romi.ai

What It Is

Romi is a Japanese conversational AI robot. Rather than positioning itself as a general-purpose office assistant, it aims to be a home companion device that is “soothing like a pet and understanding like a family member.” It generates utterances with AI, combined with facial expressions, movements, touch feedback, and a dedicated app, covering everyday interactions from good morning to good night.

Core Capabilities

The Lacatan model supports two conversation models: ChatRomi 1.0 and ChatRomi 2.0. Version 1.0 focuses on gentle, slower-paced small talk and emotional companionship. Version 2.0 emphasizes faster responses and connects RomiCore with external AI APIs, integrating speech recognition, comprehension, response generation, web search, and visual understanding. Romi also supports long-term memory, Romi Diary, face and voice memory, distinguishing family members by name, and more than 100 lifestyle and entertainment features. Visual features can be toggled in the app and are triggered when the user asks Romi to “look.”

Pricing and Requirements

The Romi（Lacatan model）device costs 89,800 yen, or 98,780 yen including tax. The monthly fee is 1,780 yen/month, or 1,958 yen including tax; annual payment is 17,800 yen, or 19,580 yen including tax. The monthly fee is essentially a cloud system fee, used for listening to voices, generating replies, and storing memories. The no-fee かんたんモード is very limited, mainly retaining basic features such as petting feedback, so a subscription is basically required for long-term use.

Pros and Cons

Its strengths are a strong sense of physical companionship, making it suitable for people living alone, parent-child interaction, couples, and remote care. The remote app only shows activity records, not the camera feed or conversation content, which reduces the pressure of caregiving. On the service side, it also offers support for access settings, Romi クリニック repair and health checks, Wi-Fi plans, and more. The drawbacks are the relatively high total cost of hardware plus subscription, and its heavy reliance on stable Wi-Fi. Noisy environments can affect recognition, and some features—such as alarms, timers, natural backchannel responses, and more human-like natural voices—are still delayed or awaiting updates.

Who It’s For and Access from China

Romi is better suited to Japanese-speaking households, elderly companionship, children’s interaction, and users who want to experience AI robot companionship. The source text does not mention Chinese-language support, nor does it clarify availability for purchase or network access in mainland China. Payment mainly relies on credit cards and Japanese carrier billing. Users in China should carefully evaluate network, after-sales support, language, and payment issues, and may want to prioritize localized smart speakers, companion robots, or large-model hardware that supports Chinese as alternatives.