Good rings, sensible screens, sensible TVs, sensible pins, sensible … ice dice makers? Certain, why not! AI was all over the place at this yr’s Shopper Electronics Present (CES) in Las Vegas, the place firms massive and small have been displaying off how they’re bringing AI to extra units. For Amazon, CES was a time to indicate off its latest acquisition within the house: Bee, an AI machine that may be worn as a clip-on pin or a bracelet.
Amazon already has an entry within the AI shopper units house with Alexa, whose upgraded AI-powered model, Alexa+, can run on 97% of the {hardware} units Amazon has shipped. Nonetheless, with Bee, the corporate is getting access to a wearable that might prolong its attain outdoors the house.
Largely designed for recording conversations like interviews, conferences, or lessons, Bee additionally works as an AI companion. The AI has entry to world data, and it learns extra about you from a mix of your recordings and the providers you allow it to entry like Gmail, Google Calendar, your cellphone’s contacts, and Apple Well being.
Provided that Amazon has already tried integrating Alexa into wearables like earbuds and glasses, it may appear to be the corporate is muddying the waters with the addition of one other AI companion. Nonetheless, these earlier Alexa units haven’t taken off within the face of competitors like Apple’s AirPods and Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses. Amazon appears to know this, which is why it’s including Bee to its lineup.
“We see one another as complementary associates,” says Bee co-founder Maria de Lourdes Zollo of Bee’s relationship with Alexa, in an interview at CES final week. “Bee has the understanding of outdoor the home, and Alexa has the understanding of inside the home. After all, there might be a future the place these two issues come collectively.”
That future doesn’t but imply Bee’s AI might be changed by Alexa. Famous Amazon Alexa VP Daniel Rausch, Amazon thinks what the staff at Bee created is an “necessary and lovable expertise.” He describes Bee as a “deeply participating and private” AI, however he additionally agreed that, sooner or later, Alexa and Bee would come collectively.
“We all know that it’ll create much more profit for purchasers than what [the AI experiences] do on their very own,” Rausch defined. “When you could have entry to the ability of those AI experiences with you all through the day, they usually’re steady — we’re gonna have the opportunity to take action way more for purchasers.”
De Lourdes Zollo stated that Bee learns from its customers, gaining an understanding of their patterns, insights, and commitments, which can assist it to counsel to-do objects and follow-ups all through your day.
Early use circumstances have included college students who report lectures, aged individuals who have bother remembering issues, and individuals who converse for a residing and don’t wish to all the time take notes manually.
“They only need a spot to have all of the summarization of all the pieces they stated,” Bee’s co-founder stated. “So primarily based on that, we construct a extremely massive graph of information [about] you, the place you’ll be able to go chat with Bee, and have an understanding of what occurred to you, but additionally the way you’re altering throughout the course of your life,” de Lourdes Zollo added.
Much like Alexa, Bee makes use of a mix of AI fashions beneath the hood, nevertheless it’s exploring including Amazon’s AI as one within the combine. After transcribing the dialog, Bee discards the audio, making it impractical for a lot of work-related use circumstances the place it is advisable play again the dialog to make sure accuracy.
There’s nonetheless a lot forward for Bee in 2026, de Lourdes Zollo teased, with out giving something away. Along with latest bulletins of new features and functionality — like voice notes, templates, day by day insights, and extra — the founder stated the eight-person staff is engaged on “many new issues” out of their HQ in San Francisco, the place Amazon already has numerous {hardware} and Alexa workers.
“Actually, it’s infinite prospects now, and that’s one of many explanation why we’re actually excited to be a part of Amazon,” she stated.
