At the 2026 toy shows, AI toys for kids were the main act. CES, MWC and the Hong Kong Toys & Games Fair were full of plush toys and robots that chat and tell stories. Behind the hype, though, few players actually ship at scale or pass safety checks. Let us size the market first, then see who really leads.
How big is this category, really
pmarketresearch puts the global AI smart toys market at about $19.48 billion in 2025, heading to $56.5 billion by 2032, a 16.43% compound annual rate. On the other side, foreign media counted more than 1,500 registered AI toy companies in China by October 2025. Money and talent are flooding in, but shipment volume and reputation are two different things.
Among those actually building, start with the ones shipping real numbers. India's Miko makes educational companion robots for children and foreign media report cumulative sales past 700,000 units. The U.S. startup Curio launched OpenAI-powered plush toys like Grok in December 2023 at $99. Big brands are in too: Mattel announced a partnership with OpenAI in June 2025 to bring generative AI into Barbie and Hot Wheels, using ChatGPT Enterprise. On the platform side, Tuya Smart showed an AI toy solution at Spielwarenmesse in January 2026 and at CES 2026, claiming to cut development time by over 60%. LEGO previewed smart bricks with chips and speakers at CES 2026.
Hype aside, safety is the real divide
What is most sensitive in AI toys is always content safety and children's data. Foreign media note that FoloToy completed a content-safety audit and tightened moderation before relaunching in December 2025, while Miko runs annual safety audits and certifications. Behind that sit hard rules like COPPA, the FTC and the EU's GDPR-K on children's personal data. The ones that last are not the first to shout a concept, but the ones that do safety audits and supply chains properly.
For parents, three things matter when choosing an AI toy for a kid: does the content have guardrails, can parents stay in control, and where does the data live. For brands entering the field, safety compliance and steady supply beat chasing the trend. The category is hot, but in the end it comes down to who can earn a parent's trust to hand the toy to a child.
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