The archive · Product Ideas · Product decision · 2026
Samsung Dremo & Minimo: the AI kids' companion parents shape — Red Dot BoB 2026
Samsung's AI kids'-robot concept splits into a home unit and a portable buddy, and lets parents set the character's name, personality and voice.
Samsung Electronics
What it had to solve
As generative AI filled devices with generic assistants, Samsung's design team asked what would make an AI companion feel personal to a child. Its answer was a concept where intimacy comes from identity: the parent builds the character, and the robot grows with the child.
How it works
Red Dot's Design Concept competition honours ideas before they become tomorrow's products, and Samsung's 2026 entry asked a pointed question: why do AI assistants feel so generic? The answer, from a design team guided by what chief design officer Mauro Porcini calls 'Expressive Design', was a kids' robot concept built around personal identity rather than utility.
Dremo & Minimo is really two devices: Dremo, the main robot body that lives at home, and Minimo, a portable version that keeps the connection anywhere. Parents create a unique AI character for their child by setting its name, personality and voice, and the robot then shapes its interactions around the child's interests and growth stages, using generative AI.
In July 2026 Samsung announced the concept was one of two Best of the Best winners in the Design Concept category, part of eight Red Dot honours for the company. The award validated a vision in which an AI companion is not a screen-time gadget but a character the family defines — one designed to grow up alongside the child.
Why it lands
- Personality is configurable, so the companion is the family's own character rather than a stranger's assistant.
- Two paired devices make presence continuous — at home and anywhere — which is what a lasting relationship needs.
- Interactions adapt to the child's interests and growth stages, making the product's core promise growth, not screen time.
- Starting as an award-winning concept let the team test the relationship idea with the design jury before committing to manufacturing.
What it did
The concept earned one of two Best of the Best honours Samsung took in the Design Concept category at the Red Dot Design Award 2026, inside a total of eight awards — recognition from the jury before the concept became a product.
What you can take
When the product is a relationship, make its identity configurable and its presence continuous: let the owner shape the character, and let a second device carry it beyond the first room.
Since then
The July 2026 Best of the Best recognition positioned Samsung's device-experience design under Mauro Porcini as a laboratory for AI companionship, alongside sibling concepts such as the context-aware home companion PUCO. Dremo & Minimo remains a concept — its public role so far is to show a credible shape for parental control and emotional continuity in AI toys.
Sources
- Samsung Wins Two Red Dot Award: Design Concept 'Best of the Best' Awards
- 三星斩获红点设计大奖2026最高奖2项 AI驱动获认可
- 三星 Dremo & Minimo 儿童机器人斩获红点最佳概念设计奖项：子母 AI 套件
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