These AI-powered glasses want to replace your hearing aid

Key points

• Legato, a hearing tech startup, raised $12 million in seed funding from Neotribe Ventures, Listen, and Village Global.
• Its first product, Legato Frames, puts AI-powered hearing assistance into the arms of ordinary eyeglass frames and is expected to launch in autumn 2025.
• Around 50 million adults in the United States have hearing loss, but only about 20% of those diagnosed ever seek treatment.
• Co-founders Mehul Trivedi and Steve Romine previously worked on hearing and eyewear products at Bose, EssilorLuxottica, and Audicus.
• Legato Frames will be sold through eye-care providers and priced at a fraction of traditional hearing aids, with possible vision insurance eligibility.

Fifty million American adults live with hearing loss. Fewer than one in five ever does anything about it. Legato, a startup that emerged from stealth this week, thinks the problem is not the hearing loss itself but everything that comes with traditional hearing aids: the cost, the bulk, the stigma of wearing a device that announces a disability to everyone in the room.

First reported by TechCrunch, the company announced $12 million in funding alongside a first look at its debut product, Legato Frames, eyeglasses with hearing-assistance technology built into the arms of the frame. A launch is expected later this autumn.

How does the technology actually work?

Legato Frames use an AI system trained to tell voices apart from background noise, then amplify only the voices. That is a meaningful difference from how most hearing aids work today.

Conventional hearing aids use directional microphones that focus on sound coming from one direction. That works in a quiet room but can become an exhausting blur in a noisy restaurant, where every sound gets boosted together. Legato's approach tries to filter first, so the wearer hears speech more clearly without the mental fatigue that comes from spending all day straining to separate signal from noise.

The frames also solve an obvious problem with open-ear audio: sound leaking out and disturbing people nearby. Legato says a dual-speaker system directs audio toward the wearer while actively cancelling any sound that escapes, reducing spillover by 99% within a few inches of the ear. The person sitting across the table should hear nothing.

Who is behind this?

The two co-founders bring complementary experience in exactly the right fields. Mehul Trivedi led the creation of Bose Frames, the original audio sunglasses from Bose, and later worked on Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses at EssilorLuxottica. Steve Romine ran the hearing-aids division at Bose, then served as chief operating officer at Audicus, a hearing-care company. The pair founded Legato in late 2024 after Trivedi identified technology he believed could bridge smart eyewear and hearing care.

"Our goal is to make hearing as ubiquitous as vision," Trivedi said. "The idea of it being blurry again where you would just stop wearing your glasses is not a consideration. That's what we want to do with hearing."

What will they cost, and who can get them?

Legato is targeting people with mild to moderate hearing loss, the largest segment of the hearing-loss population. The frames will launch through select eye-care providers across the United States. Pricing has not been announced in full, but the company says they will cost "a fraction" of traditional hearing aids and may qualify for vision insurance when bought through an eye-care clinic.

If you have noticed yourself asking people to repeat themselves in crowded places, or turning the TV up louder than others prefer, a conversation with your eye-care or hearing-care provider when Legato Frames launch would be a practical next step. The dual role of glasses plus hearing help means one device instead of two, and one appointment instead of two specialists.

Common questions

Are these medical devices or consumer gadgets?

Legato has not yet disclosed whether Frames will carry a formal medical-device classification from regulators. The company says it targets mild to moderate hearing loss, a range that over-the-counter hearing aids now legally cover in the United States following a 2022 rule change.

Will they work if I already wear prescription glasses?

Legato has not published details on prescription lens compatibility ahead of the launch. Checking with your optician when the frames reach eye-care providers near you will give you the clearest answer for your prescription.

Could my insurance cover them?

Legato says purchases made through eye-care clinics may be eligible for vision insurance. Whether your specific plan covers them will depend on your insurer, so it is worth calling your provider before you buy.