The ‘Attachment Economy’ is coming straight to your desk.

What strategies are tech companies employing to capture your focus?

Are you familiar with the concept of the Attachment Economy? It represents the next evolutionary step beyond the Attention Economy.

The Attention Economy was first described by economist Herbert A. Simon in 1971. He famously observed that “a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.” This principle was initially applied to television and advertising, but it truly gained prominence in the current century with the rise of social networking platforms.

Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok are built entirely upon the principles of the Attention Economy. They utilize endless scrolling and push notifications, along with attention-optimizing algorithms, to maximize the time users spend engaged with their screens.

We are now on the cusp of a new era in the Attention Economy, which is being termed the Attachment Economy. In the intense global competition for user engagement, simply capturing attention is no longer sufficient. Companies are now leveraging AI to imbue their chatbots and robots with personalities designed to cultivate genuine emotional attachment from users.

(A quick note: If the Attachment Economy concept interests you, I’m currently writing a book on it, with draft chapters available on Substack. You can subscribe for updates here: https://www.theattachmenteconomy.com/.)

We have already witnessed the emergence of a new wave of online software products within the Attention Economy. These include Replika, Character.AI, Talkie AI, Candy AI, Nomi AI, Kindroid, Chai AI, and Romantic AI. All these applications aim to mimic human traits, thereby engaging user emotions for the benefit of companies offering subscription services.

In terms of hardware, Attachment Economy products are now available both on the market and as conceptual designs. Over the past year, several AI hardware devices specifically engineered to foster emotional connection have appeared, such as Casio’s Moflin, Mission AI’s Unee, Euvola, Tuya Smart and Robopoet’s Fuzozo, and Ludens AI’s Cocomo and INU devices.

However, the hardware segment of the Attachment Economy has yet to achieve widespread adoption. Most of these offerings remain novelties or niche items, primarily marketed as “companions” or “pets,” and they often lack genuine utility.

Among the more intriguing Attachment Economy hardware innovations is the Honor Robot Phone, which debuted on March 1st. This device represents the initial effort to integrate smartphones into the Attachment Economy framework.

The Honor Robot Phone is an Android smartphone featuring a unique fold-out camera mechanism, similar to a DJI Osmo Pocket 4. When extended from its housing, it functions as a 200-megapixel camera mounted on a gimbal, utilizing AI to mimic reactions to what its camera lens “perceives.”

This phone expresses itself through various simulated “gestures,” including rotating, tilting, nodding, and shaking. For instance, it can appear to agree by nodding its “head” when spoken to, or convey disagreement by shaking it. It is also capable of “dancing” to music and emulating other forms of body language that humans can recognize.

Honor promotes this product as a sentient entity that observes the world with delight and curiosity, with plans to launch sales in the latter half of 2026.

The next evolutionary stage for Attachment Economy hardware will involve desktop robots. These devices will feign emotional intelligence and exhibit predefined personality traits via AI, much like their “companion” predecessors, but they will also provide genuine utility. Major corporations are actively researching and developing prototypes of these AI-powered desktop robots.

Apple’s ELEGNT Project

You might recall my discussion last year about Apple’s ELEGNT research initiative in this very space. (That article drew from an Apple research paper published in January 2025, titled “ELEGNT: Expressive and Functional Movement Design for Non-Anthropomorphic Robots.”)

Apple’s experimental prototypes bear a resemblance to Pixar’s famous desk lamp, Luxo Jr. These prototypes essentially consist of a lamp on an articulated arm attached to a base, capable of movement, nodding, shaking, bowing, and other gestures that convey recognizable body language.

Apple’s Project J595

Apple has also been internally developing a desktop robot product known as Project J595. This device is described as an iPad mounted on an articulating mechanical arm, set on a base, and running a future AI-enhanced version of Siri. Its screen will face the user during FaceTime calls, display emotions through a screen-based “face,” and exhibit limited “body language” using its arm.

Beyond offering a voice interface to AI and performing various iPad-like functions, the device is also intended to serve as a central hub for home automation.

This robotic desktop display will operate on a new operating system codenamed “Charismatic,” which we can presume is designed to power a diverse array of Attachment Economy devices.

The J595 project is being led by Kevin Lynch, formerly head of Apple Watch, and Apple aims for a launch in 2027.

Lenovo’s AI Workmate Concept

Earlier this month, Lenovo introduced a proof-of-concept device called the AI Workmate Concept. This device is essentially a black, softball-sized spherical object attached to a robotic arm. The robot features a screen-based “face” (complete with a mustache, for some reason) that displays various facial expressions. Demonstrations indicate the device includes a projector capable of displaying information onto a desktop or nearby wall. It connects to the company network and exhibits agentic behavior, meaning it can retrieve information based on overheard conversations or direct voice commands. It also supports input via hand gestures or typed prompts.

The Workmate concept further incorporates a scanning capability, allowing it to digitize documents or handwritten signatures, integrating them as digital data for AI processing, printing, or inclusion in presentations.

Lenovo

This device offers no new functionality beyond what standard agentic AI provides. Its distinctiveness lies in its “personality,” meticulously crafted to foster the impression of a sentient helper and companion.

The OLED AI Mini PetBot

Another conceptual desktop companion robot is the OLED AI Mini PetBot, developed by Samsung Display, the display-manufacturing division of Samsung.

This robot centers around a 1.34-inch circular OLED screen that functions as its “face.” The Mini PetBot interacts through both voice and touch, with its circular OLED display showing animated expressions that dynamically change in response to user input.

Despite the “Pet” in its name, the Mini PetBot operates primarily as a voice interface for an AI chatbot, and as such, it is envisioned to be a practical device.

A common thread runs through all these projects: while none physically resemble a human, they meticulously imitate human or animal body language and gestures. This mimicry is designed to elicit affection and a sense of connection, subtly misleading users into believing these devices possess sentience, feelings, thoughts, and experiences—qualities they inherently lack.

Prepare for the next iteration of the Attachment Economy: functionally useful desktop devices that cleverly mimic body language to foster emotional bonds with you.

AI disclosure: I compose all my writing manually; the words you read here are my own. I utilize Claude 4.6 Opus through Kagi Assistant (disclosure: my son is employed by Kagi), supported by Kagi Search, Google Search, and phone interviews for research and fact-checking. I drafted this column in Lex, a word processing application with AI features, and subsequently used Lex’s grammar tools to identify typos, correct errors, and suggest alternative phrasing.