We keep building AI to do more. More answers, more speed, more certainty. Designer Mehrnaz Amouei looked at that trajectory and asked a fundamentally different question: what if we built AI to be more present instead? The result is POCO, a soft robotic companion that might be one of the most quietly radical design concepts to emerge in recent years. It doesn’t talk over you, doesn’t flood you with information, and it doesn’t pretend to know things it doesn’t know. POCO sits with you. Literally.

At its core, POCO is a soft, tactile object that pairs with a smartphone, which serves as its computational brain and face. A soft textile body wraps around the device, transforming rigid, glass-and-metal technology into something that moves, breathes, and gestures in response to your presence. Together, they create something that sits somewhere between object, creature, and companion, and that deliberate ambiguity is very much intentional. You’re not quite sure what to call it, and that’s entirely the point.

Designer: Mehrnaz Amouei

Amouei developed POCO through research at the University of Illinois at Chicago, grounding the project in studies on loneliness and trust. Her findings indicated that people don’t actually want AI that projects certainty or control. They want availability and responsiveness. They want something that shows up without taking over. From those findings came the concept of “constructive interdependence,” a design philosophy where POCO’s limitations aren’t bugs to be patched but features embedded directly into the interaction model itself. The robot communicates what it can and cannot do through its behavior and physical states, which is a level of honesty you don’t often get from technology that typically overpromises and underdelivers.

I think that matters more than it might initially seem. The dominant conversation around AI right now is almost entirely about expansion: more capability, more integration, more autonomy. POCO pushes back on that without being preachy about it. It reframes the question of what good AI design actually looks like, and the answer it offers isn’t “smarter,” it’s “more trustworthy.” That is a genuinely different value system, and it feels overdue.

The sustainability dimension is also worth paying attention to. Rather than introducing new hardware and generating more electronic waste, POCO repurposes a device most people already own. That decision isn’t just a nice bonus; it’s built into the concept from the start, aligning with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals around mental well-being and responsible consumption. In product design terms, that means the project was developed with a broader cultural and environmental context in mind, not just a user persona sitting in a lab.

Physically, POCO responds to touch, movement, and environmental cues. It adapts to a user’s preferences while maintaining a consistent identity, which is a surprisingly nuanced balance to strike in any product, let alone one sitting at the intersection of soft robotics and emotional design. Because interaction happens through touch rather than voice commands or screen taps, there’s an intentional slowing down embedded in the experience. You can’t rush a tactile exchange the same way you can type faster or speak louder. That shift from speed to presence feels like a meaningful counter-proposal to how most tech is currently designed. We’ve grown so accustomed to interfaces that demand our attention that a device asking only for our company reads almost as radical.

POCO has already earned an Honorable Mention from the International Design Awards and drawn coverage from major design publications. Whether it ever moves into consumer production remains an open question. But as a design statement, it’s doing exactly what the best concept work should: prompting us to reconsider what we actually want from the technology we live with, and whether expanding capability was ever really the right goal. Maybe the most interesting AI isn’t the one that knows the most. Maybe it’s the one that knows when to just stay close.

The post Forget Smarter AI, This Robot Thinks Presence Is the Point first appeared on Yanko Design.

Fast food collaborations have a way of catching me off guard at this point. I’ve accepted that pretty much any brand can team up with pretty much any designer, and the result will land somewhere between genuinely inspired and deeply confusing. But when McDonald’s announced a partnership with New York-based designer Susan Alexandra to launch a collection of hand-beaded drink carriers, I had to stop scrolling.

The timing is intentional. McDonald’s is rolling out its first-ever lineup of Refreshers and crafted sodas starting May 6, six new drinks that range from a Mango Pineapple Refresher to a Dirty Dr Pepper, each with a personality loud enough to inspire its own aesthetic. Think freeze-dried fruit, popping boba, cold foam. The drinks are clearly built for a generation that treats a beverage order as a mood, not just a thirst solution. And Susan Alexandra, who has spent years turning beaded bags and accessories into cult objects, is exactly the right collaborator for that energy.

Designer: McDonalds x Susan Alexandra

The collection includes six hand-beaded carriers, one for each new drink. Each design pulls color and texture directly from its corresponding flavor. The Strawberry Watermelon Refresher carrier is red and pink, soft and berry-bright. The Blackberry Passion Fruit version leans into dainty white beads. The Mango Pineapple has tropical warmth written all over it. These are not subtle pieces. They are made to be seen, and that is the entire point.

Susan Alexandra’s work has always operated in that specific visual register where maximalism meets handcraft. Her bags are the kind of thing you notice from across a room, the kind of accessories that start conversations. Matching that energy to a McDonald’s cup feels odd on paper, but when you actually look at the carriers, the logic holds. The drinks are colorful, slightly chaotic, and unapologetically fun. The accessories match.

Prices range from $48 to $58 depending on the design, which I know will prompt some eye-rolling. It’s a drink carrier. For McDonald’s. But that framing also misses the point. Susan Alexandra pieces are collectibles, objects that people hold onto not because they are practical but because they carry a specific cultural moment with them. A $48 beaded carrier that references a fast food soda is not a purely functional purchase. It is a souvenir. A more interesting souvenir, I’d argue, than most things that get sold under a collab banner.

The carriers are sold exclusively on SusanAlexandra.com starting May 6, in limited quantities. Each one also comes with a $10 McDonald’s Arch Card, which is a small but genuinely clever touch. The idea is that you buy the carrier, then go get the drink it was made for. As brand strategy goes, it’s actually pretty smart. It ties the accessory back to the experience rather than letting it float into the abstract realm of limited edition merch.

What makes this collaboration land is that it doesn’t feel like a desperation move from either side. McDonald’s is genuinely expanding its beverage program in a significant way, and it needs the launch to feel like a cultural moment rather than just a menu update. Susan Alexandra brings a specific visual language and a loyal customer base that overlaps with exactly the kind of person who cares about aesthetics down to what’s in their cup holder. The match is less random than it first appears, and the choice of collaborator signals how seriously McDonald’s is taking this particular moment.

I’m not saying everyone needs a hand-beaded carrier for their Sprite Berry Blast. But I do think there’s real craft in how this collaboration was conceived. The carriers are not just branded merchandise. They are wearable interpretations of a drink, which is a genuinely strange and interesting design brief that Susan Alexandra executed with her signature commitment to color and detail. Fast food has been flirting with fashion for a while now. This is one of the better executions I’ve seen, and I’ll be curious whether any of the six designs sell out before you even finish reading this.

The post McDonald’s New Drinks Come With a $58 Fashion Accessory first appeared on Yanko Design.