Direct care can increase with AI admin, say Minikai founders
Accessing aged care and health care services is often convoluted and time-consuming, but Minikai founders believe the administration work can be done by AI, leaving more time for direct care.
Australian care providers spend up to 50 per cent of their working hours on administration and compliance rather than on providing direct care, and AI agent building company Minikai believes they can disrupt this trend.
Minikai chief executive officer and co-founder Keoki Alexander-Chang told Australian Ageing Agenda that the amount of administrative work in aged care can become a burden on frontline staff, and takes time away from them spending direct care time with clients.
“AI is really good at doing a lot of these admin tasks,” he said. “Basically our goal is to empower the carers and the providers with AI agents that can do a lot of this admin so that people can focus on what they do best, which is looking after people.”
Minikai has secured $2.5 million in funding led by early-stage venture capital firm Tidal Ventures, with participation from Singapore-based early stage investor Antler. Minikai also includes venture studio Mangosteen – led by Australian tech company Tigerspike founder Luke Janssen – as an investor.
This investment will accelerate Minikai’s mission to remove the administrative barriers and inefficiencies that cost aged and disability care providers and the government billions of tax dollars each year without deviating from regulatory requirements.
“If we can help providers reduce the time they spend on admin, we are helping taxpayers, the government, providers, carers, and the people in need of care,” said Mr Alexander-Chang.
Mr Alexander-Chang knows firsthand how difficult it can be to navigate health and human services, having watched his mother struggle to make sense of the various forms and processes before leaving his position at Deloitte’s Forensic AI lab to launch Minikai in 2024.
“Waiting on hold, filling in forms, processing applications, getting approval. It’s the busy work nobody wants to do. We’re going to get AI to do this work instead,” he said.
Co-founder and chief technology officer Kyel Shera-Jones also knows firsthand the need to simplify application processes in accessing health and aged care services, with his nephew being an NDIS participant.
Mr Shera-Jones was originally a dairy farmer, but pivoted to a career involved in modernising complex, back-end infrastructure for the government, and working at digital products and strategy company Concentrix-Tigerspike.
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