Vietnamese startup develops AI platform for toys in the US

At the world’s largest consumer electronics exhibition CES 2026 in Las Vegas in January, among a series of robots, talking stuffed animals and AI assistants running on computers, a compact product in the shape of an astrologer on the display table attracted the attention of the technology world. The toy model has an appearance similar to a collectible statue (figurine) but can talk, share knowledge and maintain long conversations like a real person.

This is one of the products of Olli, a startup of Vietnamese founders. In particular, HeyMates – a small toy statue (figurine) integrated with AI – was created with the goal of “taking AI off the screen”, entering the physical world with personality shapes and natural interactions. Behind the interactive capabilities of HeyMates is BuddyOS – an operating system for AI toys developed by Vietnamese engineers, and initially applied at several major toy companies in North America.

The desire to take AI “off the screen”

“Instead of just living in the application screen, how can AI be with people every day like in toys, objects, living spaces, while still being safe, durable and affordable for mass production?” Ta Hai, co-founder of Olli shared his thoughts when witnessing the development of artificial intelligence, especially GenAI recently.

After a period of research and experience from developing smart speakers in Vietnam since 2019, founder Olli answered the question with BuddyOS – the core AI platform for new generation smart toys.

Citing some market research and from his own experience of having young children, Mr. Hai assessed that the global toy industry is facing pressure to innovate under the threat of modern devices such as tablets, game consoles, and smartphones. Accordingly, the time children spend on screen devices increases every year, while traditional products lose their appeal. One of the challenges for toy manufacturers is the long hardware development cycle and the high cost of AI integration, making it impossible for most to keep up with the pace of technological change.

BuddyOS is built as an end-to-end platform from the “core” of artificial intelligence to hardware interaction. When installed on toys such as static collectible figurines, 3D Hologram characters, dog and cat robots, and interactive human figures, this platform helps manufacturers quickly and optimally customize the product. From here, they can shorten the product development and market launch cycle “from years to months”, while integrating AI into different forms.

With experience developing smart home speakers, Mr. Hai believes that chatbots don’t just need to “talk well”. Instead, BuddyOS targets the very difficult requirements of new generation AI toys such as running on a variety of devices, personalizing for each user, proactively suggesting approaches, maintaining a consistent flow of scripted content for each character, and bringing real educational or entertainment value.

With a user base that includes children, the platform integrates a strict content and behavior control layer. This is also one of the vital factors so that the product can be used in demanding markets such as the US and Europe.

Through tests, the developer of BuddyOS said the product has demonstrated stable operation for daily use, in many conditions such as when users interact by voice, images, emotions and habits instead of operating on the screen. In addition, having a professional AI platform for toys will help manufacturers control deployment costs at the scale of millions of products.

The goal of conquering the world market of Vietnamese startups

One year since its launch, Mr. Hai said that BuddyOS has been chosen by a number of international partners in the US, France and Canada as the core technology platform for many new generation AI toy lines. In particular, smart toy development company Artificial Imagery Products has brought the AI ​​Crystal Ball product running on BuddyOS to the Best Buy retail system in the US during Christmas 2025, attracting many families to buy it as gifts for children.

“This shows that technology built by Vietnamese people is operating in real products, on real shelves, and is being bought by American consumers,” Mr. Hai said.

Before bringing BuddyOS to the world, Olli was one of the startups that made its mark in Vietnam with the product Maika. This is one of the first Vietnamese smart speaker projects in Vietnam, launched in the period 2020-2021. According to Mr. Hai, to develop platform AI products, projects need to approach in a way that makes AI work really in everyday use environments, with real users, real errors and real expectations. After more than 5 years of training, Olli said it has transformed from a outsourcing partner into a core technology platform provider for world partners.

“We believe that Vietnamese startups can completely build a core technology platform, if they have enough patience and long-term focus,” he said.

In the article about AI application trends in toys, technology pages The Verge evaluated Olli’s HeyMates as one of the two most prominent projects at CES, along with America’s Buddyo. In particular, the Vietnamese startup is considered to have “a stronger foothold” when it has provided the BuddyOS operating system based on artificial intelligence to a number of other toy companies.

The AI ​​application toy market is considered to be entering a boom period. However, companies in Vietnam and around the world also face many challenges, especially from Chinese competitors. According to CNBCthe artificial intelligence toy industry in China is worth $4 billion with about 1,500 companies.

In addition, exposing children to artificial intelligence at an early age also faces many mixed opinions. According to founder Olli, platforms like BuddyOS aim to be safe, and are also a platform for users to quickly get acquainted with, thereby effectively exploiting AI in the context of artificial intelligence gradually becoming popular in life. The Vietnamese startup also aims to gradually become a new “infrastructure” layer for partners that can create different AI products, ensuring it is simple enough for ordinary users to use every day, but deep enough to scale globally for many customer groups.

In the next stage, BuddyOS plans to expand cooperation with manufacturers and international product partners to participate in deploying the platform in many new generation interactive device lines, and at the same time call for capital for HeyMates.