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!

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

        • Ivyisme

        • Post #3
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        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.

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

          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 💎

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

              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?

                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.

                    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.

                        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?

                            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.

                              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.

                                Ivyisme 100%. Plaud would be dead in the water if it wasn’t for AI.

                                But aren’t we turning AI into a self-fulfilling prophecy?

                                • Investors throw money at anything that has “AI” on the business plan
                                • Companies put “AI” on their business plans because they want to get investment
                                • Investors see that “AI” is a trend so invest on anything that has “AI” on the business plan

                                Rabbit R1 was a cool product on paper, but still something that could be an app, provided it got the necessary permissions. Humane’s Ai Pin could be a dumb device connected to a smartphone and it would still unlock the same level of functionality.

                                At the end of the day companies want to go with the hardware + AI software features approach because this is the only way they have to keep the user tied into a subscription when a shiny new toy shows up. For the companies it works short term (and long term if they figure out a great product), but seeing this from a customer perspective, I’m not sure this is the best path for me.

                                I don’t want to be tied into ecosystems that force me to a subscription either upfront or when the investors’ money dries out, and they need to figure out a way to stay afloat. Samsung starts talking about charging AI features. Apple does too. Google already has a paywall for its premium features. If each AI-powered device needs its own subscription where will that leave us?

                                    dsmonteiro

                                    ☠️It’s not a very ethical thing to say, the last question you asked, my answer is: Digital piracy of language models and all kinds of AI, will be provided for free just like there are many applications circulating on the Internet that were originally paid, original applications that you can download safely and for free with certain steps.

                                    ☠️

                                        dsmonteiro I agree especially nowadays everything is pushing us to be always online and always available just like AI is.

                                        AI helps to solve a lot of problems which is great and amazing but it seems like it suddenly needs to be everywhere. It seems like it is unavoidable sometimes, sadly…

                                          Rives333R I doubt piracy will be a solution, at least for most cases, since most of these services are server-based.

                                          Yes, you can download pirated games, but you can’t play them online, on the game’s servers. It’s about the same thing here.

                                          You can run local LLMs, sure, and without piracy (I currently am), but that doesn’t solve situations where you rely on a certain brand, like Humane, for example.

                                            • Ivyisme

                                            • Post #17
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                                            another AI company news was pushed to me today. Here’s some background: the company was founded by Luo Yonghao, the founder of the Smartisan smartphone brand (not sure if you’re familiar with it). Initially, they planned to focus on AR products in 2024 but shifted to AI in 2025. Recently, they launched their first product, J1Assistant, which integrates Jarvis’s proprietary AI model to deliver intuitive and practical answers based on user data. The AI hardware, JARVIS ONE, combines a battery, fingerprint recognition, Wi-Fi, microphone, and Bluetooth modules. Despite its small size, it’s fully equipped.

                                            Users only need to touch the fingerprint recognition area to activate the voice command function

                                            Do you think its hardware will follow the path of Rabbit R1 and Humane AI Pin or will this company bring something new?

                                              Interesting! Long live local LLM :-)

                                              Ivyisme

                                              Unless this is fully local, what’s the point?

                                              People carry their phones every day, so they can simply use J1Assistant if they want to. Why would they buy another product to carry? Even if it’s fully local, it can still be replaced by an app that takes advantage of a smartphone’s NPU.

                                              I don’t see any coverage about JARVIS ONE outside China, though. It seems like they are only focusing on the domestic market for the hardware and talking about J1Assistant globally.

                                                  dsmonteiro As for JARVIS ONE, whether it is just a concept product or an actual launch, I’ll wait for the first batch to experience I’ll wait for the first batch to experience it once it hits the market and keep the community updated.