Aina, a venture-backed consumer hardware company founded by Apoorv Shankar, the former vice-president of hardware at Ultrahuman, unveiled an AI ring with a screen designed to anticipate everyday actions and control agents, phone apps, Macs and connected devices. The launch follows 15 months of operating in stealth.
The ring is powered by a proprietary context-aware operating system. It learns users’ patterns on its own and pulls in context from their phones, computers and agents. It then predicts the three things they need next. Users flick up or down to approve or reject a suggestion.
Pre-orders open on November 5, with super early bird pricing starting at $399 for a limited number of units. Shipping is planned to begin in January 2027.
The company describes Aina as a new AI interface in the form of a ring that knows what users want. Users can also hold the centre button to talk to their agents.
“We started building Aina with a thesis that AI would evolve from following instructions to anticipating what we need,” Shankar said. “With proactive agents, that shift has already begun. Agents like Muse, Instinct and Dots will soon run hundreds of our daily tasks.”
“Today we instruct them by text or voice. Next, they’ll learn our patterns, build on our context and turn proactive for almost every interaction, waiting only for our approval,” he said. “Hundreds of times a day, we’ll choose between options and say yes or no. Pulling out and unlocking a phone for each of these binary moments won’t work. Hardware interfaces beyond the phone will be built for voice and quick approvals, and Aina is designed for that future.”
“Every major shift in computing has come from software and hardware built together,” Shankar added. “The mouse and the GUI brought personal computing. The touchscreen and the App Store brought mobile computing. Now, with Aina and AI agents, we enter a new era: personalized computing, right at your fingertips.”
There are three ways to use Aina:
Aina Voice: Users connect their existing agents through the Aina app, then press and hold the centre button to talk to them. Users can also take quick notes. When an agent needs the user, they see a notification on the screen. For quick approvals, users flick up to approve. They can also hold to respond by voice. Aina also has a built-in speaker for conversations with AI agents and phone calls. Users can initiate a call with a voice command and bring their hand to their ear to speak and listen.
Aina Cues: Aina pulls in context from the user’s phone, Mac and agents. It learns app usage patterns, location and calendar details, then computes what the user may need next. If a user leaves for work at nine, Aina keeps a shortcut, or Cue, to book an Uber to work ready just before it is needed.
Aina Remote: Aina adapts to what the user is doing and surfaces a live shortcut to control the current activity. When music is playing, it becomes a music remote control. In a meeting, it becomes a meeting controller for the mic, camera and notetaker.
From an HCI Lab to a Consumer Product
Founded in May 2025 by Shankar, Aina began as a human-computer interaction lab, testing physical interfaces across everyday computing scenarios. At CES 2026, the team showcased three experimental AI interface concepts. In April, it introduced Dune, a context-aware three-key keypad for Mac that adapts its controls to the app in use. Dune shipped to hundreds of early adopters.
The company has been testing Aina with a controlled group of private pilot users since early October. It used their feedback to refine the hardware and interaction experience ahead of the public reveal.
Availability
Aina will ship globally. At launch, it supports iOS and Mac. Additional details about supported integrations will be announced after launch.
