The £1 million Longitude Prize on Dementia, funded by Alzheimer’s Society and Innovate UK and delivered by Nesta’s Challenge Works, has been awarded to CrossSense, a personalised AI assistant for smart glasses. Announced at an inspiring celebration event at London’s Design Museum, this pivotal moment champions the culmination of an exciting prize designed to drive innovation for one of the biggest challenges facing society.

Around one million people in the UK are living with dementia - a number projected to rise significantly in the coming decades. As dementia is a progressive condition with currently no cure, the Longitude Prize on Dementia was launched to drive the creation of personalised, technology-based tools, helping people maintain their independence for longer.

The winner - a personalised AI assistant for smart glasses - has been developed by the London-based social enterprise CrossSense Ltd. The technology identifies objects in the user’s surroundings and gently guides them through daily activities with the aim of helping people live safely and independently in their own homes for longer.

The discreet AI companion, called Wispy, learns each person’s unique routines and preferences through gentle, conversational prompts. Crucially, the AI adapts to the user’s needs as their dementia progresses, providing personalised support tailored to how they live. Using the smart glasses’ camera, the system captures and interprets the user’s environment in real time, allowing the AI to support everyday moments central to independence, from feeling confident moving around the home to completing tasks.

The system is designed to provide cognitive stimulation and was trained with dozens of everyday activities, including managing household chores safely and making a cup of tea. Working with a panel of people affected by dementia and expert judges, the winning solution was agreed to be a genuine breakthrough technology with revolutionary potential for people living with dementia and their families. Internationally renowned AI expert and chair of the Longitude Committee, Dame Wendy Hall, noted that CrossSense captures exactly the kind of revolutionary AI the Longitude Prize set out to support, with the team’s co-design approach and focus on personalised AI setting them truly apart.

The success of the Longitude Prize on Dementia proves the impact of this global prize in accelerating multiple solutions to this critical condition. Since 2022, the £4.4 million global prize has funded and supported the development of 24 different assistive technologies. All have focused on helping people living with dementia remain independent, with every finalist developing innovations that will have a positive impact. As Professor Fiona Carragher, chief policy and research officer at Alzheimer’s Society, stated, rapid advancements in AI will give people affected by early-stage dementia the opportunity to stay safely in their own homes for longer and lead more independent, fulfilled lives.

The £1 million grand prize will support CrossSense to make the technology available to the public in early 2027. In the future, this revolutionary technology could also be used by local authorities, care providers, and NHS services such as memory clinics, helping more people living with dementia maintain their independence and continue living safely at home for longer.

Challenge Works, a specialised unit within Nesta, designs and runs challenge prizes that attract innovators to solve some of the world’s biggest problems.