Humane’s AI Pin has seen more returns than purchases in the last three months.
American consumer electronics company Humane, released the AI Pin in April 2024 amid widespread negative reviews.
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The company founded in 2018 has seen a dramatic number of returns between May and August, reports The Verge.
Some $1m in total returns have been made against $9m in sales according to the report.
With a price point of $699 the AI Pin claims to offer instant language translation, photography-grade image capture, pattern recognition to minimise unwanted notifications and a user interface displayed on the palm of your hand.
Returns began in April and by June only around 8,000 units had not been returned with that number now closer to 7,000.
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By GlobalDataImran Chaudhri, president and co-founder of Humane and his wife, Bethany Bongiorno, cofounder and CEO, previously worked at Apple, where they claimed involvement in developing the Macintosh, iPod, iPad, Apple Watch, and iPhone.
Reportedly one early-stage product tester contacted customer support to describe the product as “disorienting” and “frustrating” with advertised features failing on testing.
In January, Humane laid off 4% of its employees as a cost cutting measure ahead of the AI Pin’s launch.
GlobalData’s ‘Consumer Telco Communications Services & Strategies’ report released last year notes: “New AI-led voice command devices such as the Humane AI Pin are making original equipment manufacturers revise their former assumptions about the incumbency of the touchscreen smartphone in the consumer devices market.
“It’s likely that more such voice command devices will launch in the coming quarters, potentially allowing consumers to skip the touch and scroll app-based navigation interface for more direct assistant-generated answers and actions.”
The device, however, has experienced several issues with the voice commands, as well as problems with the refurbishment process.
When a device is returned it is unable to be reassigned to another user, leading to the product becoming electronic waste.
The error is believed to be a T-Mobile limitation meaning returned devices will not be introduced into circulation again without a permanent fix.
Humane had previously raised over $200m from entrepreneurs including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff with a large gap now seen between investment and sales.
