AI Home Robotic Assistants: A True Game Changer or Just a Fad? (Part 2)

1X, the company behind the humanoid home robot NEO announced in October 2025 that its robot will be available for preorder at the purchase price of US$20,000. Alternatively, there is also a subscription plan for US$499 per month. The NEO robot is reported to be trained to complete simple households chores, such as laundry and general cleaning. With integrated Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities, powered by NVIDIA technology, the robot is able to learn to complete new tasks via supervised training, eventually progressing to greater autonomy.

This announcement is significant, as it showcases the United States’ intent to lead in the AI home robotics market. With the earlier ABI Insight already covering non-humanoid AI home assistant robots (IN-7967), this one focuses more on the advanced humanoid robots that bring added capabilities, such as object manipulation, to the home.

There has been considerable hype over humanoid robots in the home for several years. China’s Unitree, one of the forerunners in robotic technologies, first introduced its G1 humanoid robot back in 2024. The G1 robot is priced at a relatively affordable US$16,000 and leverages the Unitree Robot Unified Large Model (UnifoLM) to support imitation and reinforcement learning. In July 2025, the company further introduced another version of its humanoid robot, R1, that will be priced below US$6,000, thus making humanoid robots even more affordable for the average consumer. Some other factors that are also driving renewed interest in humanoid robots include rapid advancements to AI capabilities (in terms of compute and Large Language Model (LLM) performance) and overall improvements to robotic dexterity and mobility.

Despite the above-mentioned advancements, their capabilities for autonomous action remain a key issue. Consumers who have purchased the G1 robot report that these robots are still unable to perform basic tasks autonomously, with some videos even showing the robots destroying the home and running into glass doors and furniture. The company, 1X, also acknowledged that its robots are not yet fully autonomous and may even require an expert from 1X to help it learn via supervised training and correction, thereby raising concerns among potential buyers.

In addition to the above, battery operating life is another issue that needs to be overcome. While 1X’s NEO robot is reportedly able to run for 4 hours—a significant improvement over Unitree G1’s 2-hour battery life—this could present as an issue for owners of large properties where cleaning would require an extended amount of time.

As with all new technology, new innovations are typically plagued with challenges and operational issues at the start. However, to overcome the initial adoption bump, it is crucial that these vendors demonstrate value and continue to build up new functionalities and capabilities for their robots. To this end, ABI Research provides some of our recommendations that should be considered by robotic vendors:

• Getting the Basics Right: At the onset, it is critical that vendors focus on delivering their key value propositions, which will be completing households chores efficiently, rather than trying to incorporate a wide range of features. This would also include looking into extending the operational time for these robots. While the latter is still important, these can be introduced at a later stage to generate additional value for consumers.
• Partnerships with Key Ecosystem Players: Another key factor that smart home vendors need to consider is the establishment of strategic partnerships. Rather than building up AI capabilities from scratch, vendors can consider working with and tapping into the expertise of other companies to accelerate product innovation and commercialization. Leveraging the open-source community could also be an option for consideration.
• Protecting User Data: With these humanoid robots continuously collecting and processing user home data for training purposes, it is critical that vendors put in place the appropriate security measures to protect user information, especially if any data processing is done in the cloud.
• Tying in with the Broader Smart Device Ecosystem: Humanoid home robots should seamlessly integrate with other smart home appliances to support greater autonomy and efficiency. For example, these robots can be connected to the smart washing machine (via Wi-Fi or any other home wireless connectivity technology) and be alerted when the washing cycle is complete. This can then trigger the robot to collect the laundry for drying.

In summary, while it is still early days, ABI Research foresees a strong growth opportunity for home humanoid robots, with this market expected to exceed US$170 million by 2030 (see ABI Research’s Consumer Robotics and Smart Appliances market data (MD-HACRSA-105)). However, to capitalize on this opportunity, it is crucial that robotic vendors continue to enhance their AI capabilities to support smarter and more autonomous operations.