From step counts to ‘second brains’: India’s AI wearables bet

Shipments of wearables in India fell 6.3% year-on-year in the first half of 2025 to 51.6 million units, according to the International Data Corp. The decline comes after years of rapid expansion driven largely by affordable smartwatches focused on step counts, heart rate monitoring and other health metrics.

Now, companies such as Neosapien and antimattr are trying to shift the category away from passive tracking devices and towards AI-first assistants embedded in pendants, earbuds and glasses. Larger players, including Sarvam and Lenskart, are also entering the fray with smart glasses aimed at real-time translation and contextual assistance.

The logic is simple: if traditional smartwatches have become commoditized health trackers, AI-powered wearables could revive demand by becoming what founders describe as a “second brain”, devices that remember conversations, assist with speech, translate in real time and even complete tasks through voice commands.

“AI-first wearables have the potential to revive a slowing category by transforming devices from passive trackers into intelligent companions that deliver real time health insights, personalization, and secure authentication,” said Anshika Jain, senior analyst at Counterpoint Research.

Among early movers, Neosapien has focused on productivity and memory use cases through an AI-powered pendant. “We had the advantage of being first movers in the country,” said Dhananjay Yadav, co-founder and chief executive of Neosapien. “We're seeing 2.5-3x growth and also have the advantage of learning quickly from customer feedback.”

The pendant retails for ₹15,999 and the company has sold nearly 10,000 units through 2025, positioning it firmly at the premium end of the market.

As part of its roadmap, Neosapien is integrating Anthropic's open source standard, Model Context Protocol, into its device and launching a desktop app. “We've realized that once we add this layer, our users will figure out use cases for themselves,” said Yadav.

The company raised $2 million in January from Merak Ventures but says it is not actively fundraising for now, as sales are funding growth. “When we do raise, we're looking to do an outlier round,” Yadav said.

Its earbuds are priced at ₹6,000, targeting a mid-tier segment. The company plans to launch in the middle of this year and aims to sell 10,000 units, starting with Bengaluru as a test market.

“We're aiming to sell 10,000 units this year, with Bengaluru as our testbed,” Ghosh said. “This way it allows us to go and fix things for users if they're having issues.” The company eventually plans to expand to the US, where such products are seeing faster adoption.

Beyond startups, larger companies are also experimenting with AI-enabled eyewear. Sarvam has built AI glasses called Kaze using its own large language model, offering real-time audio translation and contextual assistance. Recently listed Lenskart is expected to launch its B range of smartglasses this month, featuring live translation powered by Google’s Gemini, UPI payments and voice assistance.

While Deepinder Goyal’s wearable for “performance athletes” raised $54 million in a round led by the Zomato founder with participation from Steadview Capital, Peak XV Partners, InfoEdge Ventures and Dharana Capital, most funding continues to flow towards established electronics and wearables players rather than newer AI-native entrants.

Deal data from Venture Intelligence shows that the larger rounds between 2023 and 2026 went to health tracking ring-maker Ultrahuman, which raised $25 million in 2024, and electronics manufacturer Indkal, which raised $36 million in 2024 and $20 million in 2025. Smaller cheques went to companies such as smart mirror firm Portl, which raised $3 million in 2023, and neurostimulant startup InnerGize, which raised $3 million in February.

None of these companies have announced AI-first features or products so far.

“We have a large local market in India, but the products that come out of these startups will have to be superior because they're competing with products that will come in from the US,” said Chetan Mehta, founding partner at AUM Ventures. “Premiumization will also be a strong theme going forward.”

Brand positioning, some argue, could determine whether these devices remain niche products for affluent urban consumers or scale more broadly.

“The actual demographic target group will depend on positioning. Conventional wisdom suggests that it will be the affluent, health-aware population in cities,” said Amit Khanna, partner and automation ecosystem leader at Grant Thornton Bharat. “However, an intelligent marketeer can position the products better and price them affordably to attract the large middle class in smaller cities of India—that can make it a rage like TikTok.”

For now, the category remains small relative to mainstream smartwatches. The question is whether AI-first devices can meaningfully expand the wearables market, or merely carve out a premium sub-segment within a slowing one.