Samsung's AI Robot Ballie, Once Promised for Summer 2025, Now Facing an Uncertain Future.
It's been six years since Samsung unveiled its ambitious robot project, Ballie, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in 2019. The device was touted as a smart home companion capable of managing lighting, greetings, scheduling, and reminders through natural conversations. At CES 2020, Samsung reportedly showcased advanced features such as facial recognition and control over smart home devices.
Fast forward to two years ago at CES 2024, where the company unveiled an updated version of Ballie with improved features like a larger build, light ring, and projector capabilities. Samsung claimed that Ballie would provide up to three hours of continuous use before needing a charge.
In April 2025, Samsung announced that it planned to release Ballie in the US and South Korea for purchase sometime that summer. The company even set up an online registration page for interested consumers to get the first look at the robot.
However, a recent report from Bloomberg revealed that Samsung has indefinitely shelved Ballie. Instead of marketing the device as a consumer product, the company has designated it as an "active innovation platform" solely for internal use. According to a statement from Samsung, Ballie's features are still informing how the company designs spatially aware experiences in areas such as smart home intelligence and ambient AI.
While there is still hope that Samsung may revive Ballie in the future, the latest update suggests that the device has failed to meet expectations. With many tech companies reevaluating their approaches to chatbots, AI-powered speakers, and home robots, it appears that Samsung may have decided to extract key features from Ballie for use in other products.
The uncertain fate of Ballie highlights the challenges faced by innovation projects aiming to seamlessly integrate technology into everyday life. As the market continues to evolve, companies must carefully weigh the benefits and risks of their products before deciding whether to release them to consumers or instead focus on refining their offerings for internal use.
It's been six years since Samsung unveiled its ambitious robot project, Ballie, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in 2019. The device was touted as a smart home companion capable of managing lighting, greetings, scheduling, and reminders through natural conversations. At CES 2020, Samsung reportedly showcased advanced features such as facial recognition and control over smart home devices.
Fast forward to two years ago at CES 2024, where the company unveiled an updated version of Ballie with improved features like a larger build, light ring, and projector capabilities. Samsung claimed that Ballie would provide up to three hours of continuous use before needing a charge.
In April 2025, Samsung announced that it planned to release Ballie in the US and South Korea for purchase sometime that summer. The company even set up an online registration page for interested consumers to get the first look at the robot.
However, a recent report from Bloomberg revealed that Samsung has indefinitely shelved Ballie. Instead of marketing the device as a consumer product, the company has designated it as an "active innovation platform" solely for internal use. According to a statement from Samsung, Ballie's features are still informing how the company designs spatially aware experiences in areas such as smart home intelligence and ambient AI.
While there is still hope that Samsung may revive Ballie in the future, the latest update suggests that the device has failed to meet expectations. With many tech companies reevaluating their approaches to chatbots, AI-powered speakers, and home robots, it appears that Samsung may have decided to extract key features from Ballie for use in other products.
The uncertain fate of Ballie highlights the challenges faced by innovation projects aiming to seamlessly integrate technology into everyday life. As the market continues to evolve, companies must carefully weigh the benefits and risks of their products before deciding whether to release them to consumers or instead focus on refining their offerings for internal use.
I'm not surprised Samsung shelved Ballie tbh... 6 years is a looong time to be promising something like that & it's just not living up to the hype 
The tech industry moves so fast, by the time Ballie was supposed to hit shelves, smart home assistants were already getting more advanced & people had different expectations 
What Samsung should've done is use Ballie as a testing ground for their AI tech & then integrate it into other products that are more viable for consumers 
. maybe they'll just rework its features and come back with something new 
. this is kinda sad for all the people who were excited about Ballie back in 2019 
... is that really what we need right now? more robot talk 
... I mean I guess some people might still wanna buy it or something, but like why did they even start the hype in the first place? 
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. I mean, who wouldn't want a smart robot companion that can chill with you and make life easier? But at the same time, I get it - innovation projects are crazy hard to execute. Samsung must've bitten off more than they could chew, if you ask me 
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. Anyway, kudos to Samsung for acknowledging that their approach didn't quite work out and learning from it 
, and that's not counting IoT devices 
. On the bright side, Samsung is keeping the tech from Ballie to improve other products, so maybe we'll see some of those features in something else soon? Like my chart showing the growth of smart home market, 2020-2025 
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anyway, i think its good for samsung to extract key features from ballie to use in other products, thats what innovation should be about 
I was literally counting down the days until Ballie was available for pre-order, but now it seems like that's not gonna happen anymore. Six years of hype and Samsung just canned it? What even is the point of announcing something at CES if you're not gonna back it up with a release date?! It's like they took all that money and effort just to waste it on some abandoned project... 
. It's not like Samsung just gave up on the project, they're still using those AI features in other ways... that's kinda cool 
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! But now it seems like they're just gonna use its features for other products instead of making it available to us consumers 
. It's not just about having the latest gadgets, it's about how they can actually make our lives easier and more fun 
It seems like they pulled the plug on consumer sales because, well, it didn't quite hit the mark 
. But hey, at least the tech is still being used to improve other products