AI toys that can chat, read, and remember are becoming new friends for many people. Recently, Huawei released the chatbot "Intelligent and Foolish", which sold out immediately upon release; JD Jingzao launches new AI plush toys, building a "full age companionship" ecosystem; The search volume of AI toys on shopping platforms continues to increase, and AI companion dolls have been selected as one of the top ten products on Taobao in 2025... He Yaqiong, Director of the Consumer Goods Industry Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that the application of artificial intelligence and large models has injected new soul into toy products, significantly improving the interactive experience of toy products, and has become a new competition track in the industry. According to statistics, the size of China's AI toy market is expected to reach approximately 24.6 billion yuan in 2024, and is projected to increase to 29 billion yuan for the entire year of 2025. AI toys can provide continuous companionship, like a caring friend. ”In the view of Cai Changqing, Brand Director of Xiaozhi AI at Shenzhen Shifang Ronghai Technology Co., Ltd., emotional companionship is the core value of AI toys. For example, the Xiaozhi AI voice model can achieve millisecond level feedback, emotional perception feedback, and anthropomorphic interaction, and realize language learning, story classification, song playback, intelligent interconnection and other functions on the application side. At present, Xiaozhi AI has been integrated into over a million devices, including plush toys, speakers, and desktop robots. Cai Changqing stated that the company's location is a gathering place for traditional hardware, and through AI empowerment, it has achieved the upgrading of the toy industry. Nowadays, toys have become an important carrier for the integration and innovation of AI technology. Language and visual models enable toy products to "understand", "see", and "think". According to the relevant person in charge of Baidu AI Cloud, at present, Baidu has cooperated with many toy manufacturers. In addition to providing cloud products such as computing, storage, and network, it has also launched professional toy models. By providing an overall solution for AI toys, it has lowered the threshold for traditional toy manufacturers to apply AI. Previously, toys were mainly used as playmates for children, with entertainment as the main focus. With the integration and application of AI technology in toy products, the role of toys in people's lives has evolved from a single entertainment function to a "smart partner" that integrates educational enlightenment, emotional companionship, creativity stimulation and other attributes, from "unchanging" to "increasingly understanding you". Cai Changqing stated that toys equipped with AI models can remember users' hobbies and lifestyle habits through semantic understanding and multi-dimensional emotion recognition, achieving a leap from "command response" to "emotional resonance". For underage users, the big model continuously optimizes the information content to achieve AI improvement and goodness. AI toys have broken the age limit of traditional toy products, achieving full coverage of "old, middle-aged, young, and young", greatly meeting the diverse consumption needs of various age groups. AI toys in the children's market focus on knowledge enlightenment and emotional comfort, while young people see them as "stress relievers" and "trendy items". The relevant person in charge of Baidu AI Cloud said that AI toys have application scenarios in education, health detection, social interaction, auxiliary treatment and other aspects. Wu Xinxiao, Chairman of Rongzhi Health Care Group, Wei Wei, told reporters that some AI memory assistant toys can remind elderly people to take medication on time through voice, play old songs, and tell historical stories to help alleviate memory decline, and are loved by the silver haired generation. However, in practical applications, there are also problems such as cumbersome interactive pages, inability to understand complex contexts, and unclear feedback mechanisms, which make elderly people both curious and worried about new technologies. Wei Wei suggests that AI toys should be adapted to the physical and psychological characteristics of the elderly, with age appropriate modifications to enhance the accuracy of speech recognition and the diversity of interactive content. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and six other departments jointly issued the "Implementation Plan for Enhancing the Adaptability of Supply and Demand of Consumer Goods and Further Promoting Consumption", proposing to encourage the development of artificial intelligence terminals such as home service robots, smart home appliances and artificial intelligence smartphones, computers, toys, glasses, brain computer interfaces, etc., to provide entertainment, health, companionship and other life services through intelligent products as carriers. He Yaqiong stated that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will strengthen collaboration with relevant departments to jointly promote the high-quality development of the AI toy industry. One is to focus on policy guarantees and guide toy companies to apply AI technology to create more new demands. Secondly, efforts should be made to promote product innovation. Encourage toy companies and AI technology companies to form strong alliances, integrate market demand insights into the advantages of new technology integration applications, integrate more excellent traditional culture into toys, create more popular AI toys, and lead consumer trends. Thirdly, efforts should be made to standardize the development of industries. In response to consumer concerns about AI toy data security, network security, and other issues, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will work with relevant departments to strengthen research and judgment. While guiding toy companies to strengthen technical protection, relevant standards will be developed in a timely manner to effectively ensure the quality, safety, and data privacy of AI toys. (New Society)