MK socks East China's Zhejiang Province, experience an AI bipedal robot on September 19, 2024. Photo: VCG" src="https://www.globaltimes.cn/Portals/0/attachment/2025/2025-03-03/672132f0-7ea7-4221-ba45-b52165929cfa.jpeg" />

Students at a school in Huzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province, experience an AI bipedal robot on September 19, 2024. Photo: VCG

Have you ever fantasized about the cartoon characters from your childhood coming to life, sharing stories, while also providing educational content? Currently, these childhood companions are made into toys, complete with a "digital soul" through artificial intelligence (AI) models.

Since the start of 2025, especially after the Spring Festival, the popularity of DeepSeek has ignited the AI consumer market, with sales of AI toys continuing to rise. 

Industry insiders said that toys integrated with large AI models including DeepSeek have formed a new unmatched interactive experience for consumers. They point out that AI toys can not only understand a child's language patterns but also intelligently learn and adapt based on reactions, thereby providing personalized interactive services. 

AI toys are now selling at a faster rate than their more traditional counterparts online. 

Estimates project that AI toys can reach a market scale of more than 100 million yuan ($13.7 million), according to a statement sent from e-commerce platform Taobao to the Global Times.

Booming sales

At present, the number of toy models, which included AI or smart functions as a product's feature, exceeds 1,000 across Chinese e-commerce platform Taobao. Some typical categories of products include plush companion AI toys, AI toys for early education, intelligent AI board games, and AI-powered smart speakers for kids, said Taobao.

According to statistics sent from another Chinese e-commerce platform JD.com to the Global Times, the market for AI early education toys for children aged 3 to 6 years has experienced explosive growth, with sales of related products jumping sixfold in February on a monthly basis.

So far, BubblePal, the first product of Haivivi, a Shenzhen-based AI toy startup, has been a sales star on Taobao, the platform said. 

BubblePal is an external AI pendant for plush toys. It can share moving stories and interact with the child, allowing them to craft and participate in storytelling. Since 2025, sales of BubblePal increased significantly, Gao Feng, founder of Haivivi, said in a statement.

"In 2024, the average monthly sales were only a few thousand units. By January this year, monthly sales had exceeded 20,000 units. According to data from the live broadcast platform Douyin, the daily transaction volume for Haivivi's toy livestream exceeds 500,000 yuan, with the number of transactions exceeding 1,000 units," said Gao.

Huohuotu, another early education toy maker, has also introduced an AI story machine, according to Taobao. Children can engage in intelligent Q&A through AI interaction and even co-create unique, personalized stories using AI. Since its launch at the end of December, it has already sold over 3,000 units on the platform.

Industry experts told the Global Times that compared to the complexity of AI in improving the efficiency of enterprises, the toy sector offers a more straightforward platform for this new technology. With the added advantage of fan-favorite IPs, it is expected to create blockbuster hits.

Production in full swing

On the supply side, over a hundred merchants are planning to release similar products, with a wide variety of options expected to be available for consumers by May-June this year, according to Taobao.

"We supply cameras for cars, powered by AI image algorithm that enables features such as baby monitoring and pet surveillance," a manager at a Shantou-based camera maker, who declined to be named, told the Global Times.

In terms of baby care and monitoring, AI algorithms can judge and identify the status, position change and temperament of babies or pets, such as cats, dogs and birds, through real-time video monitoring, and notify parents or owners in real-time, the manager explained.

"With the product achieving mass production at the end of 2024 and it was quickly snapped up, we are working in high gear to increase supply," the manager said.

Companies are also boosting production and investing in R&D for new AI toys, technologies, and AI-toy integration.

Guangdong Qunyu Interactive Technology Co has achieved market growth through its self-developed intelligent PCBA (the process of soldering electronic components onto a printed circuit board to form a complete circuit module) module solutions, which include core components such as integrated Bluetooth and WiFi communication modules, the company said.

Orders have been fully allocated stretching into June this year. Meanwhile, overseas customers from Europe, South Korea and other countries have been requesting integration of the DeepSeek model in Qunyu's smart toy products and educational toy products, the company announced.

Taobao has also made strides in the AI toy market, including supporting traditional children's toy brands in developing AI toy products. 

Consumption potential

Industry data reveals that the global market scale of AI toys has already reached $18.1 billion in 2024, and it is projected that the scale could increase to $60 billion by 2033, CCTV News reported.

In the Chinese market, assuming that the domestic AI toy penetration rate reaches 20 percent to 25 percent in 2028, the AI toy market size is expected to reach 30 billion yuan to 40 billion yuan, according to an analysis by Founder Securities.

The consumption potential comes from a higher level of AI application in China than in the world. According to the State of Science Index survey in 2024, 90 percent of Chinese people (77 percent globally) believe AI will fundamentally change the way people live their lives, with more than 90 percent of Chinese respondents already experimenting with AI at work.

Meanwhile, the technology advancement and inclusiveness enable producers to integrate AI large models with their products, Wang Peng, an associate research fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Sunday.

The emergence of large models like DeepSeek has made AI technology, algorithms, and models more and more mature, pushing forward the expansion of the entire toy industry, Chen Liang, executive vice president of Chenghai Toy Association in South China's Guangdong Province, said in a statement.

"However, the development of AI applications faces some challenges and problems, such as data privacy protection, algorithm bias and ethics. Therefore, while promoting the development of AI applications, we also need to pay attention to these problems and seek effective solutions," said Wang.