[5] The Nao Academics Edition was released to universities, educational institutions and research laboratories in late 2008.

In the summer of 2010, Nao made global headlines with a synchronized dance routine at the Shanghai Expo in China.

[9] In June 2011, Aldebaran raised US$13 million in a round of venture funding led by Intel Capital.

[11] In December 2011, Aldebaran released the Nao Next Gen, featuring hardware and software enhancements such as high-density cameras, improved robustness, anti-collision systems and a faster walking speed.

[4] In 2015, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group began trialing Nao robots for customer service use in its Japanese bank branches.

[21] In August 2018, RobotLAB released an online learning platform for schools that enhance the use of NAO for STEM, Coding and Engineering.

[22] Since its release in 2004, Nao has been tested and deployed in a number of healthcare scenarios, including usage in care homes[23] and in schools.

The 2014 Nao Evolution, featured stronger metallic joints, improved grip and an enhanced sound source location system that utilizes four directional microphones.

[4] The OS powers the robot's multimedia system, which includes four microphones (for voice recognition and sound localization), two speakers (for multilingual text-to-speech synthesis) and two HD cameras (for computer vision, including facial and shape recognition).