Huawei makes a sudden move into the new robotics track worth 200 billion.

It's quite unexpected that Huawei has entered this arena.

On November 26th, Yu Chengdong, the CEO of Huawei Terminal BG, announced that Huawei has launched its first chat - companion robot, "Smart Dummy", priced at 399 yuan and set to go on sale on November 28th.

"Smart Dummy" has the appearance of a plush toy. It can have voice conversations with users, interact through touch, and is equipped with a dedicated diary memory system that can record users' daily confessions and whispers.

2025 is the year of the explosion of AI companion hardware.

According to statistics from PencilNews, since the beginning of this year, more than 20 domestic and overseas "AI + hardware" companies in the companion category have received financing. Among them, companies such as YueRan Innovation, Lingyu Cosmos, Vita Power, Xuanyuan Technology, and Leju Robotics have each received over 100 million yuan in a single round of financing.

The founder of an AI companion toy company told PencilNews that Huawei's entry indicates that this arena is truly viable.

However, some entrepreneurs told PencilNews that this industry is highly competitive. Many products are simply toys with a chip, and there isn't a significant gap in the interaction level of products with built - in large models. The influence of IP on product sales is greater.

Some entrepreneurs also revealed that there is a lot of exaggeration in industry data. The sales volume of some popular products is not as high as publicly claimed.

When Huawei enters the market at this time, is its goal simply to sell products, or is it using toys as terminals to obtain a large amount of high - value real data to lay the foundation for the next generation of more advanced AI products?

- 01 -

As early as half a year ago, there were rumors in the Shenzhen supply - chain circle that Huawei was secretly developing an AI pet hardware.

According to a report from "AI Hardware Circle", this summer, with the upgrade of the HarmonyOS 5.1 system, Huawei introduced the virtual image of "Dummy" to users.

At that time, Dummy mainly existed as an intelligent companion role on the mobile phone. Users could interact with it on the screen, simulate stroking its fur, and its state could be synchronized according to the user's life rhythm.

The physical "Smart Dummy" is equipped with Huawei's Xiaoyi large model and is compatible with the HarmonyOS. It has a complete cosmology designed for it - it comes from a ring - shaped planet where emotional energy is the source of life. Due to an energy crisis on the planet caused by a single type of happiness, it was sent to Earth to form a partnership contract with humans.

According to the description from "AI Knowledge Toy Library", users can trigger feedback such as stroking and tickling by touching or blowing on "Smart Dummy". Touching its forehead will elicit different facial expressions. Gently shaking it will make it tremble with excitement. Through conversations, it can listen to users' joys and sorrows. It has memory ability: it can remember everything shared with it and create shared memories through a diary.

It can also provide rhythm - synchronized services such as morning greetings and bedtime goodnights according to the user's schedule.

PencilNews has not had an on - site experience of "Smart Dummy", but based on the introductions and descriptions from multiple media, its functions are not beyond those of several AI companion toys that PencilNews has previously experienced.

Some analysts believe that Huawei's entry will help promote the concept of "AI toys" to hundreds of millions of ordinary consumers with unprecedented intensity and breadth. B - end customers such as distributors, retail channels, and gift purchasers will think that

This is no longer a marginal product for small - scale operations, but a potential product category that is about to gain momentum and has been verified by mainstream brands.

A founder told PencilNews that Huawei's entry is a good thing as it will attract more people's attention to AI companion devices and accelerate the development of the entire industry.

Some founders also told PencilNews that they are not worried about the entry of giants like Huawei because making AI companion toys is not just a "technical issue. It also involves a deep understanding of emotions, IP, and user experience, which is difficult to replicate quickly."

However, for Huawei, which is financially strong and has rich experience in consumer electronics, these may not be major problems.

- 02 -

The business of AI companion toys is about "fighting loneliness".

How big is this business?

The global intelligent companion market reached a scale of $28.19 billion (approximately 200 billion yuan) in 2024.

For many single young people, elderly people living alone, or those who lack emotional support for a long time, traditional socializing is becoming increasingly difficult. There is not enough time, limited energy, and high costs.

AI companion toys don't require making an appointment or considering social etiquette. They are always available for a chat. For them, it has almost become a "readily available emotional support".

On the other hand, the technology has also matured. Large models, multi - modal interaction, voice synthesis, and emotion recognition have given "AI chat - companions" a real "human touch" for the first time.

An entrepreneur told PencilNews that the large number of AI companion toys is mainly due to the maturity of large - model technology. "Companionship is the scenario where large models can best exert their value and where social demand is the strongest. This technology is already very mature."

Previous intelligent assistants could only receive voice commands such as playing music, checking the weather, and setting reminders. They solved efficiency problems, with shallow conversations, lack of emotions and resonance, and no context memory. So it was almost impossible for them to undertake continuous, emotion - driven communication like "chat - companionship".

AI companion toys can establish an emotional connection through "personified expression, emotional resonance, long - term memory, and context understanding".

These products are also easy to scale. A well - trained large model can serve thousands of users simultaneously. As long as the cost of the physical part is well - controlled, large - scale shipments are also possible.

Data shows that in 2025, the daily active users of AI companion applications doubled compared to last year. More and more people are actively seeking such companionship. This transformation from a "tool" to a "companion" is essentially a natural result of the maturity of technology.

Compared with traditional consumer electronics, the "emotional value + social value" attached to chat - companion robots gives them stronger stickiness and the possibility of repeat purchases.

For many users, this is not a one - time purchase but an entry point for "long - term companionship + periodic services/subscriptions/value - added services", which is also a stable and continuous monetization path for enterprises.

For the upstream of the industrial chain - including chips, voice recognition/synthesis technology, multi - modal perception, sensors, and algorithm models - this is a new demand catalyst.

- 03 -

Although there was a lot of financing in the industry in 2025, the boom in AI companion toys may have just begun.

Li Yong, the founder of YueRan Innovation, once told PencilNews: "If the goal is just to make a simple talking toy that scores below 60 points, many companies can do it.

But the ultimate goal of AI toys is to achieve a'sense of life'. Even the most advanced open - source solutions are still not satisfactory.

Maybe by 2026, with the progress of large - model technology, especially in terms of forgetting and personalization, there will be greater breakthroughs. The hardware and IP solutions are relatively mature, but the AI capabilities at the software level still need time."

In the future, the functions of AI companion hardware will become more and more diverse.

From the single "voice/text chat + emotion recognition" to multi - modal interaction (sound + expression + intonation + face + vision + scene perception), and even "embodied intelligence" - truly entering home, care - giving, and companionship scenarios and developing into "social assistance robots".

Currently, many chat - companion products are targeted at children and young people. However, as the population ages, the demand for elderly care increases, and there are more and more empty - nesters whose children are not around, robots with functions such as "care - giving + chat - companionship + emotional support + health care" may become a huge growth area.

Some voices in the industry believe that "AI robots will become family members along with humans and pets."

AI companion toys may also become an entry point to achieve a higher - dimensional ideal. Gu Jiawei, the founder of Lingyu Cosmos, hopes that "by deploying lightweight hardware terminals to collect a large amount of real, multi - modal user interaction data, we can use this data to improve and iterate our models and algorithms, ultimately leading to more advanced AGI and home robots."

This article does not constitute any investment advice.

This article is from the WeChat official account "PencilNews" (ID: pencilnews). The author is Huataishi, and it is published by 36Kr with authorization.