Doteveryone conducted interviews with more than 100 care-givers and patients across the country to see how they thought technology to help the UK’s struggling social care system. The report found Alexa devices left dementia patients “often deeply distressed by an unfamiliar robotic voice reminding them to take medication”.

Lydia Nicholas, the lead researcher in the report, said: “What was flagged up to us by care professionals and specialist nurses was if you are on a dementia ward there is no point having robots telling people what to do as they will just get distressed and confused.

“Essentially, reminding someone to take their medication when you are in a social care context is not just a fact of flagging up it’s three o’clock and it’s time to take your drugs. A lot of the time it is about convincing someone who is quite distressed of the fact that their medication is safe or reminding them to get a glass of water, making sure they have eaten with it.”