AI Wearables Crowd the Market: Nine Gadgets That Never Stop Listening

Amazon paid for its way into the AI wearables race in July 2025, acquiring the startup Bee and shipping two new pendants earlier this month — the $74.99 Bee Frontier and the $99.99 Bee Eclipse. The move anchors a crowded field of at least nine AI gadgets now vying for a spot on consumers' wrists, necks, and fingers, most of them built around a single proposition: constant listening in exchange for convenience.

The economics are worth stressing-testing. Hardware prices range from $49.99 to $299 — roughly the cost of a nice dinner to a mid-tier smartphone — but nearly every device layers a subscription on top. Bee charges $19 per month, or $228 a year, for its companion app. Limitless charges $29 per month, or $348 annually, for unlimited AI features. Plaud asks $8.33 per month to expand transcription from 300 to 1,200 minutes. A $99 pendant can cost over $400 in its first year once subscriptions are counted. Whether buyers will sustain that arithmetic remains unproven.

What did Amazon actually buy?

Bee's baseline pendant costs $49.99 and records everything it hears, learning routines and preferences to generate reminders and notes. It ships with a mute button for privacy — a telling admission for a product category built on ambient recording. The companion app, currently iOS-only, requires the $19 monthly subscription and provides daily takeaways plus chronological transcripts of conversations.

Amazon's two follow-ups keep the core functionality intact. The Frontier ($74.99) works as a wristband or clip; the Eclipse ($99.99) is a credit-card-sized device that attaches magnetically to the back of a smartphone. Users can also connect Bee to Alexa. The devices position themselves as cheaper alternatives to the Plaud Note and Plaud NotePin — though the source does not disclose sales figures for any of them.

Which companies promise an AI 'friend'?

Friend, a $129 white pendant, is among the most hyped entrants in the "personal AI" market. It hangs around the neck, recognizes tone and mood, and constantly listens via Bluetooth, sending proactive messages such as wishing a user luck before an interview. The hype has drawn pushback: New Yorkers vandalized the company's subway ads, scrawling "surveillance capitalism" across them.

The company recently answered with "Friend 2.0," an update adding a built-in speaker so the device can talk back and, in the company's words, express a more distinctive personality. Meta is moving into the same territory. Its first AI wearable, introduced in September under the Muse Charm name, has not yet shipped. The pocket-sized, keychain-attachable device features a miniature display showing Jolly, a playful avatar of Meta's Muse assistant, which users can direct by voice.

Can note-taking justify the hardware?

Several devices pitch productivity rather than companionship. Limitless, formerly called Rewind, sells a $99 pendant that transcribes meetings, calls, and conversations — with consent — into searchable, summarized records aimed at professionals and journalists. Its app includes 10 hours of AI features per month; unlimited access costs $29 monthly.

Omi, at $89, answers questions, summarizes conversations, builds to-do lists, and schedules meetings. It runs conversations through ChatGPT to remember context and offer personalized advice. It can be worn as a necklace — or attached to the side of the head with medical tape, where it detects when the wearer is speaking to it.

Plaud's NotePin, at $159, targets lawyers, journalists, and students. The wearable recorder straps to the wrist or clips magnetically to clothing, saves recordings to a phone in real time, and includes 300 free transcription minutes per month; the $8.33 Pro plan raises that to 1,200 minutes. A $179 ultra-thin Plaud Note Pro is available for preorder this year.

What is still on the way?

Two devices have not reached buyers. Nirva, a startup founded by former Meta Reality Labs employees, is building a wearable for personal growth rather than productivity. Worn as a pendant or bracelet, it listens to speech and turns everyday experiences into a personal journal, surfacing behavioral patterns through its companion app. Orders open in November, shipments are targeted for year-end, and the price is $249.

Sandbar emerged from stealth last year with the Stream ring, a $299 wearable expected to launch this summer in silver and gold. Unlike its always-on competitors, its microphone stays off by default. Users press and hold a touch-sensitive panel to record notes, talk to an AI assistant through the companion app, or control music playback. The default-off design reads as a hedge against the privacy criticisms that have dogged the category.

Then there is Rabbit's R1, a $199 retro-styled handheld with a touchscreen and rotating camera that endured a rocky launch before a software update fixed its performance issues. The device handles phone-adjacent tasks — booking flights, ordering meals, controlling apps — and its new "Creations" feature lets users build their own tools and games. OpenAI, for its part, is working on a compact AI companion device, though the source offers no price or release date.

The pattern across the category is consistent: cheap hardware, recurring fees, and microphones that stay on. Consumers now have the choice; the market has yet to prove they will make it.