At last month's CES, Belgian design and engineering studio Futurewave introduced ÖFY, a personal audio companion designed to listen, understand, and delegate. The discreet wearable tech is powered by AI-enhanced software that records conversations, transcribes notes and delegates tasks automatically across tools.

Futurewave spent two years observing and analyzing the AI wearables space, uncovering the fact that the market is moving too fast for thoughtful design. New models monthly, shifting use cases, reckless form factor evolution and unclear value propositions. Most companies respond by rushing to ship product. Instead, Futurewave chose to slow down the process to build something with lasting value.

Joachim Froment, Futurewave's co-founder and creative director, is the jury captain for the 2026 Core77 Design Awards Sports & Oudoors category. Froment states that it is important to "refuse the pressure to launch prematurely. Build strong features while the intelligence layer matures."

Futurewave has explored embedded AI concepts in previous work, notably with iXi, a robotic golf trolley that uses AI to track track players and position itself intelligently on the course. This project was the Professional Winner in Sports & Outdoor category in the 2025 Core77 Design Awards, and was also chosen as the overall Editor's Choice Best in Show.

In creating ÖFY, their research with corporate groups on future workflows for tradespeople and craftspeople revealed a consistent pattern: professionals across sectors lose valuable expertise time to documentation, transcription, and complex administrative tasks - low-value activities that fail to leverage their actual competencies. With ÖFY the team hopes to build a system that will allow users to seamlessly activate workflows to handle these activities, freeing up time for more complex activities that can't be done by an AI agent.

At this time ÖFY is a concept, but the Futurewave team is seeking to validate intuitions through deployment with professionals facing genuine workflow challenges, looking for direct feedback that informs platform refinement and feature prioritization. The first batch of prototypes will be shipped to partners throughout the coming year.