Shifeng Culture launches Rootix brand and DeskBuddy desktop AI hardware, entering smart office

A desktop AI hardware device that can connect to mainstream global office agents, read task progress and proactively remind users has become a new attempt by toy company Shifeng Culture. Recently, Shifeng Culture held a launch event themed "Beyond Toys" at the CTE China Toy Expo, unveiling for the first time DeskBuddy, a new AI hardware product for office scenarios, and officially launched Rootix, a new brand for its AI business, marking the company's expansion from traditional children's toys into the field of adult smart office hardware. "DeskBuddy" assists office work first, then provides emotional companionship. Unlike AI desktop products on the market that focus on "companionship," DeskBuddy's value ranking emphasizes "office assistance" first and "emotional companionship" second: the product can connect to multiple mainstream office agents, track task execution progress, and integrate deeply into daily office workflows; it features a retro game console design with NFC interactive play, balancing user experience and emotional comfort, with the product design stemming from real pain points easily overlooked in office scenarios. According to the on-site demonstration, DeskBuddy uses gentle prompt forms such as light strip changes and expression animations to visually present abstract task progress. Users do not need to switch software windows and can grasp work status at a glance: when a task encounters obstacles it prompts at the right time, and when work milestones approach it also gives light reminders, avoiding disrupting the user's work rhythm as much as possible. In terms of task processing logic, the product also adopts a layered design. Simple and trivial work is handled autonomously by DeskBuddy to avoid frequently disturbing the user; for complex and uncertain matters, it organizes complete information and outputs reference directions for handling; for important matters requiring human decisions, it fully syncs background information and returns the final decision to the user. New brand Rootix officially launched. By entering through the rigid-demand scenario of adult office work, Shifeng Culture has also completed a new step in expanding its AI business segment, with its business matrix covering three major directions: children's companionship, children's safety and adult desktop office work, no longer limited to the children's toy category. At the launch event, Shifeng Culture officially adopted Rootix as the new brand for its AI business. "Today, as AI rewrites the starting point of all tools, the brand origin of Rootix is being born from demand; every product must grow out of a real need," emphasized a relevant person in charge at Shifeng Culture, noting that AI technology is reshaping various tool products, and the core starting point of the Rootix brand is to build products based on real user needs, prioritizing actual usage pain points rather than simply stacking AI technology concepts. In addition to end products, Shifeng Culture also set up a dedicated ODM manufacturing capability zone this time, showcasing a one-stop solution from industrial design and AI technology integration to supply chain mass production. "The threshold for AI hardware is not in demonstrations, but in mass production and continuous iteration," said a relevant person in charge at Shifeng Culture. "We hope to open up our self-developed SF-Hola agent and manufacturing capabilities so that partners with IP and channels but lacking AI R&D teams can enter this track at lower cost." Looking back at past competition in the AI hardware industry, the industry focus was on achieving basic functions such as voice interaction. The core of competition in the industry's next stage lies in whether products can truly integrate into users' work and life and tap more real needs that have not yet been met. Shifeng Culture's launch of the Rootix brand and the DeskBuddy product is precisely a practice of this industry trend. Unlike most AI hardware startups, Shifeng Culture adopts a parallel model of "products + intelligent manufacturing solutions"—it both enters the field to build its own brand and opens its self-developed hub and manufacturing capabilities to industry partners. Whether this model can gain market recognition still depends on the subsequent degree of technology openness and the implementation effect of supporting services, awaiting further market verification. But for the hardware industry in a transitional stage, this also provides a practice sample worth observing.