Humane, which made a splash with its AI Pin earlier this year, seems to be in more trouble than expected. Following a lackluster reception of its bespoke AI hardware, executive departures, and talks of an acquisition, it seems that sales and returns are yet another headache for the startup.
The Verge, citing internal sales data, reports that in the past quarter ending in August, sales of the AI Pin were eclipsed by the number of returns. “As of today, the number of units still in customer hands had fallen closer to 7,000,” says the report.
So far, the company is sitting on a stockpile worth over a million dollars in returned products. But that’s not even the worst part. It seems carrier deals have truly doomed the returned units as the device simply can’t be refurbished and handed over to another customer, as is the case with phones and laptops.
The company originally planned to sell 100,000 units, but it has reportedly only shipped 10,000 units so far. Humane countered The Verge’s findings but didn’t provide any further clarifications regarding the sales status and the company’s financial standing.
Apparently, a carrier deal with T-Mobile is a key hurdle because once an AI Pin has been shipped to a customer, the company has no way to reassign it to another individual after a return. The company is apparently hoping to find a solution, and so far, it looks like Humane hasn’t exactly abandoned the returned units of the AI Pin.
Humane, the brainchild of Apple veterans Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno, launched the AI Pin in quite a stunning fashion. After making a splashy appearance during a TED Talk and appearing on the fashion runway, the product was finally launched at a steep asking price of $699 alongside a $24/month subscription.
The core idea was to decouple people from their smartphones. At the heart of the device is an AI assistant to handle tasks via voice commands, while a laser projector puts a screen in the palm of your hand. The engineering wasn’t bad either, but flashy demonstrations aside, the actual performance was quite underwhelming.
Over the subsequent months, Humane refined the experience and even upgraded to OpenAI’s GPT-4o model, the latest model from the Microsoft-backed company, which is particularly chatty and offers amazing levels of world-awareness. But it seems all those upgrades haven’t exactly swayed buyers’ opinions.
Heating and sub-par battery was one of the key problems. “The one big issue I am having is that once I get it up and running, I will be trying out all the features and then it will shut down and announce ‘Your Ai Pin needs to cool down for a few minutes’. This happens only after 5 minutes of using it,” says one of buyer review posted on Reddit.
“Gets hot to quick and has to rest. Big latency when you ask a question and wrong answers,” writes another buyer who returned the AI Pin. The company’s future remains uncertain, and given the current reception of the AI Pin and other AI hardware, such as the Rabbit R1, a second-generation AI Pin seems unlikely for at least the immediate future.
In May, Bloomberg reported that the company was seeking a sales option in the vicinity of $750 million to $1 billion. But so far, no such deal has materialized. Meanwhile, Humane continues to grapple with some high-profile exits and internal restructuring to find its footing in a segment that has yet to taste success.
