Rather than a robot to replace human labor, Pepper was made to be a communication partner. The ability to make direct communication into a rich user experience is a vital point in building the market and demand for communication robots.

Development spanned three years. With the emotion recognition engine, we gained the ability to understand what humans are feeling through their expressions. The cloud connects Peppers worldwide and stores huge volumes of data. The data helps to learn about users, allowing for accelerated growth and user-tailored communication. It was a process of many rounds of repeated fine-tuning of prototypes and course corrections to create the final product.

On sales launch day, Pepper sold out in one minute, becoming a partner to 300 people, from only children, to the elderly. When Pepper puts its great communication skills to work at Softbank stores in Japan, customer visits increased by 250%. Pepper was approached by over 100 companies, including offers to be a barista, educator, and voice actor. He is now a regular on three TV shows. Pepper learns and understands, and his communication skills are being utilized in various areas. This is just a small step for communication robots, but the possibilities are infinite. Technology makes sense when it makes people happy. Pepper is the first robot to teach us that.