The AI pet toy craze is here.
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Author | Huang Yu
Editor | Zhou Zhiyu
At the recent CES 2026 International Consumer Electronics Show, an “owl” that breathes, responds, and has personality attracted a lot of attention. It is an AI pet toy called “Joobie Little Owl” from Hugbibi, Shenzhen, China.
A batch of “AI pets” like Joobie from China became the most eye-catching presence at this year’s CES. According to incomplete statistics, more than 30 Chinese companies sent AI pet toys or AI companion robots to the exhibition, including TCL, Lingxi Intelligence, Hugbibi, Tuya Smart, and Jiqilingdong.
From major exhibitions, to the new product launches of tech companies at home and abroad, to the shelves of offline malls and trendy toy shops, the presence of AI pet toys is becoming more and more frequent. They are no longer just electronic toys that can make sounds and walk, but are being endowed with “personality,” “emotions,” and a “growth curve,” aiming to become a “long-term companion” for users.
Against the backdrop of the large-scale rollout of AI applications, AI pet toys are seen as one of the “minimal viable products” combining large models, sensors, low-power chips, and consumer hardware. On one hand, their requirements for accuracy and reliability are lower than those for industrial or service robots; on the other hand, they naturally fit the long-term trend of emotional consumption and the companionship economy.
From startups to tech giants, from traditional toy manufacturers to major Internet companies, more and more players are entering this track. AI pet toys are becoming another much-anticipated consumer AI entry point, following smart speakers and smart wearables.
When Plush Toys Are Given a “Soul”
Looking back over the past year or so, you’ll notice an obvious change in the form of AI pet toys: “toy-like” is giving way to “life-like.”
Early smart pets remained mostly at a mechanical interaction level—pre-set actions, fixed voice responses, simple remote control. In this new wave of products, “passive response” is being replaced by “continuous interaction,” and “function collections” are being reshaped by “relationship building.”
Take Hugbibi’s latest portable emotional companion product Joobie as an example: it doesn’t position itself as a robot or smart device, but rather emphasizes a “companion pet with personality.”
The reason for launching such a product, according to Hugbibi, is that over the past decade, plush toys have changed from being “little ornaments put by the bedside” to “little friends you hang on yourself and take along”; young people are beginning to use a character to express themselves, get companionship, and build connections. But there are problems at both ends: traditional plush toys are cute but lack “life” and have thin emotions; functional toys or mini robots are powerful but cold.
Hugbibi hopes to create a product that brings “cuteness and vitality” back to plush toys and injects “warmth and humanity” into tech products.
In terms of appearance, Joobie continues the softness and approachability of plush toys, but internally integrates multi-touch, pressure, balance, and sound perception modules. It can sense the user’s hugging, walking, shaking, and other actions. Although it doesn’t speak or solve problems, it can give emotional feedback.
Hugbibi emphasizes: “What makes Joobie extraordinary is that it grows into a unique self due to your companionship.”
Reportedly, Joobie does not come with a fixed personality from the factory. The product introduces a “growth-based companionship” design logic, gradually forming differentiated behavior patterns by recording the user’s interaction methods over a seven-day cycle. They officially call this “MBTI for Pet”—different users’ Joobie will show different emotional expressions and behavior preferences.
Behind this design is the hope, amid the AI boom, that some brands can make plush toys both “cute and life-like,” meeting consumers’ higher emotional value needs.
This kind of product design thinking is one of the main routes in current AI pet toy design.
In November last year, Huawei also launched the AI pet toy “Smart Hanhan,” jointly designed and developed by Luobo Intelligence and Huawei. It is Huawei’s first AI emotional companion product.
It is understood that Smart Hanhan has integrated Huawei’s “Xiaoyi” large model, allowing for human-like voice conversations, and is positioned as an emotional “electronic companion.” The product has done well in the market, selling out immediately when launched on Huawei’s online store, and was temporarily out of stock.
As Huawei’s partner in this, Luobo Intelligence was established at the beginning of 2024 and focuses on developing AI companion robots. Its first product, Fuzozo, was officially put on sale in June last year.
Fuzozo is available in five colors, corresponding to the five traditional Chinese elements (metal, wood, water, fire, earth), each mapped to a basic personality. Fuzozo also innovatively designs AI products as bag pendants, making AI products usable and fashionable. Both Smart Hanhan and Joobie chose this method.
Public data shows that in the six months after the official online launch, 120,000 units of Fuzozo were sold, making it one of the few AI companion hardware products to achieve real scale, and the top-selling product in the industry.
In terms of form, this wave of AI pet toys show several common features: for example, their appearance tends toward plush, collectible, and low aggression design; they don’t pursue complex task execution, but rather emphasize responsiveness and companionship.
In terms of pricing, most products are concentrated in the several hundred to one thousand yuan range, significantly lower than mainstream service robots or smart hardware. This pricing strategy also makes AI pet toys easier for ordinary consumers to consider.
The Driving Force Behind the AI Toy Boom
With the AI application explosion, the AI toy sector has remained hot over the past year, with many participants.
The first category of players are innovative startups like Luobo Intelligence and Hugbibi; the second are consumer electronics and hardware manufacturers such as TCL, Huawei, Ubtech, Honor, etc.; the third category are major Internet companies such as JD.com, Alibaba, ByteDance; and lastly, traditional toy companies.
In addition, IP owners, trendy toy brands, and content companies are also trying to combine with AI technology, turning originally static IP images into interactive and “living” characters to extend IP life cycles.
At the same time, capital is accelerating into the AI toy sector.
According to incomplete statistics, nearly one hundred investment institutions are already involved, including Sequoia, Shunwei, 5Yuan, ByteDance, JD.com, and other top venture capital firms and Internet giants.
ITJuzi data shows that in 2025, there were 19 financing events in China’s AI toy sector, higher than 14 in 2024 and 3 in 2023.
Luobo Intelligence is one of the star startups of 2025. Its founder, Sun Zhaozhi, was previously Head of Product Design at Xiaopeng Robotics Company (Pengxing Intelligence).
In June 2025, Luobo Intelligence announced the completion of tens of millions of RMB in an angel funding round, co-led by Shanghai Film New Vision Fund and GSR Ventures, with participation from Zero One Capital; in September, it announced a further “Angel+” round, again worth tens of millions, led by Sequoia China, with previous investors GSR and Zero One joining in.
Besides Luobo Intelligence, GSR Ventures also invested in Yours Innovation in 2025. Reportedly, Yours Innovation, which also focuses on AI toys, completed a 200 million yuan Series A round last year. Its AI interactive dialog pendant toy, BubblePal, allows children’s favorite plush toys to “speak.”
Capital’s enthusiasm comes from the commercial validation of emotional value in AI toys. The hit success of Pop Mart caused many investors to reassess the potential of emotional value consumption.
On one hand, emotional consumption is being continually amplified. In high-pressure, fragmented lives, some consumers do not need “smarter tools,” but an “existence that always responds.” What AI pet toys provide is a low-burden, non-reciprocal companionship.
On the other hand, AI technology has come to a suitable juncture. Voice recognition, multimodal perception, and lightweight models make “real enough but imperfect” interaction possible—and this “imperfection” fits expectations for companionship scenes even better.
From an industry perspective, AI pet toys have a practical advantage: their commercialization path is relatively clear. Compared to general-purpose robots, they don’t need to enter complex scenarios; compared to AI assistants, it’s easier for them to establish emotional stickiness; compared to pure software, their physical presence has premium value.
The AI toy trend is gradually evolving into a major industrial upgrade in the toy industry. Since last year, multiple toy-industry cities across the country have introduced initiatives to promote deep integration of AI and the toy industry, seizing future high ground in the market.
On November 19 last year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology officially identified “AI toys” as a new growth engine driving industrial upgrades, and encouraged strong alliances between toy companies and AI tech enterprises.
The market for AI toys is substantial. Data from the Ministry shows that in 2024, China’s AI toy market reached 24.6 billion yuan, and is expected to increase to 29 billion yuan in 2025, up 18% year-on-year.
According to a research report by Northeast Securities, by 2030, the domestic AI toy penetration rate will reach 47%, with a market size approaching 85 billion yuan—almost triple that of 2025.
According to Market Research Future, the global AI toy market will surpass $11 billion in 2024, and is expected to soar to $58 billion by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of nearly 30%.
Of course, there are still challenges in this sector. How can AI toys provide a more natural and authentic emotional companionship experience? Can emotional companionship form a long-term paid service? How to avoid product homogenization? All of these will be tested by the market in the next year or two.
But what is certain is that AI pet toys are no longer just “concept prototypes” at exhibitions—they are moving into the real consumer market.
Just as humanoid robots open the door to commercialization by lowering prices, AI pet toys are using a softer approach to explore another path for AI to enter daily life.
Risk disclaimer and liability clauseThe market has risks, investing needs caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice, nor does it take into account the special investment goals, financial situation, or needs of individual users. Users should consider whether any opinions, views, or conclusions in this article are suitable for their particular situation. Investing on this basis is at your own risk. ```