TEMPE, Ariz. - It is summer camp season, so mom and dad might be sending letters to their kids away having the time of their lives. But that handwritten note, like everything else in our lives, might have a 21st century twist at an Arizona business that wrote its own story.
What we know:
Inside one Tempe building, 30,000 handwritten letters are mailed a day. The one handwriting them is a robot.
"We actually use robots that use real pens to write out the notes and this day and age of AI where everything is laser printed or just emailed to you or texted to you, a handwritten note really stands out and that's what we do at scale," David Wachs of Handwrytten said.
Why you should care:
Each robot is designed and built at Handwrytten. As the company has grown, they've found handwritten notes leave an impact, like with the American Cancer Society of Arizona.
"When you're getting a stack of mail what are you more likely to open something that has personal handwriting or something that just has your name stamped on," Catherine Sebesta of the American Cancer Society of Arizona said.
They're all volunteers, so handwriting all the mail they need to deliver is nearly impossible.
Sebesta added that it is "something that's meaningful and makes people feel valued."
Big picture view:
But it's not just notes for donations or sales pitches for companies. Sometimes, it's a way to stay in touch in a new world. Wachs says they've seen parents use their product to send letters to their kids at summer camp.
"I know I'm supposed to send my kids letters, but this day in age, it's hard to get around to it so now they can go to our website and do it or download our app and do it," Wachs said.
Dig deeper:
The world is changing, and writing by hand is becoming something of a lost art.
"We no longer have photo albums and record collections that type of thing people are looking to return to tactile its nostalgic, so I'm hoping handwriting and calligraphy see an uptick," Wachs said.
The Source: FOX 10's Steve Nielsen