Special series: Inside NACo - two innovations that can make your life more stress free

On this episode of Connected Nation, we continue our coverage from the NACo conference. And you're going to love this episode. That's because we talked to two companies that are doing pretty innovative things to make your life more relaxed and stress-free.

Related links:
Daiwa massage chairs
Advanced Robot Solutions
NACo's Achievement Award winners for 2024

Special series episodes list:
Inside that National Association of Counties Annual Conference - Ep. 25
Inside NACo - what Black leaders say their communities need - Ep. 26
Inside NACo - talking collaboration, counties, and...corgis? - Ep. 27
Inside NACo - two innovations that can make your life more stress free - Ep. 28 (current) 
Inside NACo - how USDA Rural Development supports county leaders - Ep. 29
Inside NACo - from the "science of where" to casinos everywhere - Ep. 30
Inside NACo - covering what county leaders should know about AI, cybersecurity, and more - Ep. 31

Transcript

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Jessica Denson, Host (00:02):

This is Connected Nation, an award-winning podcast focused on all things broadband from closing the DigitalDivide to improving your internet speeds. We talk technology topics that impact all of us, our families, and our neighborhoods.

(00:16):

On this episode of Connected Nation, we continue our coverage from the National Association of County's Annual Conference and exposition. And you're going to love this episode. That's because I talked to two companies that are doing pretty innovative things to make your life more relaxed and stress-free. One with massage chairs, the other is using ai. Find out how. I'm Jessica Desen and this is Connected Nation.

(00:46):

I am in the exhibit hall at the NACO conference and I have just passed the hit of the day. It's called Daiwa massage chairs. Right?

Andres Soto, Daiwa Massage Chairs (00:56):

That is great.

Jessica Denson, Host (00:56):

And I'm with Andres Soto. Did I say your first name right?

Andres Soto, Daiwa Massage Chairs (01:01):

You did, yes. Okay, thank you. Jessica,

Jessica Denson, Host (01:03):

Tell us what's going on here.

Andres Soto, Daiwa Massage Chairs (01:05):

Yeah, so we are excited and thankful to have the opportunity to perform at this show. We are currently on Booth 625. We brought the top of the lines, the best of the best, the massage that goes from neck down to the glutes. This is not the standard mass massage experience. This is a therapeutic, like I said, top of the lines. So let's

Jessica Denson, Host (01:27):

Walk over here and look at it then. So one of our colleagues, Heather Gate, is in one of these giant, it looks almost like an egg with an opening on top. Correct. And how does it hook up?

Andres Soto, Daiwa Massage Chairs (01:40):

So she will remove her shoes, get on. It actually has 70 pressure points through the whole body. It goes, like I said, neck down to the glutes. And also this machine has a unique decompression of the spine. So it'll recline all the way down to below 20 degrees and it'll decompress your spine. Yeah, the stretching, pull it

Jessica Denson, Host (02:00):

Apart a little

Andres Soto, Daiwa Massage Chairs (02:00):

Bit. Like an inversion table experience.

Jessica Denson, Host (02:02):

Yeah. Yes. And so what's this little pad that's stuck?

Andres Soto, Daiwa Massage Chairs (02:05):

The pad is the remote control. So the best technology. This is an iPad and we actually, it functions as your remote control. Yes. That's how you preset the programs and use the massager.

Jessica Denson, Host (02:17):

I saw you put her cell phone in a little pod there. What's that? It

Andres Soto, Daiwa Massage Chairs (02:21):

Has a wireless phone charger as well.

Jessica Denson, Host (02:24):

So a good reason to have some internet, right? That

Andres Soto, Daiwa Massage Chairs (02:26):

Is correct,

Jessica Denson, Host (02:27):

Yes. Heather, how does it feel?

Heather Gate, Connected Nation (02:30):

It feels fantastic. Massaging my back and my feet too.

Jessica Denson, Host (02:37):

You look super relaxed. I

Heather Gate, Connected Nation (02:38):

Am super. And my hands, oh geez,

Jessica Denson, Host (02:42):

All the people that are here, there's about what, eight, seven pots, correct? Seven pots. Everybody's got their eyes closed. They're smiling, they're in another world. I need to climb

Andres Soto, Daiwa Massage Chairs (02:53):

Into work. We've been unstop, Jessica. It's been unstop. Everybody loves it. Please, if you haven't stopped by, take the to come into booth 6 25. So

Jessica Denson, Host (03:02):

Why did you bring these to naco? You're like county leaders need to break.

Andres Soto, Daiwa Massage Chairs (03:07):

No, mainly we're approaching residential, but we also do a lot of business with convention centers. So counties, they purchase it as an amenity. You can actually monetize it and commercialize it, put a credit card reader and make an extra income as well. But this is an investment for your health. Yeah, we're bringing anybody. If you're a human, you accumulate stress. You need to invest on stress is a big thing. That is correct. I think

Jessica Denson, Host (03:32):

I might ask my CE if I can have this as my desk chair. Now, Heather's reclined back completely. What has happened here?

Andres Soto, Daiwa Massage Chairs (03:42):

That's the decompression program. So like I said, it goes below 20 degrees and it pulls her legs down. It's the same experience as an inversion table. Yes. It helps you to keep up a good posture and release the tension through your back muscles. Oh,

Jessica Denson, Host (03:58):

Well, I'll include a link to your company because this is super interesting. I recommend at least looking at it your flexible massage track. You have somebody who's, do you have to be that flexible to be able to do it upside down?

Andres Soto, Daiwa Massage Chairs (04:10):

The machine will do it for you.

Jessica Denson, Host (04:11):

Yes. Okay, that's good. That's good. So can I ask how much of these run low end to high?

Andres Soto, Daiwa Massage Chairs (04:16):

Correct. We only have one model. The best of the best. Right now our pricing, the special promotion is 8,900. New floor model is 7,900. Okay.

Jessica Denson, Host (04:26):

So there we go. We need that for my desk. I, I'm pretty sure for my podcast studio, right? Yeah. Well thank you Andre. So I really appreciate

Andres Soto, Daiwa Massage Chairs (04:34):

Thank you Jessica. Thank you for the opportunity. This

Jessica Denson, Host (04:36):

Is obviously hit. Let's let Heather finish the podcast with the final word. What are you going to say, Heather? It's quite an experience and I feel very relaxed. Yeah, Heather's usually pretty hyper, so she sounds relaxed. Thank you so

Andres Soto, Daiwa Massage Chairs (04:51):

Much. Thank you guys. Take care.

Jessica Denson, Host (04:54):

Again, I'm wondering the exhibit hall at KO's conference and I've come across a company that's called Advanced Robot Solutions and they've got these really cool kiosks here that say ai, ai, ai. They've also got a pretty cool achievement, which we'll talk about in a second. But I'd like to introduce you all to Paul McManus and his daughter Casey McManus, who are both involved with this company. Paul is the CEO and Casey is the business of business development. So Paul, why don't you begin and tell us a little bit about this company.

Paul McManus, CEO, Advanced Robot Solutions (05:25):

Advanced Robot Solutions. We started with robots life-size robots in airports, and we got really good at the AI technology part, and then we brought it into kiosk. And we first started working with courts and they had a big problem. People who went to the courthouse, they speak multiple languages. The staff can only speak one or two languages. They had some kiosks there, but people walked by him. They saw a robot face. They said, could you put that face on a kiosk and interact with the people that come here? And we said, fine. We got our AI team and we built these multilingual avatars. Male, female, they're diverse. You can walk into a courthouse and you don't know where to go. A high percentage of people miss their court case and they're in the building and causes all sorts of problems. Now we work with counties as well because courts and counties work really well together.

(06:19):

So these avatars are in kiosk. Instead of drilling down, pressing a lot of buttons, you just talk to the kiosk. Just like you talk to a human, you say, Hey, I'm here to pay. I need a dog license, I need a marriage certificate, I need a notary, I need a pistol permit. You name it, the avatar looks through its AI database and says, pops up a map or pops up a form and says, here it is. This is what you can do. So a lot of the courts in government now, they're really having staffing problems because the baby boomers are all retiring. So there's thousands and thousands of jobs that aren't being fulfilled. And so our AI kiosks, and you can deploy 'em throughout your building just as different employees do different tasks. Same with these AI avatars. And they all collaborate with one another and allow the staff that's currently working there to work on higher valued problems and tasks. And so these take care of the repetitive questions that the poor staff has to hear again and again. So in a nutshell, that's kind of what we do.

Jessica Denson, Host (07:23):

It's pretty cool. You'll have to show me one of these things in just a moment, but first, Casey. Yeah, you called him dad when he came up. So I get to out you. So tell me what it's like working with your father, what you do as business development. Are you business development manager, director, specialist, specialist? So tell me what you do in that

Casey McManus, Bus. Dev,  Advanced Robot Solutions (07:42):

Role. All right. So I've been working for my dad for a few months now, and I actually think I've never envisioned myself in this role, but I actually think it's great because for me, I always want to just have a job where I feel like I'm making a positive impact and helping people. And I definitely feel like advanced robot solutions can do that. And I've worked in a lot of different fields. I've worked in environmental science, a little bit, food systems. And then I was recently working in public health. So I've worked with government and I've also worked in academia. So I feel like this is a really good relationship that we have together because from my subject, knowledge, experience and knowledge within systems, thinking that it's a good fit. So I do a little bit of marketing and a little bit of sales. I've been now transitioning more into a sales role, but I think that it's a really good fit because I understand our client base and have a foundation of knowledge of what their needs are. So I like it.

Jessica Denson, Host (08:47):

Yeah, I would imagine working in those different sectors, you could say, oh, I know the pain points.

Casey McManus, Bus. Dev,  Advanced Robot Solutions (08:52):

Yes. And so already today, just talking with people, I think access to resources is a big thing. So our kiosk can be deployed in other locations besides just the county buildings or courthouses. They could be in libraries or other public facing buildings. And we've seen people really excited about that here to provide better access to court or county resources to the public beyond just the physical spaces there. So I'm excited about that.

Jessica Denson, Host (09:26):

When you talk ai, there's obviously some fear that's involved. What could it do? What can it be? That kind of thing. What are some fears that you've heard that you really think are maybe misplaced or just because of misinformation?

Paul McManus, CEO, Advanced Robot Solutions (09:44):

Well, we started, sometimes people get a little creepy when they see a robot talking to you, but they get a little less creepy when they see the avatars talking to you. And here working with the court, the government, they really don't have the fears and the public, they just want their answers. Now everyone thinks that AI is going to take over the world. AI is going to do this, it's going to do that. And yes, maybe in bad guys' hands, maybe that could happen. What's unique about our platform is everyone heard about Chad, GBT last fall became the rage. We've been in this space for about five, six years. We deal with large language models, NLP, small language models. But what we do is we build an AI brain per se, and it becomes a domain expert and gets smarter with you. So it knows everything about that county building that department, but it doesn't. Whereas Chad, GBT goes all over the internet to find an answer. And again, hallucinates, if our AI doesn't know the answer or the avatar doesn't know the answer, then it says, sorry, I don't know the answer. Go see the clerk or go see somebody else. So it's a very useful tool.

Jessica Denson, Host (11:04):

So what's your background if you were doing robots and then moving into ai?

Paul McManus, CEO, Advanced Robot Solutions (11:08):

I'm a tech geek. Invented the photo screensaver in 1993.

Jessica Denson, Host (11:13):

Oh really? Wow. I didn't know I was around royalty.

Paul McManus, CEO, Advanced Robot Solutions (11:16):

Yeah, been around the dot-com boom. Digital cameras. So I just kind of gravitate to tech and I love new things and new innovation and seeing the power of how technology can help both the people that are deploying it and the people that are using it.

Jessica Denson, Host (11:33):

Is it kind of fun, Casey to see your dad at work actually in it and be involved?

Casey McManus, Bus. Dev,  Advanced Robot Solutions (11:38):

Oh yeah. And I've actually seen him at work my whole life. He is always been an entrepreneur, but it's nice to work at this capacity. And I think that we have a good working relationship. And for him, I think it's nice because I'm always brainstorming. He's always brainstorming, so we can brainstorm together. But yeah, I agree. I think there's a lot of possibilities with ai. And when I was working in public health, I actually was researching AI and the benefits and the opportunities within public health too. And Paul mentioned this a little bit just about how we build the knowledge base based on the information provided by the courts or the government. So you're going to find answers within that realm. It's not going to be just pulling answers from random places. So I think that specific knowledge base is helpful in addressing some of those fears too, that the knowledge is going to be built on the information that's provided from the courts and the government too.

Jessica Denson, Host (12:36):

And you've seen some success already, because there's a big sign here that says Achievement award winner presented to El Paso County, Texas Connected Nation. We've actually done some work in Texas. We love Texas. I'm a native Texan. So what is this that they won the award for?

Paul McManus, CEO, Advanced Robot Solutions (12:54):

They run it for innovation technology. And what El Paso did, the county working with the Department of Human Resources and Public Service, they deployed three kiosks in the courthouse, building one in the lobby to direct people answer some frequently asked questions. Then they put other kiosks throughout the courthouse to do specific functions. And again, a big trend with counties and government. Not everyone has access to the internet. Not everyone has access to transportation. Not everyone can get time off from the job to do that government work or do that court work. So what El Paso has done is they're bringing the county services direct to the public. So they have kiosks and tax collector's office. We're putting three of 'em on the Fort Bliss military base. So the avatars can help people with forms and applications. And they don't even have to go to the courthouse, they don't have to go to the county building.

(13:52):

And then the way the AI works, there's a different face on every single kiosk because it'd be a little creepy if they all had the same face. So there they're diverse. And then should at any point, the avatar not know the question, but realizes that this is important, that the person knows the answer, it remotely reaches out through telepresence and reaches out to a live person that can come onto the screen helping with whatever their matter is. And that live person could be in the same building, working in another building, can be working remotely from home.

Jessica Denson, Host (14:27):

That's so cool. That's very cool. And you guys are based in Connecticut, but are you all over the country?

Casey McManus, Bus. Dev,  Advanced Robot Solutions (14:35):

Yeah, we are deployed all throughout the country. I actually live in upstate New York right now, but I come down to the office frequently. But yeah, there's no limit to the expansion of where the services can be deployed. And I

Jessica Denson, Host (14:51):

Say, sorry, do you do small and big counties? Is it all sizes of groups?

Paul McManus, CEO, Advanced Robot Solutions (14:56):

Yeah, absolutely. So we're working with the entire state of North Carolina. We're working the entire state of Maryland. We're starting off with pilots, and then we'll roll out from there. In California, we have one courthouse, because everywhere in America, different demographics live in different areas. And again, language access is a big issue. So we in one courthouse in Stanislau, California, the avatar kiosk, there's five of them. They speak English, Spanish, Mandarin, Chinese, Punjabi, and Assyrian. Oh, wow. So you can't find a person that can speak all those languages, but the avatars can. So we're sprinkled in big states, counties, and small towns.

Jessica Denson, Host (15:39):

So just since our viewers are, our listeners aren't here, there are three kiosk, I guess one's kind of like a printer type thing set up here that say multilingual AI chat agents, a IE filing kiosk and the AI information kiosk. Let's go up to the AI information kiosk and show me kind of how this works.

Paul McManus, CEO, Advanced Robot Solutions (15:59):

Okay. So because we're at a trade show, she did not introduce herself, but if she was living in the lobby, the camera would recognize there's a face in front of it and say, hi, how can I help you? And says her name. So she introduces herself, and I can say, what can you do?

Jessica Denson, Host (16:21):

Says she's thinking

Female AI Avatar (16:23):

A lot. I can do tap a button on my screen for court related questions like these, just so you know, I answer best to a person standing right in front of the camera.

Jessica Denson, Host (16:34):

So there's a series of questions that came up on the screen that someone could ask. This is the first time I've interviewed an AI person. This is the first for me, but they have everything. There's a directory, facts, forms. Oh, the telepresence is where you can reach somebody. Today's hearing jury. And there is a female avatar on there with a big smile. And I know the next one that you have next to it has got a printer attached. What's that for? Okay,

Paul McManus, CEO, Advanced Robot Solutions (17:00):

So the other one that I just shared with you, you usually put in lobbies and kind of gets people on the way. This one here is an all-in-one kiosk, and it helps people fill out forms. This is a court example. There's all sorts of forms. There's a big trend happening in government counties and courts for self-service, again, because they can't find enough staff members to help out. So these agents, you have an all-in-one kiosk here, you need to change your name, you got married and you want to change your name. How do I change my name? How do I change my name?

Jessica Denson, Host (17:42):

It's thinking

Paul McManus, CEO, Advanced Robot Solutions (17:44):

Because we're sitting in a show, the internet is a little slower. I was thinking a lot. Yes,

Male AI Avatar (17:50):

To change your name, click on the name change auction from the list of filing types.

Jessica Denson, Host (17:55):

So it not only says it, but it also types it out. So you could see it, you could read it or you could listen. Yeah. So

Paul McManus, CEO, Advanced Robot Solutions (18:01):

Then what happens a lot of times when the person goes and fills out a form, if you go to Amazon a hundred times, you know exactly what buttons, people that go to court services or government services, it's their first time they're nervous, they don't want to make a mistake. So there's a friendly avatar on the right hand side that knows where the person is on the forms right at any moment and gives that person a sense of trust and security that they're doing the right thing. And the person can even say, am I doing the right thing? Or what's the next step I should do on this screen? And it's just like you'd have a human standing next to you helping 'em fill it out. Now you have an AI avatar doing that so that human can do higher tests level work and do more important work. And again, this avatar and AI happens to help out with all the repetitive tasks

Jessica Denson, Host (18:50):

That could easily be done over and over again. And I have this nightmare image of holding onto a budget, waiting for your number to be called because you don't know what to do on a form. So that really takes tear of that pain point and really helps people. Well, thank you Paul and Casey. She's running off talking to some of my colleagues over there. But thank you Casey, and thank you, Paul. I really appreciate you both. Thank

Paul McManus, CEO, Advanced Robot Solutions (19:13):

You very much. Best of luck on your podcast.

Jessica Denson, Host (19:15):

Thank you. Thank you. I'll include a link to Advanced Robot Solutions in the description of this podcast for our audience. We'll continue our coverage from the National Association of County's Annual Conference and Exposition Center. In our next episode. I'm Jessica Denson. Thanks for joining us. If you like our show and want to know more about us, head to connected nation.org or find us on all major podcast platforms.