Casio is about to start selling a furry AI-powered pet robot in the US, as it bets on loneliness

A cuddly, furry, squeaking, artificial intelligence pet with a personality. If that’s a list of words that ignites an unsettling feeling in your brain, you wouldn’t be alone. But that’s exactly the product that Japanese watchmaker Casio is betting on to brighten its financial future as the company’s consumer tech business continues to shrink.

Less than a year since launching in Japan, Casio announced this week that the tech-powered companion, “Moflin,” will be coming to the US, starting October 1, with a price of $429.

The G-Shock-maker sold some 10,000 of the pet robots in its home country as of the end of May — and now, per The Wall Street Journal, Casio is eyeing the Western world. The company is hoping to sell a total of 7,000 units in the UK and US by the end of March 2026 and targeting ~$34 million in sales for the stress-relieving toy globally over the next three to five years. 

Ads for the toy show users cuddling it while working, nuzzling the toy, and eating with it.

Casio’s growing ambition in wellness tech is a big move for the company, which has made a name for itself in consumer electronics with iconic products like calculators, electronic dictionaries, digital cameras, phones, and watches since the 1950s.

Tick, tick, boom

But after seeing the rise and fall of its main products one by one, Casio’s execs seem to think that wellness might be the company’s next big thing. Per the WSJ, Casio’s deputy senior general manager of its sound and new business division says “mental wellness is a clear growth area,” while “watches and calculators are a mature market.” 

Indeed, Casio’s revenue has long been ticking down, dropping to roughly one-third of its $5.5 billion 2008 peak to $1.9 billion in 2024. Even the company’s iconic timepiece business has been rolling downhill, with its operating margin dropping every year, from 18% in fiscal 2022 to 12% last year — and that’s the best of the worsts, as most of Casio’s non-watch segments are either losing money, or have seen their margins shrink to sub 3%.

What if you had it all, but nobody to call?

Through Moflin, Casio is hoping to tap into the AI-powered emotion analytics market, which is projected to grow to some $28 billion by 2032 from ~$8 billion as of last year, per the company’s new press release.

Though ideas of an emotional support robot have been tested out multiple times, like Sony’s robotic dog Aibo, no product has gained mass commercial traction even after more than two decades on the market.

But maybe now is a better time, with millions of people battling the so-called “loneliness epidemic.” The average American spent 24% less of their leisure time with other people from 2003 to 2024, the American Time Use Survey found, which is maybe why one in five Americans feel lonely every day, per Gallup data.

With that wave of demand potentially on the horizon, Moflin’s launch is in line with Casio’s business philosophy, which has centered around being the first mover in a new market:

“Since its establishment in 1957, Casio has passed down the development philosophy that invention is the mother of necessity. This means that rather than developing products based on user demand, we create the products that society requires. Casio continues to identify latent needs among customers and proposes new value to society while realigning its business portfolio according to the times.”

Chat, is this real? 

But as a litany of failed products — like Apple’s early handheld computer Newton, or HP’s Touchpad — reminds us, being early doesn’t guarantee success.

Adding to the pressure, Casio’s brands have historically been comfortable at the value end of the price spectrum, relying on large demand to maximize its small margins. Moflin, too, is relatively affordable at $429, compared to other experiments like Aibo and Lovot, which have typically cost $1,000 or more.

Despite tragic news of AI partners continuing to make the headlines, some lonely people are choosing to turn to chatbots for social connections. According to a new working paper shared by OpenAI earlier this week titled, “How people use ChatGPT,” 5.3% of more than a million sampled conversations were for self-expression, conversation, relationships, or roleplay.

There’s no question that there is some demand for AI-powered companionship — any doubts about that can be allayed with just a few minutes on Reddit’s r/MyBoyfriendIsAI, where over 29,000 people discuss their AI partners.

Whether those people want that companion in a furry form and are willing to drop 400 bucks on it is another question entirely. But Casio’s historic hit rate has been pretty good, even if it hasn’t managed to compete in the age of the iPhone.