CES is crowded with artificial intelligence-powered educational toys that are trading the programmed responses of traditional toys with real-time engagement. One of the best-positioned toys in this category is the AI Buddy from Xueersi, which has been created to not just react but understand. When kids talk, Buddy responds in real-time with emotions that match the moment, creating interactions that feel natural with up to 90 percent accuracy.
Launched at CES 2026, the AI Buddy has been engineered to understand and communicate using advanced LLM-based emotional recognition, which it uses to read children’s feelings behind the words they say, and react or respond accordingly. The toy can pick up excitement, happiness, frustration, or anger and mirrors those emotions through expressive facial expressions in real time.
With highly accurate AI voice recognition, the AI Buddy educational toy detects how a child is feeling and reflects it through expressive facial animations on dual screens. It makes multi-sensory interactions possible through a very kid-friendly design and playful manner.
The toy is made from food-grade silicone and sustainable ABS materials, making it safe for use with children between the ages of 6–12 years old. Children in this age group are in the early stages of learning and emotional development, and their parents can easily trust the AI Buddy as a companion during these years of growing up. Buddy measures 4 × 3.5 × 4.5 inches and is designed to be carried or sit on a tabletop, weighing just 0.45 pounds.
In addition to responding to how kids talk to it, the AI Buddy also triggers sounds and animations when its head is tapped or shaken. What really makes the AI Buddy interesting is the fact that it arrives disassembled and requires the kids to assemble it themselves.
The modular DIY design of the AI Buddy introduces the children to engineering concepts naturally and at a very young age. This helps develop problem-solving skills in them, as they build their own companion from scratch. And when the toy is ready, it can detect the emotional signals in the child’s voice – as they talk to it – and decode it using the built-in LLM and emotional recognition model.
The Buddy’s dual screen display then creates emotional mirroring to make facial expressions seem natural in sync with the situation and feel surprisingly human. This real-time and precise interaction, Xueersi notes, allows ‘kids to stay engaged three times longer than with traditional toys.’ There is no word on the pricing and availability at the time of writing, but we are expecting this interactive toy to go on sale globally during the first half of this year.
Follow Homecrux on Google News!
