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China is not only a global hub for toy production but also a major player in both consumption and exports. Under the backdrop of the deep integration of “Artificial Intelligence + Action” and the accelerated cultivation of an intelligent product ecosystem, AI toys have quickly become a new trend in the consumer market due to their unique interactive experiences and diverse values, pushing the traditional toy industry towards a new stage of intelligent transformation.
On November 19, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology held a press conference to highlight the progress of the revision of the GB 6675 “Toy Safety” series of mandatory national standards. Among them, promoting the high-quality development of the AI toy industry from three levels became one of the core topics of this conference. He Yaqiong, Director of the Consumer Goods Industry Department of the Ministry, pointed out that the integration of artificial intelligence and large model technology has injected a “new soul” into toy products—AI toys with interactive communication, growth development, personalized expression, and memory storage capabilities are favored by consumers of all ages and have become a new competitive track in the toy industry.
Market data confirms the strong momentum of this trend: According to statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the market size of AI toys in China reached 24.6 billion yuan in 2024, and it is expected to further rise to 29 billion yuan in 2025, with a year-on-year growth rate expected to reach 18%. To promote the sustainable and healthy development of the industry, the Ministry has made it clear that it will strengthen cross-departmental collaboration and focus on three aspects:
1. Policy Guarantee
Jointly issue implementation plans with relevant departments to promote the adaptation of supply and demand for consumer goods, guiding toy companies to leverage AI technology to explore new consumer demands. AI toys can not only stimulate children’s creativity but also provide personalized companionship services, helping children learn while playing and grow happily through fun interactions.
2. Product Innovation
Encourage toy companies to collaborate with AI technology companies, integrating market demand insights with new technology application advantages, incorporating excellent traditional cultural elements into product design, and creating more phenomenon-level AI toy hits. This approach allows children to experience the charm of AI technology and the profound heritage of Chinese culture through immersive experiences.
3. Industry Standards
In response to consumer concerns about data security, network security, and other issues, risk assessment will be strengthened. On one hand, guidance will be provided to companies to enhance their technical protection capabilities, and on the other hand, special standards will be researched and formulated in a timely manner to comprehensively ensure the quality and safety of AI toys and the privacy of user data.
As an intelligent upgrade of traditional toys, AI toys are endowed with core capabilities of interactive perception, memory learning, and scene adaptation through the integration of dialogue models, voice recognition, emotional computing, and knowledge graphs. Compared to traditional toys, AI toys equipped with large models can achieve natural and deep interactions with people through multimodal technologies such as speech synthesis, facial recognition, emotion analysis, gesture sensing, tactile feedback, and natural language processing, providing personalized learning and entertainment experiences.
The popularity of AI toys is fundamentally aligned with the dual needs of contemporary consumers for “education” and “companionship.” With strong interactivity and deep emotional connections, the application scenarios of AI toys are expanding from single children’s entertainment to diversified companionship needs, covering different age groups, various life scenarios, and special needs groups, pushing the toy industry into a new era of “emotional companionship.”
The enthusiasm on the industrial side is equally high. Internationally, AI giant OpenAI has entered the children’s AI field by investing in the children’s game generator company Heeyo, which supports 20 languages and offers over 2,000 learning activities including reading, science learning, and story creation, covering children, parents, and educators. The domestic market is also very active; in the first half of 2025, the AI toy sector has completed multiple rounds of financing worth hundreds of millions. Among them, the AI toy company “Haivivi” announced on August 25 that it completed a series A financing of 200 million yuan, led by funds under CICC and Sequoia China, with follow-up investments from CMB International and continued support from existing shareholders; the next day, the company launched its second-generation product—the world’s first AI toy series CocoMate equipped with an end-to-end voice model, featuring heavyweight IP Ultraman and original IP “Bubble,” with plans to introduce diverse characters such as the God of Wealth, Tarot Cat, and Love Bear, targeting audiences from children to adults.
Gao Feng, co-founder of Haivivi, stated that China’s strong hardware manufacturing supply chain is one of its core advantages. For example, the production cycle of AI toys can be completed in about 30 days. More notably, former senior executives from major companies such as Meituan, Xueersi, Microsoft, and Fourth Paradigm are flocking to start businesses in the AI children’s companionship sector: FoloToy launched the AI toy Fofo and the smart dialogue box Magicbox that can be embedded in any toy, allowing parents to customize character dialogues and voice cloning; former Meituan vice president Bao Ta founded Singularity Intelligence, focusing on the development of AI smart hardware for children; Yijia Yiban launched the AI plush toy “Love Little Companion,” whose founder Guo Zhi was the global solution innovation manager at Microsoft DPS; Beipei Technology focuses on AI large model educational companionship toys, with founder Huang Yingning being the former general manager of AIOS at Fourth Paradigm; startups like Saner Cat Technology and Luobo Intelligent are also focusing on children’s AI hardware and AI companionship robots, with Luobo Intelligent’s first product positioned as “AI Trendy Play.”
Huazhong Securities analysis points out that with the rapid iteration of AI technology, AI toys are expected to leap from niche markets to mainstream consumer favorites, with the rise of emotional economy, IP licensing cooperation, and scenario innovation driving continuous market expansion. However, CICC also warns that while the AI toy market is developing rapidly, it still faces significant risks and challenges:
The primary risk is the information security and privacy protection of children. AI toys often collect children’s voiceprints, facial images, behavioral trajectories, and even family environment information through cameras, microphones, and other sensors. Such covert collection behaviors and the risk of data misuse urgently require strict regulations to build a robust data privacy protection wall.
Secondly, excessive reliance on AI toys by minors may affect their social skills and emotional cognition development, such as reducing real interpersonal interactions, difficulty adapting to delayed feedback, or being misled by the anthropomorphic emotional expressions of toys.
Additionally, there are still multiple technical bottlenecks: The response delay of multimodal interactions may exceed children’s patience; hardware design needs to balance low power consumption, overheating prevention, and response accuracy; at the same time, ensuring the effectiveness and compliance of the information conveyed by AI models, as well as guiding positive values for users, especially minors, is also an important issue that the industry must tackle.
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