Xiaoice has spent many years studying how to create an AI companion with emotional intelligence.
Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2025 5:42 am
Xiaoice, which launched in 2014 as a chatbot, now powers voice assistants on more than 1 billion devices, including smartphones and smart speakers, through partnerships with Xiaomi Corp, Oppo, Vivo and others. It has also signed deals with automaker BMW and electric vehicle maker NIO.
Extensive interaction with users allows Xiaoice to have a large amount of data to constantly improve its capabilities.
Lee explains: In order for AI-based beings to be more human-like, it was very important to make them diverse and imperfect. When AI can’t answer a user’s question, the machine phone number list might politely reply, “Sorry, I don’t understand.” But a real person might respond, “Why are you asking so much? Have you finished your homework yet?”
Harry Shum, chairman of Xiaoice and former executive vice president of Microsoft, believes that eventually almost everyone will have an AI-based personal assistant.
“The number of AI-powered beings will likely exceed the entire population of the planet, because people may need different personas to meet different needs. Xiaoice wants to be the platform that will enable them,” says Shum.
Extensive interaction with users allows Xiaoice to have a large amount of data to constantly improve its capabilities.
Lee explains: In order for AI-based beings to be more human-like, it was very important to make them diverse and imperfect. When AI can’t answer a user’s question, the machine phone number list might politely reply, “Sorry, I don’t understand.” But a real person might respond, “Why are you asking so much? Have you finished your homework yet?”
Harry Shum, chairman of Xiaoice and former executive vice president of Microsoft, believes that eventually almost everyone will have an AI-based personal assistant.
“The number of AI-powered beings will likely exceed the entire population of the planet, because people may need different personas to meet different needs. Xiaoice wants to be the platform that will enable them,” says Shum.