China’s Smart Pet Care Market Expands as AI Pet Toys and Devices Gain Ground With Owners

After Pet Healthcare Mnagement – AI is making a strong entry in Pet Toys and accessories.

China’s smart pet care market is growing on the back of rising consumer demand and advancing artificial intelligence technology, with the country’s broader pet consumer market now valued at approximately $46 billion, according to a report from the Belt and Road News Network (BRNN), a partner of TV BRICS. The report, published July 6, 2026, describes an industry moving beyond basic automatic feeding and health tracking toward more sophisticated interaction between pets and their owners.

Market Snapshot

From Feeding to Full Interaction

According to the report, China’s urban cat and dog population exceeded 126 million by 2025, a figure the report ties directly to the country’s growing appetite for tech-driven pet care products. At a pet products exhibition held in Shanghai this spring, exhibitors showcased a wide range of smart devices, including cameras, automatic water dispensers, feeders, and companion robots designed for household pets.

The report frames the sector’s trajectory in three stages: starting with automatic feeding, moving into health monitoring, and now advancing toward what it describes as full-fledged interaction between humans and animals.

Face Recognition and Behavior Tracking Take Center Stage

Individual pet recognition has become a core feature across many of the devices on display. One pet owner identified in the report only as Wang, who keeps several cats, described using a feeder equipped with face-recognition technology that assigns each animal its own profile after initial registration. Wang said the device handles feeding accurately even with large chunks of freeze-dried food, and that she uses a companion app to check remotely when and how much each cat has eaten, as well as how much food remains in the feeder.

Wearable technology for pets is also advancing. The report describes smart collars capable of continuously tracking a pet’s activity levels, sleep duration, and heart rate, with the system automatically notifying the owner if it detects concerning deviations from the animal’s normal patterns.

One Company’s Full Ecosystem Approach

The report highlights one unnamed company that unveiled an integrated ecosystem linking multiple smart devices to a single health-tracking platform. The system includes a smart water bowl capable of recognizing individual drinking behavior, a food bowl that alerts owners to feeding anomalies, and a cat litter tray equipped with face recognition and litter analysis features, all feeding data into one dashboard designed to give owners a consolidated view of their pet’s health.

Pet Smartphones Emerge as the Next Frontier

Among the more novel products referenced in the report is a smartphone designed specifically for pets, built around three core functions: communication, safety, and health monitoring. The device reportedly allows owners to interact remotely with their pet, issue training commands, and track the animal’s location via GPS, while an onboard camera captures video from the pet’s own point of view.

Why It Matters

The report’s framing places China’s pet tech expansion within a broader consumer shift, as rising urban pet ownership converges with the country’s advanced consumer electronics and AI manufacturing base. With the market already valued at roughly $46 billion and urban pet numbers surpassing 126 million, the range of products on display in Shanghai this spring suggests device makers are increasingly competing on data integration and personalization rather than basic automation alone.