It talks, tells stories, answers questions, and turns imagination into pictures. In India, Cheeko wants to reinvent educational toys in the age of artificial intelligence.
What if one of the most fascinating new toys wasn’t a doll, a remote-controlled car, or the latest game console?
In India, a surprising little companion is attracting attention.
Its name is Cheeko.
Behind its colorful appearance is a particularly ambitious idea: using artificial intelligence not to keep children glued to screens, but to encourage them to step away from smartphones and endless scrolling.
Showcased this year at Toy Biz 2026 in New Delhi, Cheeko was designed as an interactive educational companion that can answer children’s questions, tell stories, offer games, and even turn their wildest ideas into pictures.
“Why is the sky blue?”
Imagine this.
A child looks at Cheeko and asks:
“Why is the sky blue?”
Instead of grabbing Mom or Dad’s phone, opening an app, or watching one video after another, the child can simply ask their little companion.
Cheeko responds out loud in kid-friendly language.
And it doesn’t only speak English.
The company says the device supports English and ten Indian languages, including Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi, Malayalam, and Odia.
For a country as large and linguistically diverse as India, that makes a significant difference.
The toy that says: Stop scrolling!
This may be the part that caught Toombow Kids’ attention the most.
Yes, Cheeko has a screen.
But its creators deliberately tried to make it the opposite of a smartphone.
No videos.
No social feed.
No advertising.
Nothing designed for endless scrolling.
The company sums up its philosophy with a simple phrase:
“Less screen, more childhood.”
That is the Cheeko paradox: using cutting-edge technology to encourage children to have a more limited and intentional relationship with digital devices.
Behind Cheeko: a concern shared by parents and entrepreneurs
The idea wasn’t born simply inside a technology lab.
Abilash S., co-founder of Cheeko, has explained that the project grew out of a very practical question: could children be offered something more enriching than another screen they would simply continue scrolling through?
The company wanted to create an alternative combining education and entertainment, at a time when many parents are increasingly concerned about the amount of time children spend on smartphones.
Cheeko became the first product from Altio AI.
And developing it didn’t happen overnight.
People involved with the project have described an intensive prototyping process involving multiple circuit boards, microphone issues, 3D printing, and long testing sessions before arriving at a working device.
Ten little cards… and Cheeko changes personality
Cheeko has another clever feature.
Children can insert different physical cards into the back of the device.
One card can launch stories.
Another can play nursery rhymes.
Another turns Cheeko into a spelling partner.
Another launches an audio game.
The package presented by the company includes ten cards offering different characters and experiences. Among them are Nani, a grandmother who tells stories, and Mitthu, a parrot that helps children practice spelling.
The concept combines something very traditional, physically inserting something into a toy to unlock a new adventure, with something very modern: artificial intelligence.
And here at Toombow Kids, we love that idea.
“Draw me a tiger riding a bicycle!”
But Cheeko still has another surprise.
Children can ask it to create an image using nothing but their voice.
“A tiger riding a bicycle.”
“A robot making a dosa.”
“An autorickshaw flying to the Moon.”
A few moments later, Cheeko generates the picture on its screen.
The feature, called Imagine, transforms children’s sometimes wonderfully crazy ideas into illustrations.
And this may be where the toy becomes especially interesting: the child is no longer simply watching content chosen by somebody else.
The child becomes the creator.
Parents still hold the keys
Of course, when a children’s toy includes artificial intelligence and a microphone, one question immediately becomes essential:
What about safety?
The company says Cheeko has no camera, and that its microphone only activates when the child holds down the designated button.
A parental app also allows parents to review the questions their child has asked, monitor card usage, and control certain settings, including volume. The company also says it applies safety filters to AI-generated responses.
As with any connected device designed for children, these protections will need to be evaluated over time.
A toy designed to grow with the child
Cheeko is currently presented as being suitable for children approximately 3 to 10 years old.
For younger children, the focus is on nursery rhymes, lullabies, and early storytelling.
As they grow, educational games, basic math, and learning activities become more important.
For older children, Cheeko can become a companion for school-related questions, quizzes, and everyday curiosity.
The concept is therefore different from a toy that gets abandoned after a few months: its creators want Cheeko to evolve alongside the child.
India wants to create the toys of tomorrow
Cheeko is also part of a much bigger story.
It is the story of India’s rapidly evolving toy industry.
At the Toy Biz International B2B Expo 2026 in New Delhi, hundreds of brands showcased puzzles, STEM games, educational toys, vehicles, and new technologies. At the same time, India has been working to strengthen a domestic industry capable of designing, manufacturing, and exporting its own toys.
The ambition is no longer simply to manufacture products.
India increasingly wants to invent them.
And Cheeko reflects that ambition: a product built around the languages and everyday lives of Indian families, while using technology that could eventually interest parents far beyond India.
The “Toys Going Crazy” verdict
So, will Cheeko actually replace smartphones in children’s hands?
It is far too early to say.
But the idea is certainly worth watching.
Because while much of the technology industry is searching for the next screen capable of holding a child’s attention for a few more minutes, this small Indian company is asking a different question:
What if the best technology for our children was technology that also knew when it was time to stop?
For its unusual combination of physical play, storytelling, voice interaction, Indian languages, creativity, and artificial intelligence…
Cheeko earns our “Toys Going Crazy” spotlight!
And something tells us this little Indian companion is only getting started.