u/Empty_Inevitable_789

I'm building a small desktop AI companion with a persistent animated character that sits alongside you while you work, study, or just use your PC.

The idea is more than just a chatbot — the character reacts to what you're doing/conversing about through different expressions, gestures, and animations, making the interaction feel more like having a little companion on your desktop.

I'm still early in development, so I'm trying to validate whether there's actually a market for this before I spend too much time building it.

I'll attach a short demo of the current prototype.

I'd genuinely like to know:

Would you actually use something like this?

What would make you choose this over Character.AI / other AI companions?

Would you prefer a desktop companion, mobile app, or both?

What features would make it worth paying for?

Would you pay for it? If yes, roughly how much per month?

If you wouldn't use it, why not?

Please be brutally honest. I'm much more interested in hearing why this wouldn't work than getting compliments.

I'm not selling anything here — just trying to figure out whether I'm solving a problem people actually have.

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I’m currently from a Mechanical Engineering background, but over time I’ve become much more interested in embedded systems, electronics, firmware, microcontrollers, RTOS, low-level programming, etc.

I wanted to ask people already working in embedded systems in India:

- How hard is it to switch from Mechanical to Embedded?

- Is it realistically possible without an ECE degree?

- What skills matter most for internships/jobs?

- What projects actually make recruiters take you seriously?

- Do companies reject non-ECE candidates automatically?

- Which companies in India are known to hire embedded engineers from non-traditional backgrounds?

I’ve seen companies like:

- Texas Instruments

- Qualcomm

- Intel

- NVIDIA

- Bosch

- Tata Elxsi

- Siemens

- Samsung

- MediaTek

- NXP

- Continental

But I don’t know how realistic these are for someone without an ECE degree.

Also:

- What is the actual salary range for freshers in embedded systems in India?

- Is the market growing?

- Is embedded systems worth pursuing compared to software/web development in 2026?

- How difficult is the learning curve honestly?

I’m willing to put in serious effort, but I want the ground reality instead of motivational answers.

Would really appreciate honest advice from people already in the industry.