After years of teasing and futuristic demos, Samsung's long-awaited home robot, Ballie, is finally coming to life. Ballie, a charming BB-8-like assistant, was first introduced in 2020 and will be available in the United States and South Korea this summer.
Registration is currently open on Samsung's website, marking the company's most serious step yet toward putting AI-powered robotics at the heart of our homes.
Ballie's initial charm was design— a little, round robot with two wheels and a gentle, droid-like presence. But under that endearing exterior now lies some serious tech. The most recent version includes a built-in projector, speaker, microphone, camera, and sensors, giving it the functionality of a mobile smart display. It can project videos, controls, or recipes on your wall while you cook and respond to voice commands or physical interactions.
What distinguishes this version of Ballie is its brain. Samsung has integrated Google's Gemini AI, a multimodal large language model, into Ballie and its in-house generative AI tools. This enables Ballie to simultaneously understand voice commands, visual cues, and contextual environmental data. Ask for fashion advice, tell it you're tired, or request a movie night setup. Ballie will provide unique suggestions like adjusting lights, recommending activities, or even offering sleep optimization tips.
Samsung showcased Ballie at CES 2025, showing off its ability to project interfaces you can interact with with your feet, analyze your environment, and even recommend wine pairings. So far, all demos have been strictly regulated, and no one outside of Samsung has had hands-on experience with the robot.
Still, with rivals like Apple, LG, Meta, and Amazon quietly working on home robotics, Ballie's upcoming release offers Samsung a significant advantage. The price tag, which is a critical component in whether customers will adopt it, remains unclear.
Ballie is expected to be a premium device with cutting-edge electronics and next-generation AI. But if it delivers on even half of its promises, it could be the most lovable AI assistant yet.