Natura's $99 smart ring lets users summon AI agents by touch

Natura, an AI and hardware startup, has unveiled Interface, a $99 smart ring built for an era of AI agents. With a press of a finger, a wearer can ask an AI agent to complete a task or capture a thought without reaching for a phone. The ring also doubles as a health tracker, monitoring heart rate, heart rate variability, sleep, and activity.

The company was founded by Carlo Edoardo Ferraris, who previously founded tech-accessories company Rolling Square. After years building consumer hardware, Ferraris became convinced that fast-advancing AI needed a new kind of interface — one that lets people ask for what they want the way they’d ask a person. “Over time, we evolved to an understanding where you really want to have access to your agents 24/7,” Ferraris told TechCrunch. “The form factor of the ring is perfect for this because it’s basically an extension of you. You can go shower with it; you can sleep with it. You never take it off.”

At launch, Interface will connect to a range of AI agents and apps, including Meta’s Muse, Instinct, Grok Bot, Claude, and ChatGPT. Users who rely on multiple agents can specify which one handles a given task — asking Claude to write code, Instinct to book a reservation, and Grok Bot to handle something else — and responses can arrive through connected headphones, an iPhone Live Activity, or the NatureOS app. Beyond AI agents, users can also control their own devices, including computers; Ferraris expects most tasks people currently do on screens to eventually shift to voice requests handled by agents.

Interface is not Natura’s first product — that was HumanPods, a pair of AI-enabled earbuds for interacting with AI agents — but the company concluded the ring was a better form factor for the latest advances in voice technology. Preorders are expected to open next month, with shipping slated for December or January. The ring will launch at $99, though Natura plans to eventually raise the price; after an initial three- to six-month free period, the company plans to charge a $9 monthly subscription. Natura says the ring’s manufacturing costs are comparable to those of the Oura Ring and Samsung Galaxy Ring, which use many of the same components, but it is pricing Interface lower at launch to reduce the barrier to entry. The ring can last six to 12 days on a charge, depending on usage, and takes 100 minutes to fully recharge.

Why it matters

Natura is betting that AI-agent access, not health tracking alone, will be the feature that differentiates smart rings as voice-driven agents become a bigger part of how people use devices.