Leadership Spotlight: Meet Guilhem

Great technology doesn't happen by accident, it happens because someone believes deeply enough in a mission to build it from the ground up. For Guilhem, our Chief Technology Officer, that belief is what brought him to Avenant. He is, quite simply, the person behind our technology: shaping the systems, decisions, and vision that power everything we do. In this interview, he explains why he joined Avenant: what excited him, his vision for the product, and what keeps him energized about the road ahead.

When Ragui first presented the idea of Avenant to me, I saw something that felt both deeply personal and incredibly important. We all have parents, grandparents, relatives, neighbours, or friends who are getting older. We’ve all witnessed, in one way or another, how complicated care can become, and how heartbreaking it can be to feel constrained by distance, responsibilities, or simply the realities of everyday life, and realize too many opportunities to spend time with our loved ones have slipped by.

Then there are the appointments, the medications, and the information that doesn’t always make its way to the right person at the right time. And beyond all of that, there’s the loneliness that so often comes with growing old.

What struck me was that these aren’t problems caused by a lack of caring. Families care. Healthcare professionals care. But life gets busy, people live far apart, and there are only so many hours in a day. At the same time, it immediately clicked in my mind how the combination of conversational AI and deep expertise in elder care could help improve that experience. The opportunity to build something from the ground up, with strong ethical and safety foundations from day one, was a major reason why I decided to join Avenant.

For most of my career, I’ve worked at the intersection of data science, technology, and product development. That experience taught me to think across disciplines, from software engineering and machine learning to user psychology, product design, and business strategy. It allowed me to help organizations make sense of complex information and build systems that people could actually use. I wanted to apply those same skills to a problem that resonated with me on a deeper, more personal level.

That’s what led me to Avenant, and it’s why I do get out of bed excited to keep working on this mission every day.

I’d have a hard time pointing to a single moment, but I can say that watching the progress of two specific technologies made me realize there was something truly unique about the times we’re living in when it comes to the challenge of growing old.

The first is the rise of large language models. They’ve shown an incredible ability to translate information from one domain of language to another. We’ve all seen examples of that. But in a care setting, the implications are much deeper. They can help doctors, elders, families, and care professionals stay aligned and better understand one another. They can fill in gaps, surface relevant observations, explain what a diagnosis might mean in practical terms, remind someone of an important piece of advice, or draw attention to a situation that might otherwise have gone unnoticed. To me, LLMs combined with the appropriate technology have the potential to bring every participant in care onto the same page, especially the person who matters most: the elders themselves.

The second realization came from watching the progress of voice technology over the last few years, both in transcription and, perhaps even more importantly, voice synthesis. It has always seemed clear to me that traditional user interfaces lack the intuitiveness of a simple conversation. A voice can bring empathy, reassurance, storytelling, and a sense of connection. That’s incredibly important for people who might otherwise feel intimidated by technology or excluded from it. Voice has the potential to make technology feel less like a tool and more like a natural extension of human interaction.

My hope is that the elders using our technology feel a little less lonely than they otherwise would have that day.

One conversation at a time, I hope Avenant helps people maintain a sense of agency over their own care, stay curious about the world around them, continue learning, and keep the people they love close to their lives.

Geography and the realities of modern life place so many barriers between older adults and their families. I think most of us can relate to that in some way. This sense of distance and disconnection is something that resonates deeply with me; after all my own parents are on the other side of the ocean.. If what we’re building can help bridge even a small part of that gap, then I think we’re doing something meaningful.

My profession has probably conditioned me to look at the numbers first, so this is a good question for me to step away from that habit a little.

In the end, it’s actually simple. We’re working hard to build an experience that brings a sense of empathy, care, and genuine understanding into people’s lives. So the sign that will matter most for me is hearing from elders, families, or caregivers that Avenant made a meaningful difference for them in those exact ways. That’s the sign I’ll be looking for.

The sheer number of interesting and complex problems we’re trying to solve is genuinely energizing. As a team, we’re deeply focused on the people we serve. We spend a lot of time trying to understand the day-to-day realities of care providers, caregivers, families, and, of course, older adults themselves.

We’re constantly asking questions: What are the moments that create friction? Where are people struggling? What gets overlooked? And where can we make the biggest difference?

Having the opportunity to work on problems that are both technically fascinating and deeply human is an incredible privilege. Knowing that the work we’re doing has the potential to make someone’s day a little easier, a little safer, or a little less lonely is what gets me excited to jump out of bed every morning.