What’s with the AI notetaking devices all of a sudden?

This post is part of a paid partnership with Anker

I don’t know about you, but I’m surprised to see the wealth of AI notetakers suddenly heading onto the market. I didn’t think that they’d become so popular – after all, we already have smartphones that can record our musings and ramblings when we want them to.

I thought that things like the Otter app, which lets you record conversations and then uses AI to transcribe the findings, giving you summaries, actions and the chance to chat with your conversation, would be more than enough. With 300 free minutes per month, I assumed that would tick off our AI notetaking needs.

It appears I’m wrong. Across many sections of consumer tech, there’s a move back towards dedicated devices to do dedicated things and, when it comes to note taking, it appears people like the simplicity of a gadget whose only function is to record what’s being said around it and then summarise it all neatly..

Many of us are waiting with (sort of) bated breath to see what’s going to happen with OpenAI and the device that brand comes up with, now that it’s working with ex-Apple design genius, Jony Ive. (Fun fact, I once stood behind him at a press event while he was showing the new MacBook to Tim Cook – who had surely already seen it – and he smelled amazing).

The rumors are that there will be a screenless, always-on device that is somewhere between a friend and a computer – but that level of processing would potentially wreak havoc on the data centers that need to understand all that data and convert it into the information that can give you the useful insights.

And it won’t be creating a segment in the market – there are many physical AI notetakers out there, albeit not the always-on model being talked about here. If you’ve heard about these dedicated devices, then you’ll know that there are plenty of different designs, from the credit card-sized options to pendants to those that you wear around your wrist. The difference here is that they’re activated with a press or flicking a switch, making it easy to start and stop the session and not worry you’re being listened to all the time.

Wearing our words?

Anker’s Soundcore Work, a coin-sized device that gets going with a simple click, is one of those that are making note-taking easy with a click of a button, and it can be work around the neck as a pendant, clipped to clothing or attached to your phone with the magnetic dock. It;s getting wider traction too, being recently featured as a case study at the Microsoft Ignite 2025 Conference, as a good example of how cloud technologies can be integrated into a tiny device.

The thing that unites these devices is the idea of having a personal assistant that lives outside your phone – being able to hold the thing that’s listening and placing it where you want it precisely. The microphones are designed specifically to pick up voice (up to 5m in the case of the Soundcore Work), meaning you’ll get good accuracy in what’s being recorded, and the app can transcribe it with ease.

What I like about these AI notetakers (other than the fact I can be sure when they’re listening and not – I’m always going to be a big fan of a physical switch to know when something is off) is the ability to have a conversation with, well, my conversation. I can interrogate what was said, easily see the actions or read the chat in a different way.

While the cost of these devices isn’t huge to start with, it’s worth remembering that they’ll usually need a subscription to get the majority of the features – many give you free minutes of recording per month, but whenever I’ve used these regularly (recording thoughts on a walk, transcribing interviews and organizing work to-dos) you can easily burn through the free limits.

Prices vary for these subscriptions, and many are in tiers (for instance, the Soundcore Work Pro tier, with 1200 minutes of recording, is $69.99 for 12 months) but you’ll also get advanced features like being able to ask further questions of your recordings too.

The other advantage I’ve found in using these dedicated devices is the fact you don’t need to worry about the network failing. The recordings are stored locally, which isn’t always the case with apps. I’ve had issues before when I’ve walked through a low-signal zone and lost all my incredibly exciting musings – knowing that there’s a unit specifically ready to lap up my lame insights is a nice and secure feeling.

It’s good there’s a range of design options, as I’m not sure that I’m ready to wear a device around my neck all day, not least because of the aesthetic that doesn’t quite fit with my ‘I’m a 42-year-old man who still mostly dresses like a confused teenager’ style. I am fine clipping it onto the neck of my slightly ironic hoodie like a lapel mic – that feels nicer to me.

Will we see these devices become ubiquitous? Will people accept that one day we’re all going to be recorded all the time and we never need to remember what we said? We’re a long way from that – but if you want to be able to readily capture your thoughts, these notetakers are useful tools to let you turn the AI capture on and off when you need it.