Plushy Times Ahead for the Toy Industry: An AI-Powered Dreamland

Picture this: a scorching heatwave outside, and you're cooped up indoors in the cool embrace of your air-conditioned home, trying to get a good night’s sleep. Yet, the heat still makes you toss and turn, disrupting your precious sleep. Sound familiar? This is what I experienced last night when I suddenly found myself awake at 1:45 am—too tired to open my eyes yet too alert to fall back asleep. Oh, how wonderful it would be, I thought, fleetingly transported back to my childhood bedroom, to be able to reach out for my old orange teddy bear and pull it close to my pillow.

And in that moment, as if struck by a lightning bolt, I saw…the FUTURE! Soft and plushy, it looked remarkably like a teddy bear, and it hugged me gently, soothingly whispering in my ear to lull me back to slumber.

Alas, my desire to sleep vanished in a puff of fairy dust! Instead, visions of AI-animated toys lined up in a parade in my mind’s eye, one more fantastical than the next. Behold! Cuddly stuffed animals imparting words of wisdom, spinning fairy tales, and imparting table manners in the gentle voice of a wise grandparent. Barbie dolls, not mere playthings, but history teachers and debate coaches for young minds. Even a felt mouse for my cat, Yoshi, to chirp and share cat-secrets with when I was far from home. What else was gracing this parade? Pillows for babies, singing sweet lullabies and soothingly thumping with a mother's heartbeat, bringing much-needed peace to restless nights. Engaging games for children of all ages, adjusting their challenge levels automatically to match the ebb and flow of interest. Toys fostering longer attention spans—oh, how we need them! Captivating games that measured dexterity and cognition and gently encouraged self-control and intellectual prowess. Toys teaching the delicate dance of social grace and the art of collaboration...

Out of curiosity, I jumped out of bed and cracked open my laptop to search for content on the adoption of AI by the toy industry. Most articles I found fixated on improvements in the production cycle, with the most recent publicly-available content on embedding AI in the design of toys dated 2019. Yet, despite the relative online silence on the topic, I've no doubt the data scientists and artificial-intelligence engineers at Mattel and other toy companies are busy at work, concocting the future of play. Exciting times are indeed ahead for the toy industry as AI takes the stage. The winners will be the companies that wholeheartedly embrace the AI-powered dreamland of toys, envisioning the future of play as a journey of learning, imagination, and boundless potential.

It may seem like a trivial thing, but I believe this is a momentous turning point for us all. "Why?" you may ask. Because the achievements of tomorrow's adults are woven out of the fabric of today's child's play. The toys and games children engage with today will shape their minds and values and will influence their aspirations and actions. The humble toys truly have the power to unleash a revolution.

#toys #toyindustry #AI #Mattel #Barbie