When we hear about AI, we often think of ChatGPT, Gemini, Midjourney, Sora, or Veo. These are powerful tools that live entirely in the cloud, accessible from any smartphone or PC. They’re fast, smart, and virtual. However, there’s another version of AI that is creating a silent impact. It is the world of physical AI that you can hold, wear, or invite into your home. These standalone devices are designed to bring artificial intelligence into the real world.
Think of robots with emotions, wearables smarter than smartphones, or ambient devices that respond to your voice, gestures, and presence. It’s a futuristic vision that feels like something out of science fiction, and yet companies have been trying to make it a reality for years. And there’s reason to believe they’ll keep trying. The global embodied AI market, which includes these kinds of physical AI products, is projected to grow from $2.5 billion in 2024 to $10.75 billion by 2034.
But here’s the catch: most physical AI products fail. Despite viral launches, massive funding, and sleek industrial design, many of these devices struggle to deliver on their promises. Some are clunky, some overpriced, and others simply arrive before the market is ready. They often disappear as quickly as they arrive, with unmet expectations and refund requests.
In this article, we will explore five physical AI products that once made headlines, captured imaginations, and then quietly vanished.
1. Jibo – The First Social Robot
Jibo was launched in 2017. It wasn’t just another gadget; it was introduced as “the world’s first social robot.” With its swiveling head, expressive movements, and soft digital eyes, Jibo was designed to be a family member. Developed by MIT roboticist Cynthia Breazeal, Jibo can recognize faces, engage in conversations, tell jokes, and interact in a human-like manner.
The buzz around Jibo was huge. It raised over $3.7 million on crowdfunding, received massive media attention, and was featured as one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2017. At the time, it felt like a true glimpse into the future. A world where humans and machines coexist functionally and socially.
Why it failed:
Despite its charm, Jibo lacked practical utility. It couldn’t control smart devices and lacked integration with other services. With its huge $899 price tag, it can’t compete with the expanding capabilities of affordable assistants like Alexa or Google Assistant. The absence of third-party support and the lack of significant updates made it feel stagnant over time. It was shut down in late 2018.
2. Kuri – The AI Pet
Kuri was designed to be the perfect robotic companion for the modern home. It wasn’t just a talking assistant, but a silent observer and charming helper. Developed by Mayfield Robotics, a Bosch-backed startup, Kuri was a small, adorable robot that roamed on wheels, blinked expressively, nodded along to music, and captured video clips of daily life. With embedded cameras and facial recognition, it could recognize family members and act almost like an AI-powered pet or home documentarian.
Kuri stood out in a crowded field of smart speakers and digital assistants by focusing on mobility and personality, rather than relying solely on voice-based AI. It became a fan favorite at tech expos and gained widespread attention at CES 2018.
Why it failed:
Despite the enthusiasm, Kuri never made it to market. Although it secured pre-orders and generated positive reviews, the company shut down the project in 2018 before mass production began. In reality, the robot couldn’t deliver the level of autonomy, responsiveness, or awareness shown in its demo videos.
Their failure wasn’t entirely technical. It was strategic, too. The parent company, Bosch, decided that Mayfield Robotics didn’t align with its broader business goals for consumer robotics and withdrew its support.
3. Humane AI Pin – The Smartphone Killer
Launched in 2024, the Humane AI Pin set out to redefine how we interact with technology, not through a screen, but through ambient intelligence. Designed by ex-Apple employees, including Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno, the device promised a shift from the smartphone. An AI-powered assistant that clipped to your shirt and projected information directly onto your palm.
With over $100 million in funding, sleek industrial design, and high-fashion partnerships (including a debut on the Paris runway), the AI Pin looked poised to lead a hardware revolution. It positioned itself as a post-smartphone device, using voice, gesture, and laser projection to deliver a more natural and mindful digital experience. The AI Pin is designed to reduce screen time while keeping users connected and informed.
Why it failed:
The actual experience fell far short of the vision. Voice commands were slow to process, and the laser projection was often hard to read, especially in well-lit environments. The pricing also didn’t help: $699 upfront, plus a $24/month subscription, was considered excessive for a product with such limited functionality. Tech enthusiasts and early adopters criticized the AI Pin’s usability, and a viral review by YouTuber MKBHD called it “the worst product I’ve ever reviewed.”
As dissatisfaction grew, return rates began to outpace sales. Eventually, Humane announced that it would discontinue its hardware business, and existing devices will lose key functionality after February 28, 2025, effectively marking the end of the AI Pin.
4. Rabbit R1 – The Pocket AI
When the idea of Rabbit R1 came, it quickly became a tech sensation. Marketed as a pocket-sized AI assistant powered by a Large Action Model (LAM), the R1 claimed it could navigate apps on our behalf. It can book rides, order food, play music, and handle tasks through voice commands, all without a traditional app interface.
Rabbit R1 was launched at CES 2024. Its bright orange cube design, rotatable camera, and low $199 price tag made it viral on the internet. With playful marketing and a minimalist approach to AI hardware, pre-order numbers surged as people hoped for a simpler and smarter alternative to smartphones.
Why it failed:
Despite the hype, the R1 struggled to deliver on its central promise. The Large Action Model (LAM) didn’t perform tasks in real-world scenarios as expected and lacked proper integration with the apps it was supposed to replace. Worse, the device suffered from a lack of clarity. Many users didn’t fully understand what the R1 was meant to do, and those who tried it found its utility severely limited.
Ultimately, despite its creativity, the R1 felt more like a toy than a tool. Without delivering meaningful value or reliability, its charm wore off quickly. Interestingly, the R1 is still available for purchase, despite interest continuing to fade.
5. Sense by Hello – The AI Sleep Tracker
Sense, launched by Hello in 2015, was designed to make sleep tracking effortless, promising a revolution in understanding our nightly rest. Unlike wearables that needed to be worn overnight, Sense sat quietly on the bedside table. A sleek, glowing orb equipped with environmental sensors and a discreet “Sleep Pill” that clipped to your pillow. Together, these components formed an AI engine that analyzes sleep patterns and surroundings to deliver actionable insights for improved rest.
Unlike wearables, Sense required no effort from the user; just plug it in and go to bed. Backed by a successful Kickstarter campaign and over $40 million in VC funding, Sense was hailed as the next big thing in health tech.
Why it failed:
Despite its sleek design and ease of use, Sense struggled with accuracy. Many users reported unreliable sleep data and vague or inconsistent recommendations. Meanwhile, competition from wearables like Fitbit and the Apple Watch intensified. These devices offered broader health tracking with higher accuracy and better retention through daily activity insights and app ecosystems.
Hello couldn’t build a sustainable business model around Sense. The company shut down its operations in 2017, and the existing devices stopped receiving further updates.
Patterns Across Failures: Why Physical AI Keeps Stumbling
While these physical AI products varied in form and ambition, their downfalls followed a familiar pattern. These are not isolated missteps. They revealed deeper challenges in the world of consumer AI hardware.
The Smartphone is Unbeatable
Every physical AI device competes with the most refined, powerful, and convenient tool we all carry: the smartphone. Replacing or even complementing it requires something dramatically better. Despite their bold visions, most physical AI products simply couldn’t match the versatility and reliability of a smartphone.
Cool Concept, No Clear Use
From expressive home robots to sleek wearable assistants, many of these products looked revolutionary, but they lacked a clear use case. Often, they tried to solve problems that didn’t really exist or attempted to reinvent solutions that were already working fine. Without delivering meaningful value, the novelty wore off quickly.
High Price, Low Value
Consumers were asked to pay premium prices, $199, $699, and even $899, for devices with limited functionality and inconsistent performance. The buzzword “AI-powered” couldn’t justify the price. Ultimately, users aren’t willing to pay more simply because something has AI. It has to work better and solve real-world problems.
Bad Timing, No Follow-Through
Some products were simply ahead of their time, while others failed due to a lack of long-term support. AI hardware isn’t static. Like software, it needs ongoing updates, training, and refinement. Unfortunately, many companies were unable to keep up with that pace, especially without a strong ecosystem or user base to sustain them.
While the physical AI products we’ve discussed each had different designs and goals, the factors that led to their demise often fell into a strikingly familiar set of traps. These aren’t isolated missteps; rather, they reflect deeper, systemic challenges inherent in the physical AI space itself.
Glimpses of Success: Where Physical AI Is Actually Working
Despite a long list of overhyped failures, a few physical AI devices are quietly succeeding by solving real problems and prioritizing usability over spectacle. Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses have emerged as a rare success. It is a perfect blend of fashion and function. They allow users to take photos, livestream, listen to music, and interact with Meta’s AI assistant, offering practical features in a stylish and wearable form. Since its launch in October 2023, they have sold more than 2 million pairs.
Meanwhile, Samsung is working on Ballie, a rolling home assistant robot equipped with cameras, sensors, and a built-in projector. Though still in development, Ballie has generated interest due to its focus on utility over novelty.
Still, these are exceptions. Physical AI products face steep challenges, such as high development costs, complex hardware integration, limited mainstream use cases, and the dominance of smartphones as all-in-one devices. Success demands a balance of utility, affordability, and seamless integration, something that only a few have managed to achieve so far.
What’s Next for Physical AI?
The dream of intelligent devices that we can see, touch, and interact with hasn’t disappeared. However, it’s now being pursued with a more grounded and realistic mindset.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has acknowledged that while today’s devices, phones, laptops, and wearables are AI-friendly, they’re not AI-native. He states that there is a need for a new category of physical products designed from the ground up to integrate AI seamlessly into human behavior and everyday usability.
That’s where OpenAI’s collaboration with Jony Ive, the legendary designer behind the iPhone, becomes one of the most closely watched partnerships in tech. The duo is working on a post-smartphone, screenless hardware device that is deeply intelligent and designed to complement human life rather than demand constant input. According to recent reports, their first device may take the form of a pen.
While the details remain under wraps, this signals a new wave of physical AI that prioritizes subtlety, integration, and human-first design.
The Final AI Factor
The devices we’ve explored, from expressive robots to wearable assistants, highlight just how difficult it is to bring AI into the physical world in a useful way. Many of these products launched with bold promises but ultimately collapsed under the weight of clunky user experiences, high prices, and unmet expectations.
Now, the question is: Can physical AI ever truly break into the consumer space? Or will it always be overshadowed by the power and convenience of smartphones, tablets, and laptops?
Until physical AI devices offer utility that is both clear and consistent, they will remain niche curiosities rather than mainstream breakthroughs. However, the dream isn’t dead yet. With the rise of smart glasses and OpenAI’s upcoming AI hardware, we may be on the cusp of a second chance. Whether these next-gen devices will finally crack the code or repeat the cycle will be answered in the near future.
For physical AI to succeed, it doesn’t need to amaze. It simply needs to solve real problems better than the existing solution.
This article was contributed to the Scribe of AI blog by Mehavannen MP.
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