The hottest AI wearables and gadgets you should know about
TechCrunch Lauren Forristal
AI wearables are piling up fast: pendants, rings, wristbands, even a keychain gadget. The odd part is how many want to be your notes app and your buddy at once.
Based on reporting by TechCrunch, Lauren Forristal — read the original for the full story.
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AI gadgets are moving past chatbots on phones and into things people can actually wear. That’s the pitch across a wave of necklaces, rings, wristbands, and pocketable devices now trying to fold reminders, transcripts, and small acts of “companion” behavior into daily life. OpenAI is even working on its own compact companion device, which tells you how crowded this corner of the market has become.
Bee is one of the cheaper entries at $49.99, and it comes with a blunt promise: it records what it hears, learns routines, and turns that into reminders and notes. It can clip to clothing or sit like a fitness band, and there’s a mute button for privacy. The iOS app is tied to a $19 monthly subscription and can show key takeaways, transcripts, and direct interactions with the device.
Amazon, after acquiring the startup in July 2025, has already pushed out two new Bee devices: the $74.99 Bee Frontier and the $99.99 Bee Eclipse. Both keep the same core idea, but the Eclipse is shaped like a credit card and sticks to the back of a phone. Amazon is also positioning Bee as a lower-cost option versus devices like Plaud Note and Plaud NotePin, and users can connect it to Alexa.
The rest of the field splits neatly between productivity and personality. Friend, at $129, wants to be an emotional support pendant; Limitless, at $99, is about recording and summarizing conversations; Omi, at $89, keeps listening and runs chats through ChatGPT; and Plaud’s NotePin, at $159, targets lawyers, journalists, and students who live in meetings and lectures. On the more experimental side, Meta’s Muse wearable, Nirva’s personal-growth pendant and bracelet, Rabbit R1’s handheld, and Sandbar’s Stream ring each chase a different version of the same idea: a small device that sits closer to your life than your laptop does.
That variety is the real story. These gadgets aren’t just competing on specs; they’re competing over what people are willing to have listening all day. Some call it convenience. Others call it surveillance with better branding.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
The market has decided that every mundane thought deserves a device. That’s either ambition or a very expensive way to avoid writing things down like a normal person. The most honest products here are the ones that admit they’re recording tools first and “companions” second.
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