AI toys · Custom development
AI toy OEM & ODM — LLM talking plush, companion toys and AI toy core modules
We develop custom AI talking toys for brands: AI plush toy solutions, AI companion toys, figures and desktop robots with large-language-model conversation inside, or the AI toy core module that goes into a toy you already design. Projects start with a development phase (NRE) and samples welcome; proven toys in volume production can also be OEM-branded as yours, and we quote quantity and price per project. This page sets out what an AI toy is made of, what a project costs in components rather than in numbers, and how it runs, so you can write a useful brief.
Who usually comes to us
Toy brands
Add an AI line to an existing range: your character, your packaging, our voice hardware and firmware.
Education and parenting brands
Storytelling, Q&A and bedtime companions with a parent app that controls topics and quiet hours.
Collectible and IP brands
NFC figures that recognise each other and unlock stories, so a set is worth completing.
Distributors and online sellers
A product developed for your brand and channel, with the LLM provider chosen for the market you ship to. Development is paid; we do not resell ready-made toys.
What an AI toy is made of
An AI talking toy has two halves. One is the reusable engineering: picking up a child’s voice, working while the toy itself is speaking, wake word, the link to the model, updates and safe charging. The other is the brand half: the character, voice, personality, shell, app and content. Brands win or lose on the second half, but most field problems start in the first.
Microphone, wake word and speaker
A far-field microphone hears the child from across the room, the wake word listens for the toy’s name, and the speaker has to play over it without the toy hearing itself. A plush body soaks up high frequencies and couples the speaker into the microphone, so the audio is tuned inside soft enclosures, not only on a desk stand.
On the device
Wake word, deciding when the child has finished speaking, noise suppression and speech recognition run on the toy, together with playback, battery management and receiving updates. This part decides how fast the toy feels.
In the cloud
Understanding and generating the reply with a large language model, the persona prompt, content filtering on every answer, memory of names and favourite things, and the back end behind the parent app and update console. The model is a configuration choice per market, not a hard-wired dependency.
Power and charging inside a plush body
A rechargeable lithium cell inside a stuffed toy is a safety topic of its own, so toy-safety thinking belongs in the charging circuit, not only in the manual. A low-power standby design is what turns hours between charges into days.
Content and persona design
The character’s personality, a voice built around your brand (voice cloning is possible), story content, the topics it will not discuss, and what it says when the cloud cannot be reached. Silence on a dropped connection is what gets toys returned.
App and parent controls
A parent app for reviewing topics, setting quiet hours and choosing what the toy may talk about, plus the console that pushes firmware, expression and content updates to units already in customers’ hands in batches.
Cloud service and ongoing running cost
Every conversation has a cloud cost, and it continues after the toy is sold. Whether it is covered by included usage, a parent-app subscription or a capped allowance is settled before the toy is priced. Doing more on the device lowers the cloud cost per unit, which is what decides whether a product can live without a subscription.
Form factors: plush, figure and desktop robot
The same conversation platform can sit in different bodies. The body changes the hard problems, so it is worth deciding early.
AI plush toy
The most natural body for young children. The difficult parts are audio tuned inside fabric and stuffing, and a battery and charger that are safe in a soft toy.
Figure and collectible
A character figure for IP brands, optionally with NFC so figures recognise each other and unlock stories. Suits collecting, sets and story play.
Desktop companion robot
A screen face with expressive eyes, a camera and motion, standing on a desk or bedside table. More presence, more hardware, so a larger development scope.
Why some AI talking toys feel slow
A child judges a talking toy by one thing: how long it stays silent after they stop talking. Under roughly 700 milliseconds feels like conversation; past about 1.5 seconds people call it laggy or broken. Most of that time is spent on the toy before the request ever reaches the cloud: wake word, deciding the child has finished speaking, noise suppression and speech recognition.
- Two toys can call the same model and feel different
- The difference is rarely the model. It is the half second in front of it, which depends on how much work the toy does locally.
- Set the target at kickoff
- Write the response-time target into the requirements before tooling, and ask any development partner for a breakdown of where the time goes, stage by stage.
- Decide the offline behaviour early
- With enough on-device compute a small local model can serve as a fallback without a network. That is a hardware selection decision, not a firmware patch added later.
What an AI toy project is made of, cost-wise
We do not publish amounts, because they depend on the form factor, the scope and what you already have. These are the components a quote is built from. A core module project covers only some of them; a fully custom toy covers all.
Industrial design
The look of the toy and how the character becomes a physical product.
Structure and tooling
Structural design, then the moulds and soft-goods patterns to make it.
PCB
The voice board: audio, processing, power and charging, shaped to fit your body.
Embedded software
Firmware for wake word, audio, the model link, power saving and updates.
Server
The back end for conversation, persona, filtering, accounts and the update console.
App
The parent app on iOS and Android.
Certification
CE / FCC / RoHS and toy-safety certification, planned for each market you sell in.
Production
Manufacturing in Shenzhen with quality control at each stage. Quantity is quoted per project.
Separately from the project, the toy has a running cost once it is sold: the cloud service behind every conversation. Plan it together with the price of the toy.
How an AI toy project runs
- 01
Paid development phase (NRE)
We scope the features, the target markets, the response-time target, the offline behaviour and the running-cost plan, then agree the development fee.
- 02
Samples
Industrial design, board, firmware and persona come together as working prototypes, in weeks rather than months. Samples welcome.
- 03
Pilot
A small trial build before quantities are committed, to prove the product, the testing route and the assembly.
- 04
Production
Production organised in Shenzhen with quality control at each stage, packaging and logistics. The schedule is committed after feasibility, once tooling and certification for your markets are known.
What we need in a brief
You do not need a specification. These answers are enough for a first reply.
- Character and IP
- Who the character is and whether you own the rights. Designs are covered by NDA by default.
- Child age range and markets
- Which ages and which countries you sell in, because they set the content rules, the languages, the model and the test route.
- Form factor and what you already have
- Plush, figure or desktop robot, and whether you already have the shell or only the idea, which decides between a core module project and a fully custom toy.
- What the toy should talk about
- Stories, questions and answers, bedtime, learning; and what it should never discuss.
- Parent app and business model
- What parents should control, and your thinking on included usage versus subscription.
- Timing and rough volume
- Your target launch window and a rough yearly quantity for planning. Quantity is quoted per project.
What decides whether an AI toy works for children
Response time
Children stop talking to a toy that pauses. Wake word on-device, streaming speech recognition and streamed speech synthesis keep the gap between question and answer short.
Child-safe content
A children’s persona, topic filters and sensitive-content blocking on every answer, plus parent controls — designed in, not added after a bad review.
Battery with an always-ready mic
A toy that listens for its name all day drains a battery unless the wake path is low-power. Standby design is what turns hours into days between charges.
Toy-safety and privacy rules
Toy-safety standards such as EN 71 and ASTM F963, plus children’s-data rules like COPPA and GDPR, shape the design from the start — the test route is planned per market.
Directions to start from
AI Talking Plush Toy
A soft friend that truly talks back
- LLM conversation
- OTA updates
- Offline wake word
- Far-field mic
Kids 3–10
Expressive-Eyes AI Toy
Eyes that feel what it says
- Dual LCD eyes
- OTA updates
- Emotion engine
- Touch sensing
Kids & teens
Forest Wolf Cub · NFC
NFC play: dress-up themes, bump-to-befriend, board games
- 4G + Wi-Fi + BLE
- OTA updates
- NFC dress-up & befriend
- Touch interaction
Collectors, kids & board-game players
Two ways to develop with us
AI toy core module project
You keep your own toy design and we develop the AI core around it: voice board, firmware, persona tuning and companion app, fitted into your plush or figure. Starts with a development phase (NRE).
Best for: Toy brands that already have the shell
Fully custom AI toy
Your character and industrial design, our voice board, firmware, persona tuning and app — tooled and certified for your markets.
Best for: Brands with their own IP or design
Platforms
Bring the AI stack your market needs
Our firmware is decoupled from any single provider. Depending on where you sell, your data-residency rules and your budget, we connect the device to the right LLM, speech and IoT cloud. These are the kinds of services we have integrated.
For China
- Baidu AI Cloud Solution sales partner Cloud AI and voice services
- Mainstream Chinese LLMs Several to choose from, per project
- Speech recognition & synthesis Major speech engines
- IoT provisioning & branded app Device setup and app under your brand
- Audio / video storage & delivery Audio / video cloud for content
For global markets
- Leading overseas LLMs Chosen per market and language
- Realtime voice dialogue Realtime voice models
- Neural speech synthesis Speech recognition and natural voices
- Device connectivity & fleet management Connect and manage devices at scale
- EU / US data hosting Data kept in the region you sell in
Questions buyers ask
How do I start AI toy development?
Send a short brief: the character, the age range, your markets, the form factor and whether you already have a shell. We assess feasibility and quote a development phase (NRE). Samples follow, then a pilot, then production.
What is an AI toy core module?
The electronics and software that make a toy talk: microphone and speaker handling, wake word, the model link, power and charging, firmware and updates. You wrap your own character, shell and app around it. We develop it as a project for your toy, not as a catalog part.
Can you build an AI plush toy solution around my own character?
Yes. The persona, the voice (cloning is possible) and the story content are built around your IP. Your designs are covered by NDA by default and do not appear on our site.
Why does my AI talking toy feel slow?
Usually it is not the model. Wake word, deciding the child has finished speaking, noise suppression and speech recognition all happen on the toy first and use most of the time. Around 700 milliseconds feels like conversation; past about 1.5 seconds it feels broken. The target should be set before tooling.
Who pays for the AI after the toy is sold?
Each conversation has a cloud cost. We help you plan it before the toy is priced: included usage, a subscription in the parent app, or a capped allowance. Doing more on the device lowers the cost per unit.
Can the AI toy work without internet?
Wake word and basic commands run on the toy, and stories and sounds can be stored locally, so it still plays offline. Open conversation uses the cloud; with enough on-device compute a small local model can act as a fallback, which has to be planned when the hardware is chosen.
What safety rules apply to an AI toy for children?
It depends on where you sell. Toy-safety standards such as EN 71 and ASTM F963 apply to the product, children’s-data rules such as COPPA and GDPR apply to the service, and a battery inside a soft toy needs its own care. We plan the test route per market during the development phase.
Do you do OEM or white-label AI toys, or only custom development?
Both. We work mainly on custom development (ODM), and proven toys already in volume production can be OEM-branded as yours. Custom projects start with a development phase (NRE); samples welcome; quantity and price are quoted per project.
Tell us what you want to build
The category, your market, a quantity and whether an IP is involved is plenty for a first answer. Projects start with a development phase (NRE) and samples welcome; proven products are available as OEM, custom ones as ODM.
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