A new smart ring lets you approve your AI assistant's tasks with a tap

A startup called Aina has announced a smart ring built for one job: approving what your AI assistant wants to do. A small display and a joystick-like button let you accept or reject a task, such as ordering an Uber, without taking out your phone. Preorders are open now at $399.

What it does

Founder Apoorv Shankar expects AI agents, meaning assistants that act on your behalf, to come to people with suggestions all day. Pulling out a phone for each yes or no, he says, becomes a bottleneck. The ring is meant to remove that.

The ring offers what Aina calls Cues. If you usually take an Uber to work at 8:30 am, it suggests the ride, and one flick of yes books it. If you are running late for a Zoom meeting, it can offer to send an email saying so. The display then shows whether the task actually went through.

• Press the center button to talk to your AI agents or ask for notes.
• A tiny speaker handles phone calls, started by voice command.
• The joystick controls music playback.
• It can act as a remote for Zoom on your Mac, or for a TV you connect.

What it needs from you

The ring connects to Macs and iPhones. To make good suggestions, it learns your routines from your location, calendar and email. You can also link services such as Uber or Spotify in the Aina app. Users can write their own Cues in plain language, like a prompt about the coffee machine at 8 am.

If a service is not supported, you can connect another AI agent, such as Muse or Instinct, which will do the task through virtual browsers. Shankar says many actions will likely depend on which apps and features are supported.

Price and timing

The Aina Ring costs $399 for a limited time on preorder. The retail price rises to $499, and shipping starts in January 2027. The ring is made of titanium.

Why this one might be different

Earlier AI gadgets from Humane and Rabbit failed to stick, and many claimed to replace the phone. Aina says its ring replaces nothing. Shankar calls phones too perfect. He previously led hardware at Ultrahuman, another smart ring maker. Aina spent 15 months in stealth and showed early experiments at CES 2026 under the name Project Mirage.

What is not known yet

The material does not give battery life, how Aina stores or protects the email, calendar and location data it uses, or which apps will work at launch. Those details matter before paying for a ring that sees so much of your day.