Yukai built its name on robots that hear nothing. Its family robot now remembers your conversations for 1,700 yen a month

On 28 August 2026 Yukai Engineering switched on a generative-AI conversation mode in BOCCO emo, the family robot it has sold since March 2021, and put it behind a paid subscription: a premium plan at 1,700 yen a month, with two months free for anyone signing up before the end of September 2026. What the money buys is memory. In the new mode the robot recognises which member of the household is speaking, remembers what was said and carries that context from one conversation into the next, rather than treating each exchange as a fresh voice command. The same character also appears as an illustration inside the app's chat room, so a conversation can continue on a phone away from home. A free update landed the same day for every owner, and it is the more revealing half of the announcement. Until now the robot had to be summoned by name; it can now be woken by poking it or by pressing its function button. The recording window, previously six seconds, was extended to ten. Both changes read as fixes for a device whose voice interface was tuned for short instructions and now has to cope with something closer to talking. The move is worth noting because of what else this manufacturer sells. Yukai's best-known products are deliberately deaf: Qoobo, the tailed cushion, has no microphone and no camera at all, which is exactly why it is accepted in care homes and hospital wards. BOCCO emo has always been the opposite case in the same catalogue — mains-powered, cloud-dependent, useless without a router and a smartphone — and the premium plan pushes it further in that direction. Yukai has not said which AI model or provider sits behind the conversation feature; its announcement says only that it uses generative AI. The Wi-Fi model of BOCCO emo currently lists at 52,800 yen, up from the 44,000 yen it launched at in 2021. Buyers who want the new conversations should count on the subscription on top.