Wall Street’s deal toys are booming. AI is making them weirder.
Wall Street deal toy manufacturers are seeing a surge in demand alongside a boom in M&A and IPO activity. However, the rise of AI-generated design requests has introduced complex, often physically impossible, design challenges for creators.
Why it matters
It highlights how AI integration is impacting niche manufacturing sectors and provides a unique barometer for current financial market activity.
Bennett Awards has seen an uptick in requests for deal toys. Bennett Awards. Demand for deal toys, used to celebrate Wall Street transactions, is up amid the market boom. Deal toy manufacturers said AI-generated designs have become common this year. The designs are helpful in some ways, but introduce a unique batch of challenges for manufacturers. The design ideas landing in Bob Bennett's inbox have gotten a lot stranger: floating parts and too-fragile pieces that defy basic laws of gravity. As the owner of Bennett Awards, which manufactures "deal toys" that bankers use to commemorate transactions, Bennett is keeping busy during this blockbuster year for dealmaking — and sorting through a new boom in AI-generated designs. Demand for deal toys, which are handed out after a transaction goes through, often rises alongside dealmaking, which has surged this year, according to LSEG data.
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