Sandbar says voice will drive the next wave of AI wearables

In short: More companies are building wearable devices, especially rings, that record voice notes and turn them into written summaries.

What's going on

AI notetaking devices have grown quickly over the past couple of years, according to TechCrunch. These include small gadgets like pins, pendants, and even earbuds that can record a meeting and then produce a summary and to do list.

Now that same idea is moving into wearables, especially rings. The pitch is simple: instead of only capturing formal meetings, people may want to quickly save thoughts during the day by speaking out loud, like leaving yourself a voice memo.

One company in this space is Sandbar, the startup behind a ring called Stream. Sandbar says Stream is a “private voice ring,” meaning it is designed mainly for capturing voice notes. Sandbar has raised $36 million so far, including a $23 million Series A funding round led by Adjacent and Kindred Ventures.

Sandbar co founder and CEO Mina Fahmi discussed the idea on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast with host Rebecca Bellan. Fahmi said earlier voice based devices often struggled, and he argued that wearables work better when the person stays firmly in control of what the device does.

What to watch

More rings and other wearables are likely to compete on two things: how easy it is to capture a quick thought, and how they handle privacy. For buyers, the key questions are where the recordings go, who can access them, and whether the device can be useful without constantly listening.

Source: TechCrunch AI