Plaud Inc., the maker of artificial intelligence-enabled note-taking devices, today introduced the Plaud One Explorer Edition, a pair of earbuds and a charging box that connect people to AI agents for work and everyday digital tasks.

Both the Plaud One earbuds and the case can act as listening devices to record nearby conversations, and the buds act as a mobile interface between humans and AI chatbots and agents. With the press of a button or a voice command, either can capture conversation.

Earbud users are already used to carrying a charging case. With Plaud One, the case acts as a charger, a recording interface and a wireless connection. It includes a built-in eSIM with 4G LTE to keep itself and the earbuds connected without relying on a smartphone. Users can use it or the earbuds to upload conversations automatically from anywhere.

The earbuds look similar to Apple AirPods, all white, with a long flange that lets them sit in the ear. While wearing the earbuds, users can have Plaud listen in on conversations, take notes or speak directly with the company’s AI agent, Plaud Agent. It can be hooked up with native integration tools such as Gmail, Google Calendar, Notion and Slack to maintain a full view of a person’s needs.

Or users can connect the earbuds to a third-party agent such as Anthropic PBC’s Claude or OpenAI Group PBC’s ChatGPT.

“AI agents become truly useful when they understand the context in which human intent is formed,” said co-founder and Chief Executive Nathan Xu. “That context lives in conversation. Plaud One brings agents closer to the real-world work people do every day, while Plaud Intelligence gives them the context and capabilities to act.”

The charging case is larger than the usual case, shaped like a small box. It contains a microphone that gives it a fair listening range. That means it can be placed in the middle of a table during a meeting to capture an entire group conversation for a team meeting or a client update.

Afterward, a user could pop in the earbuds, call up Plaud Agent, and ask it to produce first drafts of deliverables for the internal team or clients. For example, it could produce a summary of the meeting, email it to the appropriate people who might have missed it in person, or draft reports based on metrics that need to be sent to upper management or the client by end of day.

Pluad is betting this in-the-moment interface will let users quickly get up to speed while they’re in the hallway, between meetings and their workstation. It allows them to let their agents get to work so that they can sit down and look at drafts, update them to their liking and then get going.

A lot of information and context is lost between meeting notes and the keyboard. Plaud provides a contextual memory of what was said, what people needed and what they want. It also gives users a way to connect quickly with their AI agents discreetly, get updates and put AI bots to work.

The company offers numerous other AI-enabled note-taking devices. These include the Note, a wallet-sized form factor that attaches to the back of a smartphone, and the NotePin, a pill-like microphone device that attaches to a lapel or lanyard.

The company said the Plaud One Explorer Edition is available for pre-order starting today for $249.99 and includes $200 in credits, which power the company’s upcoming AI agent capabilities and other features. Although the company offers a free subscription for note-taking and many AI features, credits come through monthly paid subscriptions. Shipments will begin in the fourth quarter of 2026.

Image: Plaud