The silver-haired market is the first stop. Home appliance giants are betting on robots as the "entrance to smart homes".

Preface

In the era of the explosive growth of large AI models, AI companion robots are increasingly becoming an important technological direction for caring for the elderly and addressing the challenges of an aging population.

At international technology events such as CES 2025 at the beginning of the year and WAIC 2025 in the middle of the year, this type of companion product has attracted wide attention, catching the eyes of global home appliance giants and startups, who are jointly exploring the field of "companionship", which combines warmth and huge market potential.

Behind the prosperity, there has quietly emerged a divergence of concepts in the AI companion robot market.

On the one hand, home appliance and technology giants represented by Samsung and LG are trying to transform companion robots into "home management centers", more like a physical version of "Xiaomi AI Speaker"; on the other hand, many startups and companies in vertical fields have chosen a development path of "emotion first", focusing more on "furry" AI companions with emotional interaction.

These two completely different development paths not only reflect different understandings of market demand in different industries but also indicate the potential evolution direction of AI companion robots in the future.

The "Elderly Care Robots" series will be pushed in a special topic format. This article will review and analyze home companion robots focusing on functionality and discuss industry trends.

Function First: Leading Enterprises Incubate Physical "Xiaomi AI Speakers"

In the elderly care robot market, a type of AI companion robot has caught the attention of leading home appliance and technology giants such as Samsung and LG. They are committed to creating "home management centers", which are more like intelligent "butlers" with physical interaction capabilities. These products focus on functionality, emphasizing efficiency and practicality, aiming to solve many inconveniences faced by the elderly in daily life through intelligent services and make their lives more convenient and efficient.

The most prominent feature of this type of AI companion robot is its "robot" attribute, focusing on providing powerful functions and high - efficiency services. They are the core carriers of the smart home ecosystem, capable of seamlessly connecting various smart devices in the home and providing the elderly with an integrated smart life experience.

Samsung Ballie: A Multi - functional Home Butler

Image source: Samsung

At CES 2025, one of Samsung's core exhibits was the upgraded spherical robot "Ballie". Since its first appearance in 2020, this spherical robot has undergone five years of iteration. Now, it is no longer just a "novel gadget", and Samsung is trying to turn it into a "home butler".

It integrates LiDAR, ToF sensors, infrared sensors, a 4K front - facing camera, and a 2K rear - facing camera, with powerful environmental perception capabilities.

Ballie's core advantage lies in its seamless linkage with Samsung's whole - home ecosystem. It's like a mobile "Xiaomi AI Speaker + Xiaomi Smart Speaker" but with physical interaction capabilities. When users are not at home, it can interact with home appliances, such as automatically turning on lights and air conditioners, and even accompanying pets remotely through the built - in camera and projector.

In addition, it can provide a series of suggestions on daily life, such as exercise suggestions, methods to optimize sleep, and sleep mode monitoring and management. When users return home, it can actively greet them and project a welcome message on the floor; according to the needs, it can adjust the home atmosphere, play suitable music, and adjust the light brightness, providing a certain emotional value.

LG AI Companion Robot: The Core Carrier of the "Zero - Labor Home"

Image source: LG

South Korea's LG has also launched its own AI companion robot, a bipedal robot that can analyze users' voices and facial expressions and control various smart devices in the home accordingly.

Similar to Ballie, it can also actively greet users, judge their emotions based on their expressions and voices, and conduct corresponding interactions. LG positions it as the core carrier of the "zero - labor home" concept, committed to providing a smarter home life experience through AI technology, autonomous movement capabilities, and dialogue services.

The Practical Value, Challenges, and Limitations of Functional Robots

For the elderly, this type of function - oriented AI companion robot shows significant practical value, directly solving the pain points in their lives. However, in addition to their powerful functions, current products also face some challenges and limitations:

Practical Value: Advantages in Daily Care and Health Management

• Solving daily inconveniences: The elderly often have limited mobility and may have a decline in memory, and traditional home appliances are complex to operate. The intelligent butler - type robot can help the elderly easily control home devices through voice interaction and autonomous movement, such as adjusting the air - conditioning temperature, turning off forgotten appliances, and playing news.

• Health management and safety assurance:

They can provide reminders for taking medicine on time.

In case of an emergency, they can contact family members or medical staff in a timely manner.

Through the integrated sensor system, these robots can monitor the daily activity patterns of the elderly and detect abnormal situations in a timely manner.

By analyzing changes in users' voices and expressions, they can also identify the emotional state and health status of the elderly to a certain extent.

• Emphasizing practicality and ease of use: The biggest selling point of these products lies in their functions and efficiency, aiming to make the elderly's lives "more convenient".

Challenges and Limitations: Dependence on Ecosystem and Emotional Shortage

• Dependence on the home ecosystem: First, there is the issue of the home ecosystem. These products are more like a display of strength by giant enterprises. Good use and most home management functions need to be based on a whole - home smart ecosystem, even within the same brand's smart ecosystem. In the absence of the corresponding smart ecosystem, the "function" attribute of the products will be greatly reduced.

• Learning cost: Although the products emphasize simplicity and ease of use, it still takes a certain amount of learning time for the elderly who are not very familiar with high - tech products to fully master their functions.

• Weak emotional connection: The biggest shortcoming of these products is the relatively weak emotional connection. Over - emphasizing functionality may make the elderly feel a lack of warmth and it is difficult to establish a deep emotional dependence. In other words, they solve the problem of "how to live more conveniently", but there is still an obvious deficiency in "how to make life more warm".

The Market Prospect and Integration Trend of the "Silver - Haired + Robot" Market

According to a survey by Hengzhou Chengsi, the global market size of AI elderly companion robots was approximately 1.53 billion yuan in 2024 and is expected to reach nearly 20.45 billion yuan by 2031, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of up to 45.1% in the next six years. This indicates that the consumption demand of the elderly for companion robots is very large.

In terms of the acceptance of the elderly, function - oriented products are more likely to be recognized and purchased by the younger generation because they are more concerned about whether the products can help their parents solve practical problems in life.

From the perspective of market consumption demand, purely function - oriented products are not enough to fully meet the needs of the elderly and it is difficult for them to dominate the market. The future trend will be to integrate the advantages of function and emotion to achieve a "1 + 1>2" product effect.

For example, ZTE's "Mochi", although with an emotional appearance, will be connected to its "AI cloud computer" ecosystem in the future to achieve functions such as voice - controlling other devices and synchronizing data in the cloud. In the future, functions such as sound source localization and voiceprint recognition will also be added, making Mochi closer to an "all - around butler in a doll form".

Image source: ZTE

Fourier Intelligence also launched the full - size humanoid Care - bot GR - 3 at this year's WIAC, which focuses on interactive companionship and has a "tangible" feature. As the third - generation intelligent humanoid robot in the GRx series, in its promotion, the robot takes "above function, love remains as ever" as the core, emphasizing "warm technological companionship".

Emotionally, GR - 3 focuses on the emotional connection between humans and robots. Through daily interaction, social communication, and emotional companionship, it undertakes the roles of accompanying the elderly living alone and interacting with children, building an emotional bond with gentle responses. Functionally, it covers professional scenarios such as mobility assistance, health monitoring, and rehabilitation training. In the future, it can be used in rehabilitation institutions, nursing homes, etc., providing precise services such as chronic disease care and daily life assistance to meet the needs of caring for the elderly.

Image source: Fourier Intelligence

With the continuous improvement of AI models and artificial intelligence technology, AI companion robots are expected to develop a more segmented product line, including specialized products for specific needs such as mild cognitive impairment and limited mobility, as well as comprehensive products for healthy and active elderly, providing emotional companionship while assisting in daily life management.

Currently, the AI companion robot market is at a critical stage of rapid development. Although there is a divergence in technological paths at present, with the continuous progress of technology and the further clarification of market demand, an organic combination of technology and humanity will be gradually achieved, providing strong support for addressing the challenges of an aging society.

This article is from the WeChat public account "mx814765531" (ID: AgeClub), author: Focusing on elderly business innovation, published by 36Kr with authorization.