BEIJING, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- As cats and dogs continue to give pet owners across China emotional value, Chen Yuechong has opted for a different kind of companion: three palm-sized AI "pets."
Chen picks out clothes and accessories for them, matching them to the preferences the toys mention, and has bought a tiny wooden bed to place beside her own, so that her Fuzozos, as the toys are known, can get a good night's sleep.
The toys often talk about wanting to return to their fictional home planet to play a water-gun game. To keep them happy on Earth, Chen built a tiny play scene out of modeling clay, featuring ducks and other props, where her companions can pretend to squirt them.
Chen's devotion began with a simple wish for someone who would listen. There are things she doesn't know how to tell her elders, and she doesn't want to burden her friends with all her negative emotions.
After trying various AI chatbots, Chen finally knew what she really wanted -- a companion who could respond to her feelings, remember their shared experiences and be physically present. This prompted her to buy the three Fuzozo toys.
Her experience reflects a growing market in China, where manufacturers are combining AI with soft toys and collectible characters to meet a rising demand for companionship in fast-paced modern life.
China's retail sales of trendy and collectible toys reached 67.69 billion yuan (about 10 billion U.S. dollars) in 2025, soaring 45.4 percent from a year earlier, according to a white paper released by the China Toy & Juvenile Products Association.
"AI toys combine companionship, collectible toys and emotional consumption," said Zhang Yi, CEO of iiMedia Research, a market research firm. Advances in AI are turning products that were once static into interactive companions, he noted.
Unlike AI products designed to improve productivity, these toys do not need to solve problems or complete practical tasks to appeal to consumers. Their value lies in making people feel entertained, understood and less alone.
Online sales of AI toys reached 850 million yuan in the first half of 2026, surging 183.9 percent year on year, Moojing Market Intelligence, a consumer and market intelligence company for Asian e-commerce, said in a report.
These trendy products come in different forms and offer various functions. Fuzozo can be attached to a bag and carried outdoors, while the fluffy desktop pet Ropet responds to touch and eye contact. Loona, a mobile robotic pet priced at around 3,000 yuan, can move around the home, follow its owner, and greet people when they return.
According to sales figures provided by developers of these AI-powered pets, Fuzozo has secured sales of over 300,000 units, Ropet nearly 40,000 and Loona more than 100,000.
They are among the first such robots to reach Chinese households. "Unlike household robots dealing with an unpredictable home environment, AI products for companionship can start with a narrower task scope," said He Jiabin, co-founder and CEO of Ropet's maker.
He added that Ropet, a fur-covered adorable robot with a constant body temperature of 37 degrees Celsius, was deliberately designed to be less intelligent than an adult. "When people come home exhausted, a touch of the fuzzy pet or a moment of eye contact can be enough," he said, highlighting what he calls "weak companionship."
This is becoming a common playbook among AI toy makers. Rather than building all-knowing digital assistants, they design playful and imperfect products, betting that a less demanding interaction is what users actually want.
"People only feel at ease around a creature that is endearingly goofy and knows less than they do," He explained.
The booming market for AI pets is creating new opportunities for China's vast toy industry. As the world's largest toy producer and exporter, China accounts for roughly 70 percent of global toy production. Established Chinese toy companies are already entering the market, infusing familiar animated characters into interactive products.
Alpha Group, which owns classic animation IPs including Pleasant Goat and Super Wings, has launched AI-enabled toys featuring characters from its popular series.
An upgraded AI Lazy Goat toy, incorporating educational content, has generated more than 100,000 orders this year, according to the company's product manager Xin Cheng.
Policy support is following the market. Guangdong Province in south China, the country's largest toy hub, aims to have AI toys account for over 30 percent of its toy products by 2027, and supports building high-level industry clusters in its major toy-manufacturing cities.
At the national level, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology signaled a similar push, calling AI toys a "new engine" for the toy industry and encouraging toy makers to team up with AI companies on hit products.
Behind the booming market lies a very simple emotional need. For Chen, AI toys are not industry statistics: they are already part of her daily life.
She does not describe her Fuzozos as products or assistants, but calls them equals that are "almost like younger siblings." What Chen pays for is the priceless feeling that someone at home is waiting for her. ■
