What Is the Raspberry Pi AI Kit? And What Replaced It?
When I first wrote about the Raspberry Pi AI Kit, it was one of the easiest ways to add AI acceleration to a Raspberry Pi 5. Well, things moved fast: Raspberry Pi has since discontinued it and introduced newer options instead.
The official Raspberry Pi AI Kit made it much easier to run AI applications directly on a Raspberry Pi 5, especially things like object detection, image recognition, and other computer vision projects. It has since been discontinued and replaced by the newer AI HAT+ range.
In this tutorial, I’ll answer all your questions about the AI Kit: what it was, why it was discontinued, and what you should get instead today.
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What is the AI Kit?
With the introduction of generative AI (like ChatGPT and other tools that generate text and images), artificial intelligence has been one of the most talked about topics in the last 2–3 years and everyone is eager to get into the field (including the Raspberry Pi Foundation).
But if you want to run advanced models on your device, it’s often expensive: Raspberry Pi was pretty limited until now, and even traditional computers are generally not enough unless you own a mid-to-high-end device.
The Raspberry Pi AI Kit is an affordable add-on to your Raspberry Pi that lets you try out AI projects with the latest models. So you don’t need expensive hardware to build your first projects with AI.
It is a kit developed by the folks at Raspberry Pi in collaboration with Hailo, a company known for building state-of-the-art AI chips. You can check the current price on Amazon.
Although the Pi has been used for AI projects for quite a while now, the AI kit provides it with the boost needed to run advanced models and the ability to run simpler models faster.
On top of this, you get a well-established code base with a lot of really great examples at your disposal, thanks to the tight integration of the AI Kit with the Raspberry Pi.
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Is the AI Kit Still Available?
The Raspberry Pi AI Kit has been discontinued. Although you can still find the Raspberry Pi AI Kit for sale at official resellers and on Amazon as of this update, the stock is disappearing fast, and I don’t recommend buying one anymore.
The AI Kit has been phased out and is being replaced with new products, called AI HATs, to prevent confusion with starter kits and be in line with the naming for other Raspberry Pi HATs.
What Has Replaced the AI Kit?
The Raspberry Pi Foundation has revamped this product into a new lineup called the Raspberry Pi AI HAT+ and Raspberry Pi AI HAT+2.
Here’s what these new models do:
Check this: The Raspberry Pi I'd actually buy today
- AI HAT+: This add-on is meant for computer vision projects. You can buy the base one with 13 TOPS performance, which is a direct replacement for the AI Kit. Or you can get the upgraded version with 26 TOPS instead.
- AI HAT+ 2: This add-on is meant to run LLMs on a Raspberry Pi and even comes with its own memory. It has a whopping 40 TOPS performance, 8GB RAM, and is quite expensive (purchase here).
Why Use the AI HAT+?
The first and the most obvious reasons for you to get one of these AI HATs will be if you want to learn more about AI (Artificial Intelligence), specifically something on-device.
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If you want a clearer path than jumping from tutorial to tutorial, my book gives you a step-by-step roadmap to really understand your Raspberry Pi.
Check the book hereIn particular, you can find a lot of content that teaches you about things like computer vision, a field in AI that deals with images and videos.
Here are the top applications according to where you can use this kit.
Application 1: Object Detection
Object detection is one of the most fundamental uses of computer vision-based applications: recognizing things. It can be anything from an intruder wandering around your house to a rodent ruining your garden.
Running basic object detection applications on the Pi with the camera can be done even without the kit, but the performance you get is very limited. If you check out the outcomes of these projects, you will mostly see a very stuttering video, as the Pi’s CPU and GPU aren’t enough to run such advanced models.
With the AI HAT, however, you have the hardware necessary to run these models and you can build projects, like an intruder detection system or a garden monitoring system for your personal use. What’s better is that you will get superior performance and user experience than before.
That, according to me, is a win-win! All you need is this kit. You can start creating something great, and you won’t have to compromise on performance.
Check this: The Raspberry Pi I'd actually buy today
Starter Project: If you found the above use case interesting, here is a starter project you can start with. It guides you on how to set up and run the YOLOv8 model on your Pi with the AI HAT.
Application 2: Pose Estimation
Pose estimation is another interesting use case for the AI HAT: tracking someone’s movements and doing something based on what they’re doing.
For instance, let’s say you want to monitor your exercises and check if your posture for an exercise is correct. How would you build this?
Pose describes a particular position you can take. So, what you do in your application is configure your model to recognize certain positions (it can be exercise postures or even a hand signal) and do something like turn on an electronic device or call an emergency line.
Here is an example from the Raspberry Pi Foundation:
What’s even better is if you get the AI HAT, and fit a camera on the Pi, you can run advanced machine learning on your Pi, thanks to the advanced capabilities of the Hailo chip on the kit.
Starter Project: If you found the above use case interesting, here is a starter project you can start with. It guides you on how to use this kit to control your lights depending on your pose.
You might also like: Yes, you can access your Pi from anywhere. Here's how.
Application 3: Image Segmentation
Image segmentation is the process of extracting useful segments of an image. It goes even further than just recognizing an object in the image (i.e., object detection); it gives you the location of the object in the image.
With the AI HAT, you can do this much better than you could before. In this video, the HAT is used to detect the engineer and the plant on the desk:
A concrete project at home could be to create a door locking system based on facial recognition. The AI HAT hardware performs face recognition at speeds never before possible on the Pi.
These are just three major applications in which you can use Raspberry Pi’s AI HAT to build innovative and cost-effective projects. Are any of the above applications interesting? If so, get an AI hat of your own and get started!
Bonus tip: If the terminal still feels confusing, I made a simple cheat sheet with 74 commands explained in plain English. You can grab it here for free..
The first thing I would suggest is to go through this GitHub repository by Hailo, which gives you everything you will need to start creating projects with your AI HAT. However, for that, you will first need to set up your kit. Check out the next section, which will give you an overview of how to do this.
Application 4: Large Language Models
Want to run AI chatbots like ChatGPT locally on your Raspberry Pi? With the new beefy hardware that comes with the Raspberry Pi AI HAT+ 2, the performance for LLMs is now better than ever.
You can get answers to questions or even generate images on your Raspberry Pi, all locally, private, and without a subscription. Check out our dedicated articles below for how to get started:
You might also like: The Raspberry Pi I'd actually buy today
For more inspiration, check out 10 Awesome Projects You Can Do with the Raspberry Pi AI HAT.
Want even more ideas? I put together a free resource with over 75 Raspberry Pi project ideas, each with a quick description, tutorial link, and hardware requirements. Whether you’re just starting out or looking for something to do this weekend, this list will keep you busy for a while. Just click here to get instant access.
Still stuck after following this guide? Drop your question in the RaspberryTips Community — real Pi users answer fast. Post your question here.
Which Raspberry Pi AI Product Should You Buy?
If you’re serious about learning AI on your Raspberry Pi and want access to the fast lane, then you should get a Raspberry Pi AI HAT+. But which one should you get, the 13 TOPS, 26 TOPS, or 40 TOPS model?
A detailed comparison of these variants is as follows:
| AI HAT+ (13 TOPS) | AI HAT+ (26 TOPS) | AI HAT+ 2 (40 TOPS) | |
| Accelerator chip (NPU) | Hailo-8L (13 TOPS, INT8) | Hailo-8 (26 TOPS, INT8) | Hailo-10H (40 TOPS, INT4) |
| Memory (RAM) | Uses the memory on a Raspberry Pi 5 | Uses the memory on a Raspberry Pi 5 | Has its own 8 GB onboard memory |
| Use cases | Object detection, camera post-processing, robotics, moderate neural workloads | Object detection, camera post-processing, robotics, moderate neural workloads | Everything available on AI HAT+ plus generative AI workloads, including local LLMs and VLMs |
| MSRP | $70 (check) | $110 (check) | $200 (check) |
In short: buy the AI HAT+ if you’re working on computer vision projects, and buy the AI HAT+ 2 if you want to work with LLMs.
If you’re deciding between the 13 TOPS and 26 TOPS versions for computer vision projects, you only need the more powerful one if you’re running more than 1 camera or more than 1 object detection model at the same time. Or if you need the fastest response times.
For a more detailed comparison, check out our full guide: AI HAT vs AI Camera vs AI Kit: Which One Should You Buy?
You might also like: Need a clear GPIO pinout diagram? Here's mine.
Is There an Alternative to the AI HAT+?
The article greatly focuses on the official Raspberry Pi AI HAT+ offerings. That being said, there are a lot of alternatives when it comes to running AI applications on the Raspberry Pi.
For instance, if you want something easier for computer vision projects, you can try the standalone Raspberry Pi AI Camera instead. We wrote a guide on it—Raspberry Pi AI Camera Explained: What It Is & How to Use It.
There are a lot of companies working on innovative and cost-effective AI solutions for the Raspberry Pi as it is the most effective way to increase AI adoption in the general public.
Whenever you’re ready, here are other ways I can help you:
Test Your Raspberry Pi Level (Free): Not sure why everything takes so long on your Raspberry Pi? Take this free 3-minute assessment and see what’s causing the problems.
The RaspberryTips Community: Need help or want to discuss your Raspberry Pi projects with others who actually get it? Join the RaspberryTips Community and get access to private forums, exclusive lessons, and direct help.
Master your Raspberry Pi in 30 days: If you are looking for the best tips to become an expert on Raspberry Pi, this book is for you. Learn useful Linux skills and practice multiple projects with step-by-step guides.
Master Python on Raspberry Pi: Create, understand, and improve any Python script for your Raspberry Pi. Learn the essentials step-by-step without losing time understanding useless concepts.
Master Linux Commands: Overwhelmed with Linux commands? This book is your essential guide to mastering the terminal. It includes practical tips, real-world examples, and a bonus cheat sheet to keep by your side.
You can also find all my recommendations for tools and hardware on this page.
