On August 18, Shokz, the globally leading open-ear headphone brand, hosted its OpenFit 2 AI media briefing in Shanghai. The event centered on the theme "In the AI Era, How Sound Becomes Productivity," with key attendees including Liu Yating, Brand Marketing Director for Shokz China, and Zeng Chen, Deputy General Manager of Alibaba Cloud's Qwen Large Model Business, who gathered with media representatives to explore the product value and industry trajectory of AI earphones.
During the briefing, Shokz unveiled its first AI earphone, the OpenFit 2 AI. The device opened for pre-orders on August 17 and will hit the market on August 24 at a price of 1,398 RMB. Shokz emphasized that the value of an AI earphone is built on solid audio hardware and a comfortable wearing experience, with AI capabilities focused on solving real-world pain points rather than merely stacking features. Within this framework, "productivity" points to a clear value proposition: ensuring sound is captured accurately, understood effectively, structured systematically, and converted into actionable next steps when needed. This is the core intent behind evolving the OpenFit 2 AI from a listening device into an intelligent office assistant.
Targeting Core Business Needs, OpenFit 2 AI Turns Sound Into Productivity
Mao Yu, Product Manager for the OpenFit 2 AI, shared the product's practical applications during the briefing. He explained that to transform "productivity" into tangible efficiency, Shokz partnered with the Qwen large model to develop an integrated audio-AI solution spanning hardware and software. This approach focuses on three core scenarios: recording-to-text transcription, meeting minutes, and translation, addressing challenges in information capture, content organization, and cross-language collaboration during business communication.
In terms of user experience, the product supports three methods to initiate recording: physical buttons on the earphones, the charging case, or the Shokz App, and it can automatically distinguish between speakers. The device supports up to 8 hours of call or on-site recording, and double-tapping the earphone button during recording allows users to flag key points for quick review. Editing is available on both the app and web platforms.
To meet business meeting demands, the product comes with 19 industry-specific summary templates, enabling rapid generation of multi-dimensional AI summaries—such as topic abstracts, action items, and mind maps—after meetings. These templates are tailored for deep-dive meeting organization needs in verticals like finance and law. For cross-border business communication, the device offers four translation modes covering 30 languages and 19 dialects, breaking down language barriers in scenarios like international calls, industry forums, in-person negotiations, and foreign language audio-video learning.
Additionally, Shokz will launch an innovative "AI Lab" feature in collaboration with Guangfan Technology, powered by Guangfan's AI capabilities. This will deliver tools like intelligent dialogue, scheduling and to-dos, quick notes, and smart messaging, with the feature slated to roll out to OpenFit 2 AI users in the near future.
Shokz Teams Up With Qwen Large Model for a Synergistic Hardware-Software Approach to "Understanding the World"
For the core AI technology underpinning the OpenFit 2 AI, Shokz chose to collaborate with the Qwen large model. The Qwen model has achieved top global rankings in both the AA-WER Index, which measures comprehensive recognition accuracy, and the GigaSpeech Benchmark, which targets real-world scenarios. In meetings with frequent multi-speaker exchanges, Qwen not only delivers first-character responses within a hundred milliseconds but also uses deep semantic understanding to convert cross-border meeting recordings into structured minutes in real time. This combination of speed and precision provides a solid foundation for the OpenFit 2 AI's AI features.
Technical leadership is just the starting point; what truly generates value from AI is a deep understanding of professional scenarios. To ensure the OpenFit 2 AI truly suits the needs of professionals in finance, law, and consulting, Shokz has adhered to the core principle of "deep insight into users' real-world scenarios." On top of the Qwen large model, Shokz built a comprehensive testing and tuning system, layering in a customized lexicon of 12 industry-specific hot words.
This hardware-software synergy is turning general AI capabilities into genuine professional productivity. With this setup, the OpenFit 2 AI can accurately transcribe 49 languages, with accuracy rates exceeding 90% across all of them. For instance, in the legal sector, Chinese legal scenario accuracy has risen from 79.55% to 94.32%, a 14.77% improvement, while English legal scenarios have surged from 32% to 92%, a 60% boost. The collaborative hardware-software design enables the OpenFit 2 AI to grasp professional contexts, truly delivering on the promise of "hearing clearly and recording precisely."
Exploring New Directions for AI Earphones, Live Recording Demonstrates Productivity
In a roundtable discussion titled "In the AI Era, What Kind of Earphones Do We Need?", guests exchanged views on the product value of AI earphones, industry technology inflection points, and core user scenario needs. Cao Siqi, a senior reporter from GeekPark, noted, "The less 'presence' an AI earphone has, the higher its user value, allowing AI to integrate more seamlessly into workflows." Zhang Wei, a partner at Beijing Zhilin Law Firm, shared a professional user's perspective on evaluating AI earphones: "Understanding doesn't just mean generating a smooth-looking summary; it requires accurately distinguishing between facts, opinions, conditions, exceptions, responsibilities, and timelines."
Worth highlighting, the entire roundtable was recorded and transcribed in real time using the OpenFit 2 AI, with meeting minutes, action items, and mind maps displayed live, visually demonstrating the product's effectiveness in scenarios with multiple alternating speakers.
From "Great Sound" to "Great Assistant," Shokz Enters a New Phase of AI Hardware
The debut of the OpenFit 2 AI marks a significant step for Shokz in advancing sound devices toward becoming personal intelligent gateways. As Shokz's first AI earphone, it signifies the brand's evolution from "great sound" to "great assistant," moving open-ear headphones from "being able to hear" to "being able to understand," and from "recording sound" to "comprehending information."
Behind this leap lies Shokz's deep technical expertise and proven market performance. According to Omdia data, Shokz has ranked first globally in open-ear headphone shipments for three consecutive years from 2023 to 2025. Building on this long-standing leadership in the global open-ear headphone market, Shokz is leveraging AI capabilities to unlock new value for "open listening" in information-intensive work, continuously expanding the boundaries of open-ear headphone use cases.
Looking ahead, Shokz will continue to uphold its long-term philosophy of "one meter wide, one kilometer deep," focusing on users' genuine needs. Through ongoing original technology exploration, the brand aims to refine niche scenario experiences to the highest standard, consistently leading the open-listening industry forward.
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