Bob just unlocked GenAI’s hidden superpowers. Here’s what happened!

evosoft has a special “employee” called Flattering Bob, who is one of our cutest Bob is one of our most charming AI showcase robot.

How was Bob, our compliment‑giving robot, made?

The story of Flattering Bob goes back to the spring of 2024, when our colleague Bence Kiss was invited to a conference to explain artificial intelligence in a way that non-experts could easily understand. Instead of focusing on mathematical background and dry theory, he built a robot for the event: one that used personalized, kind descriptors and elegant Hungarian to tell everyone why they were remarkable.

Since then, Bob has appeared at several events, including the AI conference organized by BME (Budapest University of Technology and Economics), and he has become a regular participant in Researchers’ Night and our Kids in the Office programmes. He has also travelled to Nuremberg for the closing event of the X‑Country Leadership Programme and to Prague for the Productivity Summit. So we can confidently say that Bob has become one of evosoft’s Tech Favourites.

How was the new Bob created?

BK: The original Bob was built at home: my wife glued his box together, we pulled my son’s sock over it to give him a hat, and I soldered a 1‑cent coin onto it as a trigger button. It certainly had its charm, but the company environment called for a more professional version. With help from our colleagues at TinkerLAB, the current Bob was born.

The new version received a touchscreen, so you can now see the target person, and we also added a huge power bank so he can keep complimenting people throughout the entire Researchers’ Night without an external power source. Most importantly, he got a ‘professionally cute’ new look as well, thanks to our colleague, Eszter Laky for the design work!

How does the new Bob actually work?

BK: From a programmer’s point of view, Bob isn’t complicated with only two API calls:

A photo is taken of you,
We send it to the AI API with the right prompt and get back a text,
Then another AI model turns that text into speech.

The real magic lies in the prompting. From that point on, it’s no longer the code but the psyche at work: it convinces you that Bob really sees you. He starts with the obvious physical traits, then cleverly deduces positive inner qualities, turning a simple observation into a heartfelt compliment.

Bob is like Chuck Norris: he speaks every language. This came in especially handy at the Productivity Summit, since he could address our Turkish, Czech, German, American, and Indian colleagues in their native languages. The most exciting moment was probably when Bob praised one of our colleagues in Telugu. I had never even heard of that language before, but Bob speaks it without an accent.

What corporate purposes can we use Bob for?

BK: Bob regularly takes part in various client visits. With his help, we can easily – and convincingly – demonstrate that evosoft is actively working with GenAI. He’s always a big hit at the previously mentioned events as well. At last year’s Researchers’ Night he already delivered a huge number of compliments, but this year we managed to double the traffic: he complimented nearly 400 people with 100% customer satisfaction. This performance boost was due in part to the fact that he now uses a newer language model and his prompt has been updated, allowing him to compliment several people at the same time.

Will there be further development? What does the future hold?

BK: There have already been occasions when Bob couldn’t attend an event because he was busy at another one, so there’s a definite demand for another Bob. We’ve received plenty of ideas – my personal favourite is to make the electronics smaller and place them in a protected shell, while giving him a soft, plush body that feels nice to hug. Another idea was to make his eyes move. Many other suggestions have come in as well, but one thing is certain: top of the backlog is putting Bob on a diet – his oversized display and hefty power bank have made him quite the heavyweight to handle.

Through a few photos, we’d like to show you how the new Bob took shape and what the main milestones of his creation were.