Samsung's AI-Powered Robot Ballie Set for 2025 Launch: A New Era of Smart Home Companions

Samsung expects to ship Ballie, its futuristic AI robot, later this year

CES 2025 Read and watch our complete CES coverage here Updated less than 1 minute ago Samsung first revealed Ballie several years ago at CES 2020 -- only for the home bot to go dark, before reemerging with a new design at CES 2024. At CES 2025, Ballie once again took the stage, and Samsung is officially claiming that the adorable robot will be coming to store shelves sometime this year. It's been a long time coming, but it seems as if Ballie is ready to become your new household companion, and we're excited about all the possibilities it can bring to your smart home. Ballie is a home bot that makes liberal use of AI technology. It's billed as a "self-propelled, autonomous home robot" designed with companionship, health monitoring, and entertainment features to help streamline your day-to-day tasks. Its built-in projector and speakers are the main way it'll communicate with users, and they seem to be pretty robust. Recommended Videos A demo from Samsung showed Ballie projecting details about a local Las Vegas attraction on the ground when prompted by a user. It would later automatically turn its projector toward a blank wall to give directions on a map, using the wall's larger surface area to create a bigger image with more detail. Beyond directions, Ballie works as a standard projector for movies, capable of resizing the screen dimensions via voice commands. Ballie's quality won't make it a good fit for your home theater -- but with the flexibility to project on any surface and a solid set of speakers, it's a versatile feature that should get plenty of use around your home. Please enable Javascript to view this content As expected, Ballie can sync with various smart devices so you can activate them through voice commands. Samsung has also integrated cool visual AI functions into Ballie, allowing you to ask it questions based on its surroundings. The CES demo included a user holding two bottles of wine asking Ballie which would be a better meal pairing, turning the robot into a venerable sommelier. Sadly, a firm release date and pricing details were not confirmed at CES 2025. We can't image it'll be cheap, however, with many other home robots carrying price tags over $1,000 -- including the Enabot X. Amazon's robot, Astro, is even more expensive at $1,600. Expect to hear more details from Samsung in the coming months.

CES 2025: Ballie, Samsung's Household Assistant Robot, Is Back

As CES began this year, one topic came up over and over again among reporters: "Where's Ballie?" The personal robot that Samsung showed at CES 2024 left a huge impression on everyone -- rolling around on the floor, following people around, while projecting images up onto the floor or wall. While not having as large a presence at CES as it did last year, Ballie popped up in the Samsung booth, presentation, and materials, with the news from Samsung that Ballie should be available "this year." It's been a long road for Ballie since it was introduced at CES in 2020. At that point, Ballie was merely a concept that looked as if it had been 3D printed at home. By last year, Ballie was a fully functional model; as the centerpiece of the Samsung CES presentation, it promised to be a companion, a security team, and living embodiment of your voice assistant for SmartThings. (SmartThings is Samsung's smart home platform, arguably the fourth largest behind Apple, Google and Amazon.) And then we heard nothing for most of the year. By the time Ballie popped back up at IFA (an international tech expo) in September, it had improved dramatically as it inched closer to a real consumer-ready model. This Ballie interacted using real language and expressed emotions, results of tightly integrated AI. It could follow commands, call people, and predict the needs of people and pets in the home. It could recognize items you held and then give you information about them. It could make decisions about whether to project small bites of information or more detailed data, and then choose the right location to project that info. In this year's iteration, Ballie is being actively demonstrated for attendees, rather than simply having a one-time, spotlight demo. It projects choices for the user as virtual buttons on the floor, and can control devices via SmartThings integration. Seeing Ballie's current design (a sphere on two front wheels with a back fin for balance), I am reminded of the Enabot Rola, a tiny personal robot I've been testing the last few months. While I haven't thought much of the Enabot generally, the design makes the robot surprisingly resilient. Regardless of what it bumps into or encounters (including the jaws of my Doberman), the low center of gravity allows the Enabot to recover its position upright quickly. I suspect Ballie might have the same resilience of movement. While I don't yet have any sense of pricing or availability beyond the loose commitment Samsung has offered reporters this week of a pending release within the next calendar year, what is abundantly clear is that with each appearance, Ballie becomes a more viable consumer product.

Samsung is bringing its Wall-E-like robot to any home in 2025

TL;DR: Samsung's Ballie, a spherical AI-powered robot first revealed at CES 2020, is set to be released in 2025. It functions as a stay-at-home companion, capable of greeting owners, projecting images, and controlling smart home devices. Ballie uses cameras and sensors to optimize image projection and includes in-built speakers. Samsung's Ballie, a spherical robot that was first revealed at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in 2020 is finally coming to market, putting to bed the longstanding assumption that Samsung will never release the peculiar robot. CES 2024 is littered with prototype concepts that will never make it to market for various reasons, and since its unveiling and lack of release, Samsung's Ballie has fallen into that category. However, it appears that is no longer the case as CNET reports Samsung will be releasing the AI-powered companion sometime in 2025. For those who don't know, Ballie is a stay-at-home robot companion that is capable of greeting its owners at the door, projecting video/images on surfaces, and being able to control other Samsung smarthome devices. Ballie communicates with users through a text-based app, but users can also throw commands at the AI robot with their voice. Additionally, through its array of cameras and sensors, Ballie is able to determine the best viewing angle for its projected image/image based on the location of the users face. For example, a user could be doing squats facing a wall, and then they get down to do sit ups. Ballie will automatically recognize the user is now facing the ceiling and move to project the image/video on the ceiling. Furthermore, asking Ballie to "make the screen bigger" will trigger the AI companion to find a bigger wall. Ballie also has in-built speakers for sound. Currently there isn't a price for Ballie, or a specific release date. All that is known is its coming to the market sometime in 2025.

Samsung's Ballie robot companion still comes in yellow, but has more AI and a promised 2025 launch

Samsung says Ballie will launch in the first half of 2025 with support for English, Spanish, and Korean for an unknown price. If you've been wondering where Samsung's cheerful yellow AI robot companion has been, we finally know the answer. Ballie, Samsung's robot, which was first unveiled back in 2020 and then was relaunched last year in 2024 with a boatload of AI, will be arriving in 2025, specifically the first half. Ballie is still bright yellow with wheels to move around your house, a boatload of sensors, and a projector to let it play games, cast answers to queries, and even project films on various surfaces. And I got the chance - along with TechRadar Managing Editor, Lifestyle Josephine Watson - to check out Ballie firsthand and see it go through a few motions. And yes, it is still undeniably cute, and thanks to wheels, it will effortlessly glide over flat surfaces; this latest demo was on a soft wood surface in a pre-mapped space. It still boasts a front projector, which is a Full HD triple-laser projector and should deliver quality close to the Premiere 5. Further, it's the world's first switchable lens projector, allowing it to project content both near and far. Why is that important? Well, in this demonstration, we saw it list options on the floor in front of you, but it can also cast content like directions to the Sphere from Caeser's Palace, or project a movie onto the wall. It's voice-activated thanks to four built-in far-field microphones and responds to "Hey Ballie". It gets its sight from two cameras - a 2K camera on the rear and a 4K camera on the front - as well as sensors including LiDAR and a Time of Flight (ToF) sensor. Our hope is that learning from Samsung's slightly wobbly Samsung Bespoke Jet Bot Combo AI performance have factored in. Samsung promises a launch in 2025, specifically in the first half of the year, with English, Spanish, and Korean support. The company did not, however, provide any hints at pricing, exact features or specifications, or even confirmed launch regions. Like saying "Hey Google" on an Android smartphone or asking for Siri on a HomePod, Ballie is a fully responsive voice-activated robot. It's still being billed as an AI robot companion that can glide around your home and essentially be at your beck and call. As you might suspect, it's set to integrate with other devices, including the ability to control them. I'd guess this is enabled via SmartThings, but in this demo, Ballie was asked to turn on a connected light and a monitor feature in a gaming setup. We also saw Ballie provide a list of things to do in Las Vegas, suggesting the fountains at the Bellagio and the Sphere; it could understand a more conversational response and then gave us more info on the Sphere. When first asked, and Ballie was directly in front of the user, it projected the list on the floor; then it opted to cast a larger view with more details on the Sphere, including images, on the wall. Seemingly, it will automatically decide where to cast content, but you can be more specific and even ask for a larger screen when streaming a movie - it might even switch the surface it's casting on. As far as Ballie's interesting road to launch, we asked Samsung's Head of Product, Home Entertainment, Lydia Cho. "We really wanted to perfect this, making sure it came to market at the right time, with the right features, and the right concept. So that's why the process took a bit longer, but I think it's really the right time with us launching VisionAI," explained Cho. She also called out that the new AI suite, which is also launching on Samsung's latest TVs, is all about personalization and customization. Noting that this device can be personalized to your lifestyle and is squarely focused on perfecting the interaction, Cho says: "We just think it's the perfect companion for you to meet all your needs", before noting it can tell you the weather, where you want to go, your dietary needs, a child's homework assignment, and even your schedule. Even so, there is still a road to market for Ballie, and it will be interesting to see the final feature set, tech specs, Samsung's pitch to consumers, and how well it performs in real-world use. We still haven't been able to truly direct Ballie or see it outside of a test space, but it's clear that robots are a sector that isn't leaving. Ballie, with its cheerful yellow paint job, is certainly less scary or unassuming than Telsa's humanoid bot or Boston Dynamics robot dog, and with Amazon's Astro in a perpetual invite-only status, there's room for market domination, should Samsung play its cards right. Remember, this is the day before CES even starts, and Samsung showed this off before its official press conference at its First Look event, typically reserved for new home entertainment. It's clear that Ballie is central to the mission, and you bet we're trying to get a more formal hands-on.

Samsung Ballie AI robot is a real product and is officially launching first half of this year

Samsung's creepy, cute AI ball robot, Ballie was one of the spotlights of CES 2024, though it apparently wasn't ready for an actual release at the time. That changed at CES 2025 with the Korean company announcing that the rolling bot will be shipping to buyers sometime in the first half of 2025. Presumably, this Ballie will do all the things that Samsung showed off last year, including projecting stars on your ceiling during bedtime, showing off directions or projecting meetings on a wall. The device is supposed to include an array of cameras and sensors to help it sense the world around it and also act as a second set of eyes for you. Examples previously shown included using Ballie to interact with a pet at home. Other than a "it's coming" announcement, Samsung did not announce any other new information about the device. Samsung also did not announce a price for the rolling companion. The robot is supposed to respond to voice commands and something called "foot presses" that enables it to complete a task. With AI becoming ever more prevalent in home tech products, its not that surprising that the major tech companies are looking to get a mobile AI device into your home as well. Concepts have been shown off previously but this is one of the first ones that, allegedly, appears ready to launch. Amazon has had the Astro bot since 2021, but nothing much has come of it even if it is rumored to have a version 2.0 launching...at some point. Even Apple, which has largely stayed out of smart home tech, is reportedly looking to make a big splash into the smart home market this year, which we might learn about closer to March.

Samsung's Ballie Is Finally Coming In 2025: Will This Round Home Robot Live Up To The Hype? - Samsung Electronics Co (OTC:SSNLF)

Samsung Electronics Co. SSNLF has confirmed the release of its much-anticipated Ballie home robot. What Happened: Samsung confirmed to outlets like TechRadar that Ballie will be available in the first half of 2025. However, pricing details remain undisclosed. The round yellow home robot has once again made an appearance at CES this year. Ballie has been showcased in previous CES events too, but this year marks the first time Samsung has given any update on the release. Samsung did not immediately respond to Benzinga's request for comments. Subscribe to the Benzinga Tech Trends newsletter to get all the latest tech developments delivered to your inbox. During the event, Ballie demonstrated its capabilities by projecting information about a nearby attraction, the Sphere, onto a wall. It also showcased its ability to play movies, such as Sony's Uncharted, and adjust the projection size based on available space. The robot's built-in speakers were noted for their loudness, though the image brightness was less impressive, according to The Verge. Ballie also displayed its visual AI capabilities by identifying wine pairings and responding to queries quickly. Communication with Ballie is primarily through voice, and it can control smart home devices. Why It Matters: The journey of Samsung's Ballie robot has been a long one, with its initial concept introduced back in 2020. Initially, Ballie was a small, tennis ball-sized device, envisioned as a "fitness assistant" with smart home control capabilities. Over the years, it has evolved into a larger, bowling ball-sized robot equipped with advanced features like a built-in projector and LiDAR sensor for obstacle detection. The robot was expected to launch in 2024, but the timeline shifted to 2025. Check out more of Benzinga's Consumer Tech coverage by following this link. Read Next: Apple Rival Huawei, Alibaba, And Others Get Boost As China Doles Out Subsidies To Smartphone Buyers Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs