What if booking a cab, sending a message or managing a meeting required nothing more than a flick of your thumb? Bengaluru- and San Francisco-based startup startup Aina believes the next phase of artificial intelligence will be less about asking machines questions and more about letting them anticipate what people need. At a private launch event in Bengaluru, the startup unveiled an AI-powered smart ring that combines a colour display, voice commands and gesture-based controls. Priced at $499 (Rs 47,000), the device is available for pre-order at a limited early-bird price starting at $399 (Rs 37,700), with shipments expected to begin in January 2027. Unlike conventional smart rings, which largely focus on health and fitness tracking, Aina wants its device to become an everyday interface between users and AI agents. The premise is simple: AI agents are getting smarter, but using them still involves unlocking phones, navigating apps and approving individual actions. Aina wants to reduce that friction. Its proposition revolves around a question displayed during the launch presentation: What if AI didn't wait to be asked? An AI ring that anticipates your next move To simplify these interactions, Aina has built its ring around three features: Cues, Voice and Remote. Cues uses contextual information, including routines and connected applications, to anticipate what users might want to do next. For instance, if someone regularly books a cab around the same time each morning, the ring could suggest booking a ride without waiting for an explicit request. At the launch event, Aina demonstrated a ride-booking interaction that illustrated how everyday transactions could be completed through minimal gestures. The ring can be operated using a five-way joystick-like control, allowing users to approve or reject suggestions with their thumb without reaching for a smartphone. Aina says its context-aware intelligence can learn users' routines and anticipate relevant actions over the next 15 minutes, drawing on information from the iPhone, Mac and connected services. The company showcased integrations involving Uber, Apple Music, Spotify, phone calls, calendar meetings, smart home controls and email actions. The second interaction method, Voice, allows users to dictate notes, set reminders, send messages and issue commands. Aina also showcased use cases involving WhatsApp and Telegram, alongside Mac dictation through Wispr Flow. The third feature, Remote, turns the ring into a controller for connected devices. According to the company, users can manage music, phone calls, smart home appliances and meeting controls without picking up another device. What goes into the $499 ring? According to specifications presented at the Bengaluru launch, the ring weighs less than 13 grams and features a titanium body, full-colour display, haptic feedback and directional audio. The company claims up to 18 hours of battery life and plans to offer the device in four colours: Eclipse Black, Amber Gold, Mercury Silver and Slate Titanium, across seven sizes. Aina also highlighted a five-way control mechanism called the Shifter, which works alongside its gesture-based interface. The startup says the ring will come with an open developer platform, allowing third-party developers to build new interactions and integrations. It also showcased support for AI agent platforms including Muse, Grokbot and Instinct. The company currently supports iOS and Mac, with further integrations expected to be announced later. Whether its open platform translates into a substantial developer ecosystem will become clearer once the device reaches customers. From Ultrahuman to Aina Aina was founded by Apoorv Shankar, who previously served as vice-president of hardware at Bengaluru-based wearable technology company Ultrahuman. Shankar founded Aina in May 2025 as a human-computer interaction lab, focusing on how people could interact with intelligent software beyond conventional screens and keyboards. The startup raised $5.5 million in seed funding in July 2026, as previously reported by YourStory. The round was led by Redstart Labs and 360 ONE Asset, with participation from MIXI Global Investments, Antler, Blume Founders Fund and angel investors including CRED founder Kunal Shah and Razorpay co-founders Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar. The funding was earmarked for commercialising its AI-first hardware interface and expanding its engineering and product teams. Aina says it spent around 15 months developing the technology and began testing the ring with a limited group of users in October 2026. Can a ring replace everyday smartphone interactions? Aina's launch comes as technology companies experiment with new ways of bringing AI into daily life. While smartphones remain the dominant interface for digital services, the rise of AI agents is prompting startups to rethink how people give instructions, approve actions and receive information. Aina's approach is to make that interface smaller and more contextual, with users retaining control over whether suggested actions are executed. However, at $499, the ring is a premium purchase, particularly when smartphones and smartwatches already perform many of the functions it promises. Its usefulness will depend on how accurately its AI anticipates user needs, how reliably it works with third-party services and whether the thumb-based controls become intuitive enough for daily use. Battery life, voice recognition and application support will also matter when the product moves beyond controlled demonstrations. For now, Aina's claims remain to be tested at scale, with commercial deliveries planned for January 2027.