AI Companion Robot/ toy at 2025 CES

Ivyisme

AI is one of the hottest topics today. In 2024, we’ve witnessed a significant surge in AI-integrated hardware, especially smart glasses. The AI companion robot has also become a hot topic once again.

Last year, Heyup featured several AI-powered toys and robots, such as the LIVING AI EMO Robot, which generated much interest with a long queue for tryout sessions. We also discussed the Bubblepal AI Toy and the Casio furry pet moflin toy launch.

At CES 2025, some exciting new products were revealed. First, Samsung’s Ballie AI robot, which the company promises to release this year, was introduced five years ago at CES. It’s finally making its way to the market.

Another highlight is Mirumi, a furry little companion bot. The company plans to launch a crowdfunding campaign later this year before releasing the robot, though it has not been confirmed whether it will be sold internationally.

Finally, Romi, a conversational AI robot, won a CES Innovation Award. Romi Lacatan is a new palmtop emotional-support AI robot capable of holding complex, real-time conversations without the need for turn-taking. It can quickly interject while the user is still speaking, generating comments based on what it “sees,” “hears,” and the conversation history.

What are your thoughts on the 2025 AI companion robot and AI toy? Are there any other brands you know of that are excelling in this category? Should we consider a tryout for AI toys or robots in 2025? Share your comments, and let’s see how our community feels about exploring this category!

Menguelez

Ivyisme maybe one day one of these robots could replace a pet. Ideal for people who loves pets but they are allergic to them😍

Rives333R

Ivyisme

I loved the robot Romi, its design is the one I liked the most and it looks very cute ✨👌✨

Thank you for bringing and sharing this year’s technological innovations 💎

Lilith_Anderson

Ivyisme se ven increíbles, espero tener uno algún día de ve que si les metieron empeño por lo que dices

Ivyisme

Menguelez Yeah, the furry AI bot is really cute—not just for kids, but for adults as well. That’s one of its good features.

Ivyisme

I was wondering, since all these robots serve as companions, what’s the difference between voice-interactive AI toys and emotion-driven robots?

dsmonteiro

With AI evolving so fast, it might come a day when it makes sense to have a virtual pet. My question, however, is… doesn’t this cause more problems than it solves? Doesn’t this increase isolation rather than fixing it? Aside from the example @Menguelez gave — of people with allergies — I really don’t see the point of replacing human (or even pet) interaction with something artificial that, most likely, will end up being used for data mining to sell you something later.

Some of these devices follow the same trend of Rabbit R1 and Humane Ai Pin. Like them, these bots sell you a software app disguised as hardware. Couldn’t this virtual pet simply be an app on your phone?

Ivyisme

dsmonteiro The Rabbit R1 garnered much attention at last year’s CES, with all the tech media showing great interest. However, when they received the product, it was rated 6/10, as you mentioned, falling short of expectations. While the smartphone app may work better, there’s an added step involved: you need to first unlock your phone, find the app, log in, and then interact. In contrast, a hardware device like the Humane AI Pin, which responds to voice commands, only requires a single step to activate the app, making voice interaction much more convenient. Bots sell software apps to consumers disguised as hardware. While I’m uncertain about the best choice in terms of the companion aspect, the success of Plaud Note, along with AI note-taking and AI mouse features, demonstrates significant efficiency and productivity gains.

dsmonteiro

Ivyisme Plaud is indeed a good example, but its physical form gives it specific functionality: being able to record calls.

But I guess you can make the same argument regarding the AI Bots. The physical body gives them something an app doesn’t have: physical presence in the real world, which can be comforting for those using them.

Ivyisme

dsmonteiro Indeed, especially if the price is acceptable, then why not? AI is the buzzword everywhere. In 2025, if a company isn’t involved with AI, it risks losing attention and missing out on investments. I have saw some companies are march into the AI aspects. Some companies are simply selling a story. Speaking of Plaud, they sold over 300,000 units—do you think AI was key in boosting their market presence, generating attention, and making the functionality more appliable in the daily usage? Without AI, would this have remained a niche demand?

seriousjoker

Have you read about Moxie (https://moxierobot.com/) It seemed cool but the service was not profitable so kids got attached to the bot and the backend AI server a going to get shot down. :-S

I think the issue with AI (currently) is that powerful AI and LLM are mostly cloud based. I won’t rely on anything important to cloud service but local LLM still struggle a little.

dsmonteiro

seriousjoker that’s something I can get behind. I’m in the process of hosting my own LLMs locally because I want to integrate one into Home Assistant but I don’t want to rely on the cloud.

With so much uncertainty in the world these days, owning your own data, storage and processing power gives you a safety net and protects you from the clear push towards subscription-based AI services baked into hardware you purchase.