If we turn back the clock a few years, “toys” were still perceived by most as low-tech, low-value, and primarily aimed at younger consumers—belonging to children rather than the future of industry.
However, two recent events are quietly rewriting this perception.
On November 25, Huawei officially unveiled the AI electronic pet “Smart Huan Huan” at the Mate 80 series and all-scenario product launch, priced at 399 yuan, targeting adults as an emotional companionship product. It no longer identifies as a “children’s toy” but emphasizes AI interaction, emotional dialogue, tactile feedback, and long-term memory as core selling points, clearly aimed at young singles, urban white-collar workers, and users with emotional healing needs.
On November 20, JD.com also announced the launch of a series of AI plush toys equipped with the JoyInside system, clearly targeting the children and family market, focusing on imaginative play, story companionship, knowledge enlightenment, and emotional perception, aiming to construct a “growth-oriented companion toy” scenario, attempting to redefine the relationship structure between children and toys, and between families and companionship.
One targets the emotional gap for adults, while the other is rooted in children’s growth—both have clear divisions of labor but share a common goal: they are not selling toys, but constructing a new medium for “human-machine emotional relationships”.
This is not a simple product attempt, but a release of industrial signals: AI toys are being incorporated into the long-term strategic vision of tech giants.
From “Toys” to “Emotional Terminals”: A Leap in the Industrial Value System
Why toys? The answer to this question is far more complex than just “traffic dividends”.
As the smartphone dividend gradually peaks and the IoT hardware sector becomes highly homogeneous, tech giants are searching for the next “high-frequency, strong emotional, sustainable connection” terminal form—and AI toys possess all the key characteristics:
1. They can be truly “personalized”;
2. They establish long-term emotional attachment with users;
3. They enter the core family scene;
4. They have the potential for continuous content updates;
5. They can form behavioral data accumulation.
This means that AI toys are no longer one-time products, but “emotional carriers” with operating system attributes.
Huawei’s “Smart Huan Huan” does not emphasize children’s attributes but builds a slow relationship between humans and machines through “emotional recognition”, “memory accumulation”, and “companion dialogue”;
JD’s AI plush toys embed “companionship” into children’s growth paths, using AI to reshape children’s play methods, self-awareness, and emotional expression patterns.
Their commonality lies not in appearance, but in essence: toys are becoming “emotional gateways”.
Giants Entering the Arena: Three Strategic Signals Being Released
1. AI hardware is entering the “emotional track”, no longer just pursuing efficiency
In the past, AI hardware emphasized efficiency and functionality, such as voice assistants, smart home devices, and learning tools. However, the logic of AI toys is completely different—they do not solve efficiency problems but fill the emotional and companionship gaps.
In a highly urbanized society, loneliness, stress, and anxiety have become the norm, and emotional connections between people are gradually being compressed. AI toys have become a new buffer zone.
When a company like Huawei, known for its “technical rationality”, chooses to enter the companionship AI toy market, it sends a clear signal: the next stage of AI competition is not just about computing power and algorithms, but about “relationship capabilities”.
2. Family scenes are becoming the next main battlefield for AI
Whether for adult companionship or children’s growth products, their ultimate focus is the family scene.
JD’s JoyInside series integrates toys into children’s daily lives, constructing a new paradigm of “AI parenting assistants”; Huawei aims to embed companionship devices into personal spaces, becoming a new emotional interface.
This means: AI is moving from screens to tactile experiences, evolving from functional tools to emotional roles.
Whoever occupies the “emotional gateway” is closer to the discourse power of family scenes.
3. The toy industry is transitioning from manufacturing to content
The core value of AI toys is no longer in materials and craftsmanship, but in character settings, interaction logic, content systems, and companionship models.
Product updates no longer rely on molds but on algorithms and content evolution. This is a fundamental shift from manufacturing logic to content logic.
From this perspective, toys are no longer a low-end industry but:
IP industry + emotional economic carrier + content distribution channel + data accumulation terminal
A severely undervalued track is being re-evaluated
In past perceptions, the toy industry grew slowly, had a low user ceiling, and limited gross margins. However, the intervention of AI is reshaping the entire value model:
Individual user lifecycles are extended;
Product service attributes are enhanced;
User stickiness is significantly improved;
Content subscription models are established;
IP derivative capabilities are enhanced.
More importantly, AI toys provide a commercial basis for “companionship”. This means:
Emotions that could not be scaled before are being re-encoded by technology.
This is also why giants are entering the market at this time: not because the toy market has “suddenly expanded”, but because the “value logic has undergone a leap”.
Signals for Practitioners:
This is a structural opportunity, not a short-term trend
For practitioners in the industry chain, this transformation means:
1. Toy factories are no longer just manufacturers but can become IP production centers;
2. Content creators no longer serve just the entertainment industry but enter the emotional economy;
3. Brands no longer sell products but sell companionship relationships;
4. Entrepreneurs have opportunities to reconstruct user relationships.
AI toys represent one of the few tracks that are still in the “early and highly certain” stage.
They possess:
Technical dividends + content dividends + emotional dividends + scene dividends
This means that players entering now still have the opportunity to build their own worldview and product paradigm.
Reminders for Observers
The entry of giants is already clear—the direction is no longer speculation but fact.
The real question is: how will you participate? In what role? At what level?
Are you a manufacturer? An IP provider? A content provider? A technology service provider? A channel platform provider?
AI toys are not a single category but a composite super track that spans:
the toy industry + content industry + AI technology + emotional economy + educational companionship.
Whoever establishes cognition earlier will find it easier to gain a first-mover advantage.
Hoomii Planet’s Perspective
Huawei and JD’s entry into this track is not coincidental; they represent the predicted direction of the industry’s future.
AI toys are not just embellishments of emotional consumption but the prototype of the next generation of emotional infrastructure; they are not exclusive products for children but cross-generational human-machine symbiotic carriers.
As smart devices begin to learn to listen, comfort, accompany, and remember, a brand new industrial logic is forming—it concerns technology but more about humanity; it comes from machines but leads to emotions.
When toys begin to “have souls”, the industrial era is switching.
Hoomii Planet | AI Toy Industry Observer
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