chat sparked the first wave of consumer-AI curiosity, but chat alone doesn’t create habit.
a lasting companion has to leave the textbox and share the user’s space- first as an avatar that carries history, then as hardware on a wrist or lapel, and eventually as ambient presence that answers faster than a swipe. the deeper the form factor, the stickier the bond.

1 · chat-first: cheap distribution, shallow roots

character.ai and its look-alikes exploded because a browser chatbox is zero-friction. the same ease is why most sessions reset to novelty: a blank slate can’t sustain context.
builder take: treat chat as your funnel, not your moat. ship explicit memory controls so users know what persists and why.

2 · avatars:  identity bonds & fandom economics

in honkai: star rail, “support characters” remember past battles and tease the next quest. players return because yesterday’s choices echo back- not because the model grew smarter, but because continuity creates ownership.

builder take: cosplay plus continuity turns fandom into predictable arpu. give users a stake in the character’s evolving memory.

3 · embodied hardware:  intimacy by proximity

a plain oura ring becomes a coach when a small on-device model taps your finger at dawn, summarising sleep debt and nudging a nap. no one opens the app; the haptic cue lives at skin level.

builder take: in hardware, habit loops come from ambient context capture and zero-effort delivery, not higher pixel counts.

4 · ambient presence: agents in ear and air

humane’s AI pin and meta’s ray-ban smart glasses both chase the same speed threshold: an answer that lands before a user can reach for a phone. when that latency target is met, the device feels like a companion; miss it and you’ve added friction.

builder take: ambient companions win by being faster than a swipe and falling back to text gracefully when networks wobble.

india as proving ground

bengaluru startup kridAI sells a sub-₹2 000 bluetooth pendant that speaks vernacular reminders and logs blood-pressure readings for neighbourhood clinics. no screen, two-day battery, sold through local pharmacies. adoption outpaces app-first bots because the form factor slips into daily ritual without demanding new behaviour.

why form factor matters

every step up the ladder: chat avatar to hardware to ambient. adds:

• persistent memory: context travels with the user, not the session.
  context capture: sensors or history make prompts feel pre-emptive, not reactive.

• switching cost: users abandon an app swipe easily; they rarely shelve a device that tracks their routines.

that compounding effect is why shallow chatbots churn while presence-based companions deepen.

build · watch · fix

• build for the space your user already occupies- browser, wrist, ear- then earn your way closer.

• watch battery budget and on-device inference cost; hardware love dies if chargers pile up.

• fix latency before features; an instant imperfect answer beats a delayed perfect one.

if you’re building companions that live where people already are- ear, wrist, camera- rather than another chat tab, boundless wants the first call.
→ build@boundlessvc.com

Next: “The Moat in Companionship”- the invisible rails that turn novelty into defensible habit.