Synthetic intelligence doesn’t at all times wish to optimize your life or steal your job. Generally, AI simply needs to be your pal. And whereas robotic pets weren’t the most important stars of CES 2026, they’ve change into extra than simply noise and are signaling how AI is outwardly leaving our screens and taking up a bodily presence in our lives.
To be clear, there’s no scarcity of purpose-built machines on show in Las Vegas: there’s Samsung’s voice-controlled refrigerator, Bosch’s Alexa Plus-powered AI barista, and smarter robovacs like Narwal’s earring-finding Flow 2 or Anker’s Eufy S2, which moonlights as an aromatherapy diffuser – all promising to automate the drudgery of each day life. Humanoid robots like LG’s CLOiD and SwitchBot’s Onero H1 stole a lot of the highlight, too, taking that logic a step additional by promising extra general-purpose helpers across the house — or the manufacturing facility flooring, within the case of Boston Dynamics’ Atlas — even when they continue to be years away from on a regular basis use.
However not each robotic at CES appears that excited about having a job. Away from the massive demos and flashy guarantees of automation, a quieter pattern is taking form: machines designed for little objective past present. And so they’re in every single place.
In the event you ever get bored charging your cellphone, Loona’s DeskMate presents an answer: it transforms your iPhone right into a cutesy companion with outsized, Pixar-like eyes that observe you as you speak. It has sensible options too, like Slack integration and assembly help, however as a promoting level they really feel virtually incidental to the companion expertise. The corporate says the software is powered by AI, although it doesn’t say how.
Talking of Pixar, AI robotics startup Zeroth wants to sell you a real-life WALL-E companion, or, in markets just like the US the place it lacks the Disney license, one thing near WALL-E’s bizarre, off-brand cousin. The robotic, known as W1, doesn’t actually do a lot moreover observe you round, carrying small gadgets, or snapping just a few footage. The corporate says W1 is constructed on “superior mobility and environmental AI,” although particulars are imprecise.
Zeroth can also be bringing a doll-sized humanoid robotic, M1, to the US, an at-home companion that blends utility — reminders, childcare help, fall detection — with companionship, making use of Google’s Gemini AI mannequin for conversations. That mixture has already secured an viewers for social robots in style in elements of Asia, significantly in China and South Korea, the place the robots are in style with youngsters and the elderly. CES 2026 suggests this idea is now being intentionally repackaged and marketed for Western properties.
Others leaned much more explicitly into emotional companionship. In different phrases: robotic pets. There’s Fuzozo, a puffball that purrs while you pet it and may acknowledge its proprietor. Not like many housebound AI gadgets, it has a cellular connection, permitting it to be carried round with you, a touch at how ubiquitous these merchandise may be sooner or later, even when it’s unclear how exactly AI is getting used.
Robovac firm Ecovacs was additionally advertising and marketing a robotic that resembles a Bichon Frisé. It says the emotional companion robot, LilMilo, makes use of AI and “lifelike biometrics” to acknowledge voices, develop a persona, and adapt to person habits. As with different merchandise, particulars on the AI component inside LilMilo are generic and nondescript. It’s an odd product for an organization that simply launched a robotic pool cleaner, and a telling signal of how firms more and more anticipate us to welcome bodily AI companions into our properties not for what they do, however merely for being there.
