Humane AI Pin
Humane AI Pin was a $699 screenless wearable that lived ten months.
“The smartphone killer was killed by a smartphone review, then by HP.”
Our take- Money
- $230M raised E2
- Price
- $699 + $24/mo
- Hype · our take
- 5/5 promised → 1/5 delivered
- Lifespan
- 323 days
- Timing · our take
- right time,
wrong execution
- Dates
- announced · shipped · died
- Where
- US · Startup · Series C+
Included in the counter: disclosed raised capital and write-downs only.
Humane's AI Pin, a $699 wearable with a $24 monthly subscription that promised to replace the smartphone, shipped in April 2024 to savage reviews, saw returns outpace sales, and was shut down in February 2025 after HP bought Humane's assets for $116M.
The Pitch
Humane, founded by two ex-Apple designers, unveiled the AI Pin in November 2023 as the first post-smartphone device: a screenless badge that would answer questions, take photos, translate speech and project a display onto your palm with a laser. It cost $699 plus $24 a month for the connection and the AI. E2E2
What Happened
The ship date slipped from March to mid-April 2024. E2E2 When units arrived, reviewers found a device that was slow, ran hot, gave wrong answers and struggled to last a morning on battery. The most-watched review of the year called it the worst product its author had ever reviewed. E2E2 By August, The Verge reported that more Pins were being returned each day than sold. E2E2 In February 2025 HP bought Humane's team and software for $116M and announced the Pins would stop working ten days later. E2E2E2 On 28 February 2025 the devices were bricked. E2E2
Why It FailedOur take
Our primary cause is hardware not ready: the always-on voice assistant, the laser display and the battery could not deliver the demo on stage, and no software update was going to change the physics. Secondary causes are wrong price point, since $699 plus a subscription was a smartphone price for a device that needed a smartphone nearby, and demo-reality gap: the reveal promised a fluent companion and the shipped product could not reliably tell you the time.
We call the timing verdict right time, wrong execution rather than too early. Voice assistants on a phone were already good in 2024. The failure was in the form factor and the price, not the era.
Lessons and What Would Have Worked
- A hardware device that depends on a cloud subscription dies the day the company does. Every buyer's $699 became e-waste with ten days' notice. If the cloud is the product, ship the software first.
- Do not launch hardware against the smartphone at smartphone prices unless it does one thing the phone cannot. The Pin did several things the phone did, all worse.
- Returns outpacing sales is a terminal signal, not a marketing problem. Six months passed between that report and the shutdown.
- A cheaper accessory that used the phone's connection and compute, sold as a companion rather than a replacement, was the version of this idea that had a chance.
Timeline
- Humane unveils the AI Pin at $699 plus $24 a month.E2
- Ship date slips from March to mid-April.E2
- Pins ship. MKBHD's review calls it the worst product he has ever reviewed.E2
- The Verge reports daily returns outpacing sales.E2
- HP buys Humane's assets for $116M. Pins to stop working in ten days.E2
- Pins bricked.E2
Receipts
- E2Humane pushes AI Pin ship date to mid-April
Supporting quote
Synthetic fixture extract; not a verified quotation.
- E2MKBHD's Humane AI Pin review
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The Worst Product I've Ever Reviewed... For Now
- E2Humane's AI Pin has more daily returns than sales
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Synthetic fixture extract; not a verified quotation.
- E2HP acquires Humane; AI Pin shutting down
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Synthetic fixture extract; not a verified quotation.
- E2HP-Humane deal: AI Pin shutting down
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Synthetic fixture extract; not a verified quotation.
- E2Inside the Humane acquisition
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Synthetic fixture extract; not a verified quotation.
Sentiment
What happened to Humane AI Pin?
- What was Humane AI Pin?
- Humane's AI Pin, a $699 wearable with a $24 monthly subscription that promised to replace the smartphone, shipped in April 2024 to savage reviews, saw returns outpace sales, and was shut down in February 2025 after HP bought Humane's assets for $116M.
- What happened to Humane AI Pin?
- The ship date slipped from March to mid-April 2024.
- Why did Humane AI Pin fail?
- Our primary cause is hardware not ready: the always-on voice assistant, the laser display and the battery could not deliver the demo on stage, and no software update was going to change the physics.
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