Food for “air sous vide” does have to be vacuum sealed.
From pg. 9 of the Cosori deluxe US model cookbook,
and pg. 42 (the only air sous vide recipe in the book)
It also takes a lot more time, 3 hours air sous vide for a 10 oz. unspecified thickness of salmon fillet vs. (per the Joule app) 1 hour for a 1 1/2 inch thick salmon fillet.