Better than AirPods? Plaud launches AI earbuds that work for you

Last year, Plaud, a San Francisco-based company, made a name for itself by marketing several AI-assisted note-taking devices, including the Plaud Note, the Plaud Note Pro, and the Plaud NotePin.All these products are riding the wave of generative AI and the proliferation of AI-branded devices.

Recognized as one of the pioneers of AI note-taking tools, the brand has just unveiled a major new product, the Plaud One. It is a pair of earbuds designed to capture your conversations and understand them with the help of AI. The first iteration of the Plaud One is referred to as the Explorer edition.

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An AI agent that takes action

Unlike the brand’s previous tools, the Plaud One presents itself as the first interface for the age of AI agents, Plaud says. The earbuds listen to all conversations and understand the user’s intent, and then take action. Plaud has indeed designed the earbuds to act directly within the wearer’s work tools.

The tool relies on Plaud Intelligence, the brand’s conversational platform, as well as the Plaud Agent. It is this agent that can translate information heard in conversations into actions to be carried out in everyday tools such as Gmail, Google Calendar, Notion, Slack or Teams. Based on the information heard, the agent can, for example, draft a report, prepare a follow-up email or generate a summary report, without the wearer having to do anything.

Among the use cases highlighted by Plaud are a salesperson who has a full report drafted as soon as they leave a client meeting, an executive who gets a summary of their latest conversation before entering a meeting, and a manager who receives an automated briefing every Monday morning based on the previous week’s exchanges. These different functions rely on a library of Skills and plugins dedicated to specific use cases. There is also contextual memory that becomes richer with each use of the earbuds.

According to Plaud, it is this feature that sets Plaud apart from the competition. To our knowledge, this is indeed the first time an AI accessory has been powered by an agent capable of listening, understanding, and then acting within a tool interface. The other devices on the market, which are generally similar to Plaud’s other note-taking tools, merely record conversations, summarize them, and format them.

“The Explorer Edition was born from a conviction: the best interfaces are built in the field, through contact with those who truly put them to the test.With Plaud One, agents are getting closer to the real work of professionals, and Plaud Intelligence gives them the context they need to take action,”, explains Nathan Xu, co-founder and CEO of Plaud, on the occasion of the launch of Plaud One.

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A case with microphones and an eSIM

To listen to conversations, Plaud One features three microphones and a vibration sensor in each ear for calls. The company is also focusing on active noise reduction. The charging case also includes four microphones, allowing it to record independently from up to five meters away without the user wearing the earbuds. It is also worth noting that the case’s microphones can work without the wearer’s smartphone being nearby. Plaud has indeed included a 4G LTE eSIM in the case. Thanks to the connection provided by the eSIM, the case can transmit conversations to the cloud in real time.

In terms of battery life, Plaud claims up to six hours of meeting recording and three hours of calls. With the charging case, the earbuds can offer up to 36 hours of battery life. The American brand also mentions a fast-charging system, which can provide two additional hours of recording with ten minutes of charging.

Plaud specifies that all new Plaud software features will be rolled out to all devices from the brand.The Plaud App 4.0 update, expected in the fourth quarter of 2026, will enhance Plaud’s interfaces with new features carried over from the Plaud One.

Price and release date

In terms of pricing, the Plaud One is offered at €249.90, making the headphones one of the brand’s most expensive devices. The American company gives buyers €176 in Plaud Intelligence usage credits, on top of the 300 minutes of usage offered every month to all customers. The headphones are already available for preorder and will go on sale during the fourth quarter of the year.

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