"Even robot vacuums and lawnmowers have long been more than just useful products for the smart home for many customers. The industry knows this – and is pinning its hopes on it.
The sparkling eyes of visitors to the IFA technology trade fair prove it: household robots are fascinating. Especially their owners. They have a very close relationship with the devices. Closer than one would expect for such technology products. Many users practically recognize them as family members. Is that true? Yes – the emotional closeness is indeed there. This is demonstrated by a new study called "Binary Hearts," presented in Berlin by the tech industry association GFU and the strategy consultancy Oliver Wyman. Around 4,200 representative robot users from America, China, Germany, and Japan were surveyed in August about their relationship with the device. The results were astonishing.
Almost half of those in Germany attribute their own personality to robots. 40 percent consider kitchen appliances, vacuum cleaners, or pool cleaners "part of the family." Almost as many enjoy spending time with them. Time with their robot. Because: "It understands me."
Consumer expert Martin Schulte certainly understands this. The partner at the consulting firm Oliver Wyman knows that watching the vacuum cleaner can be relaxing: "Robots are accepted like pets." Those who don't want or can't have a dog or cat simply adopt a power-hungry replacement made of plastic and metal.
This argument can also be heard from providers like Switchbot. At IFA, the company presented an artificial intelligence-based "AI Pet" for the first time. With its big blue eyes and plush fur, the AI pet is likely to elicit reactions like "Oh, how cute" from many observers. But the chubby little device with the pointy ears isn't intended to be a children's toy, assures the IFA booth in Hall 1.2. Rather, it's a sensitive companion for the whole family. The "soft household robot" offers integrated LLM AI and cloud-based VLM AI (a cloud-based VLM AI is a Vision-Language Model (VLM) hosted and accessed through a cloud computing platform). This is the combination of a ChatGPT language model and a so-called Vision Language Models. These VLMs combine image and video recognition functions with natural language processing.
A lot of technology for one purpose: emotional companionship in intelligent form, as the provider puts it. The artificial pet "sees you, reacts to you, and understands your feelings," is the promise. Joy, sadness, loneliness, jealousy—all included. Depending on the person. Because its cameras tell the "AI Pet" who it is facing and how it should react to each of them. The device learns from daily interactions, remembers people, routines, and spaces, and records unforgettable moments: "It's a friend, a confidant, and a growing friend of the family, always there when you need it." The devices are scheduled to launch this year. The manufacturers declined to comment on the price.
"Niko" and "Noa," as they are called in Berlin, merely shed a—albeit particularly glaring—light on the robotization of private households, as it appears ubiquitously at the IFA. Vacuum cleaners have long since become a household name, or robotic lawnmowers have become a standard in households. It doesn't want to stop there. Senserobot has identified chess and Go players as an interesting target group. It claims to be the first company to specialize in the mass production of AI-controlled robot arms for home use – and for just under 1,000 euros, it offers a chess computer that sits opposite its human counterpart and reliably grasps the pieces.
These examples clearly demonstrate the appeal of household robots – for consumers and manufacturers alike. In addition to the main argument that they relieve people of work and that they can be fun, there is the fact that customers themselves develop a close relationship with the devices. "The consumer survey clearly shows manufacturers: household robots have enormous potential for strong customer loyalty," says GFU Managing Director Sara Warneke.
According to the study, customers with a high emotional attachment are four times more willing to purchase a software upgrade than those with a low attachment. The willingness to pay for a device repair is similarly drastically different. And repeat purchases would also be significantly more likely if the first robot won the hearts of its owners.
This doesn't work with the same means everywhere in the world—this is also a result of the study: "While in China a natural voice and pet-like haptic feedback like a 'tail wag' are highly valued, Germans are more likely to be put off by precisely that." In Germany, "Robbi" and "Putzi" collected two popular names that users give their devices – most affectionately, if they could clean or repair themselves, learn human preferences over time, or move autonomously.
But there are challenges that come with the close human-machine relationship. "People in Germany are not only increasingly recognizing the advantages of household robots – they are also increasingly integrating these helpers into their families, giving them nicknames, and measuring the machines by human standards," says Oliver Wyman consultant Schulte. This also creates a responsibility for manufacturers, especially when it comes to data security.
This could be an advantage for companies like Neura Robotics and their household robots that can see, hear, and feel. Founder David Reger clarified: "Our robots are not designed to replace human proximity, but to make it possible again." On the sidelines of the IFA, he reiterated his goal of delivering up to five million cognitive robots by 2030.” [1]
1. Der Haushaltsroboter wird zum Familienmitglied. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung; Frankfurt. 08 Sep 2025: 20. Von Thiemo Heeg, Berlin
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