Amazon desires to place your subsequent AI assistant in your wrist. The tech large has introduced plans to amass Bee, a San Francisco startup that makes a $49.99 wearable gadget designed to assist customers keep organized, productive and linked—all with out pulling out a smartphone.
Meet Bee: the $49.99 good wearable that thinks forward and by no means forgets
The wristband seems like a Fitbit however acts extra like a private assistant, utilizing AI and always-on microphones to research conversations and generate good reminders, summaries and to-do lists. It’s Amazon’s newest step in its mission to make synthetic intelligence extra accessible in on a regular basis life.
In a LinkedIn submit Tuesday, Bee CEO Maria de Lourdes Zollo shared the information that the corporate is becoming a member of forces with Amazon. “Once we began Bee, we imagined a world the place AI is really private, the place your life is known and enhanced by expertise that learns with you,” Zollo wrote. “What started as a dream with an unimaginable staff and group now finds a brand new house at Amazon.”
Bee’s wearable transcribes almost each dialog you might have all through the day—even the ideas you say aloud to your self. It captures all the pieces from informal chats to deeply private moments, then makes use of synthetic intelligence to show that stream of speech right into a searchable timeline. It might probably recall what time you promised to satisfy a buddy or discover patterns in your habits, corresponding to how usually you’ve stepped outdoors these days. If it’s in your wrist, it’s paying consideration.
To avoid wasting battery and hold your non-public chats safer, the wristband doesn’t blast uncooked audio to the cloud. As a substitute, it converts your spoken phrases into textual content after which scans for necessary particulars and connections to your different routines and conversations.
From easy audio system to good doorbells: Amazon’s journey into private gadgets
Lengthy earlier than “AI” grew to become the buzzword it’s at this time, Amazon was already reshaping how folks work together with expertise of their day by day lives. Alexa introduced voice management into the mainstream, turning a easy speaker right into a family assistant. Then got here Ring, which reworked entrance doorways into good, linked entry factors, giving customers a way of safety and management, all from their telephones.
These weren’t simply devices. They have been revolutionary way of life instruments, designed to avoid wasting time, scale back friction and make trendy residing really feel only a bit extra manageable. And it labored. Amazon constructed an ecosystem round the concept that expertise ought to serve you with out demanding an excessive amount of in return.
Amazon put development forward of income early on, betting that clients would purchase extra from its ecosystem to offset {hardware} losses. The corporate developed Alexa with no clear revenue timeline, viewing it as a substitute as a long-term funding in voice-driven computing. This technique, generally known as “downstream influence,” in the end fell quick, particularly as most Echo customers didn’t store utilizing voice instructions as anticipated. Nonetheless, Amazon’s deep funding in Alexa helped set up it as a pioneer in AI, demonstrating not only a willingness to undertake new expertise however a want to form the way it evolves.
Why tech giants are actually betting on wearable AI
Amazon’s integration of Bee is one more instance of its long-game technique. Whereas the wearable AI house continues to be area of interest, it’s beginning to attract severe curiosity from main gamers. Corporations corresponding to Meta and OpenAI have additionally begun testing the waters with AI-powered gadgets, signaling a brand new shift towards always-on, contextual AI.
Meta launched its first era of good glasses in partnership with Ray-Ban again in 2021, with the most recent model, launched in 2023, now that includes built-in Meta AI, permitting customers to take pictures, obtain contextual info, and work together with the assistant utilizing voice instructions.
In the meantime, OpenAI is collaborating with {hardware} companions, together with former Apple designer Jony Ive, to discover a new class of AI-first gadgets. For Amazon, getting into this market is about greater than novelty; it’s a approach to make sure Alexa’s evolution continues in a world shifting past good audio system and nonetheless gadgets.
As a result of they’re in your physique, wearable AIs can entry real-world context extra simply: your location, motion, time of day and even what you’re saying out loud. This implies they will present extra related, well timed and clever assist, typically even earlier than you ask. As on a regular basis customers gravitate towards extra seamless, ambient AI experiences, wearable tech is rising as probably the most promising development areas.
Amazon used to insist: Alexa solely listens after you say the wake phrase. Whether or not or not you believed it, the corporate spent years reinforcing that message. Now, Amazon’s getting in a brand new course—backing a wearable that’s at all times listening. No wake phrase. No set off phrase. This time, being “at all times on” isn’t the priority… it’s the promoting level.
Photograph courtesy of Bee
