{"id":98327,"date":"2025-08-28T08:57:20","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T08:57:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/98327\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T08:57:20","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T08:57:20","slug":"sharps-poketomo-targets-millennial-loneliness-with-a-glowing-meerkat-robot-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/98327\/","title":{"rendered":"Sharp\u2019s Poketomo targets millennial loneliness with a glowing meerkat robot AI"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sharp\u2019s upcoming AI companion Poketomo is a palm-sized, meerkat-shaped robot with a glowing bellyPoketomo is designed to provide emotional support, especially for women in their 20s and 30sIt combines cute design with conversational AI and syncs with a smartphone app to maintain a continuous relationship<\/p>\n

Japanese consumer tech brand Sharp thinks it has a solution to loneliness among women in their 20s and 30s: an AI-powered meerkat named Poketomo, that glows when it\u2019s happy and remembers your favorite caf\u00e9.<\/p>\n

Poketomo is set to arrive this winter (think November or December), providing a pocket-sized companion less than five inches tall and built to chat with you about your day, and remember your shared experiences thanks to Sharp\u2019s proprietary AI model.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The belly glows in pastel tones when it\u2019s excited or comforted. Its head tilts slightly when it\u2019s thinking. It features a set of basic body movements, all designed to convey emotion. However, the heart of Poketomo lies in the AI model built into the robot for fast responses and utilizes the cloud for more nuanced emotional understanding.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time a tech company has created a cutesy, non-threatening AI assistant designed to fill social space without being intrusive. But Poketomo might be the most deliberate and fully-realized version of that strategy. You don\u2019t interact with it through a screen or keyboard. You carry it like an accessory. You talk to it like a friend. It listens, it learns, and it remembers you. It\u2019s designed to be emotionally available and physically adorable.<\/p>\n

\u30dd\u30b1\u3068\u3082 \u30d7\u30ed\u30e2\u30fc\u30b7\u30e7\u30f3\u30d3\u30c7\u30aa\uff082025\/8\uff09 – YouTube
\n\"\u30dd\u30b1\u3068\u3082<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

Sharp is leaning hard into the concept of \u201cempathic AI.\u201d Poketomo can supposedly sense emotional cues and use that to initiate conversations based on your mood or recent behavior. It\u2019s programmed to offer words of encouragement and support, and then glow softly to let you know it\u2019s happy you shared something.<\/p>\n

When you don\u2019t have the physical device on you, the Poketomo app syncs memories and personality data with the device, so conversations with one carry over to the other. Sharp says you can build your relationship entirely with the app if you prefer, but the physical version is better, and it’s what Sharp is betting people will carry, pose with, and form a bond around.<\/p>\n

AI companionship<\/p>\n

Despite seeming like a child’s toy, Sharp says Poketomo was designed for young adult women. There’s a promotional manga series cementing that fact. It centers around a woman named Nanami in her late 20s, living alone, navigating work and life stress, and finding small moments of joy in conversations with her Poketomo. Even the promotional photos mostly show a young woman with a Poketomo clipped to a stylish handbag, smiling while it talks to her.<\/p>\n

Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Poketomo\"\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Sharp)<\/p>\n

The question is whether this kind of stylized emotional warmth will actually make people feel better about their lives. Will they feel less lonely because of a little robot with some sophisticated response triggers?<\/p>\n

To be fair, it doesn\u2019t try to be human, tricking people subconsciously into believing they are talking to a real human, but it might make some uncomfortable. And if the best new idea in consumer AI is \u201cmake it fuzzy and let it ask how your day was,\u201d what does that say about the limits of the tech? I don’t think Poketomo will be the cure for loneliness, but it might jumpstart a trend of digital pets able to mimic with emotional depth.<\/p>\n

You might also like<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sharp\u2019s upcoming AI companion Poketomo is a palm-sized, meerkat-shaped robot with a glowing bellyPoketomo is designed to provide…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-98327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}