License to snoop, snipe? Plaud AI sells 1M voice recorders as workplace privacy debates intensify

Plaud AI has sold over one million of its voice-recording devices that use artificial intelligence to transcribe and summarize conversations in real-time. The wearable gadgets, priced at $159 each, are positioning themselves as productivity tools for corporate executives and professionals, but they’re raising significant questions about workplace privacy and recording ethics as they prepare to hit Best Buy shelves this August.

What you should know: Plaud offers two AI-powered recording devices designed to streamline workplace note-taking and meeting documentation.

• The Plaud Note slips into a phone case or shirt pocket, while the smaller Note Pin can be worn as a necklace or wristband.
• Both devices record up to 20-30 hours of conversation per charge, then send audio to cloud-based AI models including Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro, OpenAI’s GPT-4.1, and Claude 4 for transcription and summarization.
• Users can access conversations through a mobile app that provides full transcripts, AI-generated summaries, and suggested next steps from meetings.

The big picture: Founded in 2021 by former investment banker Nathan Xu, Plaud represents a hardware-first approach to solving workplace productivity challenges that affect 60% of knowledge workers who struggle to focus due to endless meetings and communications.

Why this matters: The devices could fundamentally change workplace dynamics and introduce new privacy concerns as recording conversations becomes normalized.

• Company executives acknowledge that employees will likely use the devices to report problematic coworkers to HR by sharing recorded conversations.
• Around 20% of users are doctors seeking to streamline medical documentation, prompting Plaud to achieve HIPAA compliance for healthcare privacy standards.
• The technology offers 30 profession-specific templates for lawyers, therapists, and other fields to customize AI responses.

Privacy and accuracy concerns: Despite encryption, the devices feed personal conversations into third-party AI models, creating potential security vulnerabilities.

• “Privacy is our top priority given the nature of this product,” says Elina Tsao, head of brand at Plaud AI.
• AI hallucinations remain a significant risk, with Plaud acknowledging it has “no control over whether the AI hallucinates because it doesn’t build the models.”
• Transcription accuracy varies dramatically by language, with English achieving “more than 95% accuracy” while other languages perform much worse.

Competitive landscape: Plaud positions its hardware approach as more transparent than smartphone apps, arguing that visible devices make recording more obvious to participants.

• The company views the race for AI-powered transcription as winnable against tech giants like Apple, noting that “a lot of features are not delivered” in Apple Intelligence.
• Plaud’s user base spans primarily the US, Japan, and France, with plans for big box retail expansion.

What they’re saying: Industry observers recognize both the promise and peril of ubiquitous workplace recording.

• “Productivity is broken,” Tsao told reporters, positioning AI as the solution to meeting overload.
• PCMag’s Brian Westover called the Note “the best AI hardware product I’ve used.”
• The company debates internally whether devices “should always be on, but for now it’s not.”