Generative AI’s hype has yet to lead to a must-have gadget for the holiday season
Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses
Meta
Shoppers looking for gadgets and gizmos powered by generative AI technology to gift to their loved ones won’t have many options to choose from this holiday season.
Generative artificial intelligence has taken Silicon Valley by storm since the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot in November 2022. Although startups have raised billions to build new GenAI tools and tech giants have bought millions of Nvidia processors to train AI models, few companies have delivered new hardware built with the new-age tech as its focal point.
There was a lot of optimism over the potential of GenAI gadgets at the CES trade show in January, said Paul Gagnon, vice president for analyst firm Circana. In particular, products from high-profile startups such as Humane and Rabbit, which were marketed as being able to translate, answer questions, take voice memos and set alarms, were drawing buzz, Gagnon said.
But many of these new GenAI devices didn’t work as well as people expected, with reviewers saying that the gadgets were too slow and too prone to failure.
“As we’ve gone through the year, and those kinds of promises — which I’ll be honest, were pretty nebulous to start with — there’s been a bit of a struggle with communicating that to consumers,” Gagnon said.
A key reason GenAI hardware hasn’t had a breakthrough is that current devices are “compute restrained,” meaning they require more powerful silicon chips and related components to perform better, particularly when compared with smartphones, said Ben Bajarin, CEO of Creative Strategies, a market research firm.
Additionally, consumers may find current GenAI devices too expensive, and they may be confused about what the devices can actually do, he said.
GenAI devices, such as the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, also typically require a smartphone connection for an accompanying app as well as strong internet access, because a bad internet connection can lead to performance delays that frustrate people, Bajarin said.
While companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Intel, Dell and Lenovo have also heavily marketed new lineups of personal computers capable of performing GenAI tasks, consumers have yet to perk up to the sales pitch, said Ryan Reith, an IDC program vice president for mobile devices.
“I don’t think that there’s actually a need for consumers to go out and get one of these more expensive PCs,” Reith said, noting that people may be confused about why they need beefier computers when they can already access tools such as ChatGPT through their current PCs.
The reality is that while GenAI has captivated Silicon Valley, it’s still “inning zero” in regard to widespread adoption, Bajarin said.
“Even though I can rattle off all these productivity stats of how people are using AI today, it’s a very small number of people,” he said. “This is not mainstream.”
It may not be until 2025 that consumers see a “big explosion” in GenAI computers, smartphones and new gadgets, said Steve Koenig, vice president of research at the Consumer Technology Association, which produces CES.
Despite Silicon Valley not having a breakout year for GenAI hardware, here are a few GenAI devices early adopters can buy.
Ray-Ban Meta glasses
Meta released the second generation of its Ray-Ban smart glasses in 2023, but the company began rolling out GenAI features for the device earlier this year and announced several new AI capabilities at its Connect event in September.
The glasses don’t offer users augmented reality capabilities, but people can use the device to take photos, listen to music and ask the Meta AI digital assistant for information about the things within their field of view.
With the help of the device’s mics and camera, for instance, users can ask the Meta AI digital assistant to recommend a recipe when they walk through a grocery aisle and scan the shelves, the company said in a blog post.
Meta, which makes Facebook and Instagram, is selling certain versions of the glasses for 20% off through Dec. 2. This means that a pair of the Ray-Ban Meta Skyler style of glasses will cost $239.20 instead of $299 if bought online.
Rabbit r1
The Rabbit r1 is a $200 gizmo that looks like an orange, miniaturized tablet with a playful aesthetic that’s more Nintendo Switch than Apple iPad.
Outfitted with a camera and dual mics, the r1 can record audio clips and set timers or perform more advanced tasks, such as helping users recall details from past conversations, search results and voice recordings. After the device began shipping in March, reviewers criticized the r1 for stumbling at various tasks and failing to outshine smartphones that can do many of the same functions.
The startup “has used that feedback to rapidly make very significant improvements to the user experience” and has released scores of updates to improve, Rabbit CEO Jesse Lyu told CNBC in a statement.
Despite the harsh reviews, Rabbit has “sold more than 100,000 r1 devices when we originally expected to sell only 3,000” and the company is “seeing a return rate of less than 5%, which is very solid for a first-generation product,” Lyu said.
Rabbit is currently running a deal that gives shoppers free shipping, or $15 off, if they order an r1 by Dec. 4.
Bee
After raising $7 million in funding in July, the startup Bee AI will begin selling its GenAI device, the Bee, on Friday.
The Bee looks like an internet-connected smartwatch and functions like an advanced digital assistant. Its dual mics allow it to listen and analyze people’s voice memos and conversations to provide summaries and to-do lists, Bee AI CEO Maria de Lourdes Zollo told CNBC.
The Bee can also be integrated with health-care tools and people’s Google and Gmail accounts to help generate personalized summaries and action items, Zollo said. Although the startup offers a Bee app for the Apple Watch for people who don’t want to buy another hardware device, she said the core Bee device is better at understanding voices in loud environments.
Shoppers can buy the Bee for $49.99 and get its basic tasks, but they will have to pay a $15-per-month subscription for more features such as “better memory or better capabilities,” Zollo said.
For Black Friday, Bee is offering shoppers three free months of the device’s subscription service. The device should ship in time for Christmas, Zollo said.
Watch: Former Apple designers launch $700 Humane AI Pin as smartphone replacement.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg appears at the Meta Connect event in Menlo Park, California, on Sept. 25, 2024.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Meta’s AI assistant now has 1 billion monthly active users across the company’s family of apps, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Wednesday at the company’s annual shareholder meeting.
The “focus for this year is deepening the experience and making Meta AI the leading personal AI with an emphasis on personalization, voice conversations and entertainment,” Zuckerberg said.
The artificial intelligent assistant’s 1 billion milestone comes after the company in April released a standalone app for the tool.
The plan is for Meta to keep growing the product before building a business around it, Zuckerberg said on Wednesday. As Meta AI improves overtime, Zuckerberg said “there will be opportunities to either insert paid recommendations” or offer “a subscription service so that people can pay to use more compute.”
In February, CNBC reported that Meta was planning to debut a standalone Meta AI app during the second quarter and test a paid-subscription service akin to rival chat apps like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
“It may seem kind of funny that a billion monthly actives doesn’t seem like it’s at scale for us, but that’s where we’re at,” Zuckerberg told shareholders.
During the Meta shareholder meeting, investors voted on 14 different items related to the company’s business, nine of which were shareholder proposals covering topics such as child safety, greenhouse gas emissions and a proposed bitcoin treasury assessment.
Shareholder proposal 8, for example, was submitted by JLens, which is an investment advisor and affiliate of the Anti-Defamation League, and called for Meta to prepare an annual report detailing and addressing hate content, including antisemitism, on its services following January policy changes that relaxed content-moderation guidelines.
Early voting results on Wednesday showed the proposals that Meta’s board did not recommend were unlikely to pass, including one calling for the company to end its dual-class share structure, which gives Zuckerberg significant voting power. Meanwhile, the voting items that the board favored, including those pertaining to approving the company’s board of director nominees and an equity incentive plan, were likely to pass, based on the preliminary results.
Meta said final polling results will be released within four business days on the company’s website and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff participates in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 22, 2025.
Chris Ratcliffe | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Salesforce shares were volatile in extended trading on Wednesday after the sales and customer service software maker reported upbeat fiscal first-quarter results and guidance.
Here’s how the company performed relative to LSEG consensus:
- Earnings per share: $2.58 adjusted vs. 2.54 expected
- Revenue: $9.83 billion vs. $9.75 billion expected
Salesforce’s revenue grew 7.6% year over year in the quarter, which ended on April 30, according to a statement. Net income of $1.54 billion, or $1.59 per share, was basically flat compared with $1.53 billion, or $1.56 per share, a year ago.
President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on goods imported into the U.S. in early April. Co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff sounded positive about the company’s results for the quarter anyway, pointing to its plan, announced on Tuesday, to buy data management company Informatica for $8 billion.
It would be Salesforce’s priciest acquisition since the $27.1 billion Slack deal in 2021. Slack marked the top end of the buyouts Salesforce had made under Benioff. Activist investors raised concerns about all the spending, in addition to slowing revenue growth.
Salesforce sprung into action, slashing 10% of its headcount. Benioff proclaimed that the board’s mergers and acquisitions committee had been disbanded. The company’s finance chief at the time said it would reach a margin expansion goal two years early. And Salesforce started paying dividends to shareholders.
Initial reception to the Informatica announcement was generally favorable. “Salesforce is paying a reasonable multiple for the asset, in our view, and the deal should be more easily digested by investors than some of the company’s large deals in the past (i.e. Slack),” Stifel analysts led by J. Parker Lane wrote in a note to clients. The investment bank has a buy rating on Salesforce shares.
During the fiscal first quarter, Salesforce introduced the AgentExchange marketplace for artificial intelligence agents.
Management sees $2.76 to $2.78 in adjusted earnings per share on $10.11 billion to $10.16 billion in revenue for the fiscal second quarter. Analysts polled by LSEG had expected $2.73 in adjusted earnings per share on $10.01 billion in revenue.
Salesforce bumped up its full-year forecast. It called for $11.27 to $11.33 in adjusted earnings per share and $41.0 billion to $41.3 billion in revenue, implying revenue growth between 8% and 9%. The LSEG consensus included net income of $11.16 per share and $40.82 billion in revenue. The guidance in February was $11.09 to $11.17 in adjusted earnings per share, with $40.5 billion to $40.9 billion in revenue.
As of Wednesday’s close, the stock had slipped about 18% so far in 2025, while the S&P index was unchanged.
Executives will discuss the results with analysts on a conference call starting at 5 p.m. ET.
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
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