The promise of AI and large language models(LLMs)lies in their capacity to understand vast amounts of context and make sense of it effortlessly.Consequently,numerous companies are venturing into wearable hardware to integrate AI into everyday life.The latest entrant in this arena is Bee AI,which has raised$7 million in a round led by Exor to develop its wearable AI assistant.This device listens to users,takes notes,provides contextual reminders,and creates lists.The startup also offers a companion Apple Watch app.

　　This funding includes$1.5 million in pre-seed investment raised earlier.Greycroft,New Wave VC,Banana Capital,and Brian Bedol,an investor and TV executive,also participated in the round.Co-founder and CEO Maria de Lourdes Zollo told TechCrunch that while Bee AI’s primary focus is the software powering the assistant,they created a wearable device to prevent the app from constantly using the phone’s microphone.

　　The device and app can perform various tasks,including reading notifications,sending reminders,writing emails or tweets,and offering shopping suggestions.Currently,the device has a mute button to stop recording,but the company is exploring additional uses for this button,such as triggering commands.

　　The Opportunity and Roadmap

　　Generative AI’s novelty raises questions about its ability to produce reliable information,causing some skepticism in the space Bee AI is entering.Startups like Rabbit have attempted to use AI agents to navigate interfaces and perform tasks,but early reviews suggest these processes are not yet reliable.

　　Despite this,several startups,including A16z-backed Limitless and Friend,are working on similar problems.While their use cases differ slightly from Bee AI’s,the competition indicates a burgeoning field.De Lourdes Zollo believes that AI agents will improve with new model releases and says Bee AI is taking a cautious approach by focusing on a limited number of tasks initially.

　　De Lourdes Zollo founded Bee AI with Ethan Sutin(CTO),her colleague from the video chat app Squad,which Sutin co-founded with Esther Crawford(also an angel investor in Bee AI).They also worked at Twitter,where Sutin was an engineering lead and de Lourdes Zollo helped launch Twitter Spaces.

　　Investors are confident in the team’s capabilities.Ian Sigalow,managing partner at Greycroft,highlighted the team’s engineering prowess and their experience at Twitter,shipping products to millions of users,as key reasons for investing.Sigalow also sees potential in building a product that seamlessly transitions between hardware and the cloud,assuming LLMs are well-trained.

　　Privacy Concerns

　　There are privacy concerns associated with a device that listens constantly.Currently,the product is in beta and uses conversations from the user’s vicinity to provide context and enhance the model’s learning.However,the company plans to stop using non-users’voices without verbal consent before the official launch.Bee AI also claims that it does not store audio recordings;instead,it uses transcripts to learn about the user.

　　Bee AI will be priced at$49,with a$19-per-month subscription.The company aims to start taking orders before Black Friday.