

“Air Products is honored to be selected once again by Samsung and to have their continued confidence as a trusted partner supporting their strategic growth plans,” said SR Kim, President, Air Products Korea. “This significant investment reinforces Air Products’ role as a leading global supplier to the semiconductor industry and underscores our long-standing commitment to supporting our strategic customers with safety, reliability, efficiency and excellent service.”

Air Products has served the global electronics industry for more than 40 years, supplying industrial gases safely and reliably to many of the world’s leading technology companies. The company has operated in Korea for more than 50 years and has established a strong position in electronics and manufacturing sectors.

About Air Products

Air Products (NYSE: APD) is a world-leading industrial gases company in operation for over 85 years focused on serving energy, environmental, and emerging markets and generating a cleaner future. The Company supplies essential industrial gases, related equipment and applications expertise to customers in dozens of industries, including refining, chemicals, metals, electronics, manufacturing, medical and food. As the leading global supplier of hydrogen, Air Products also develops, engineers, builds, owns and operates some of the world’s largest clean hydrogen projects, supporting the transition to low- and zero-carbon energy in the industrial and heavy-duty transportation sectors. Through its sale of equipment businesses, the Company also provides turbomachinery, membrane systems and cryogenic containers globally.

Air Products had fiscal 2025 sales of $12 billion from operations in approximately 50 countries. For more information, visit airproducts.com or follow us on LinkedInXFacebook or Instagram.

This release contains “forward-looking statements” within the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s expectations and assumptions as of the date of this release and are not guarantees of future performance. While forward-looking statements are made in good faith and based on assumptions, expectations and projections that management believes are reasonable based on currently available information, actual performance and financial results may differ materially from projections and estimates expressed in the forward-looking statements because of many factors, including the risk factors described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2025 and other factors disclosed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, we disclaim any obligation or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in the assumptions, beliefs or expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances upon which any such forward-looking statements are based.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/air-products-to-expand-industrial-gas-supply-for-samsung-electronics-next-generation-semiconductor-fab-in-south-korea-302757497.html

SOURCE Air Products

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