Born in Kumamoto, Ai Hashimoto made her debut in 2008 through an audition for Sony's Newcome, which her mother persuaded her to attend. Her mother loves celebrities. She has two sisters, and she is the middle one. Her mother thought that she, of all the daughters, would be able to pass the audition. Right after the audition, Ai did not believe she would win. In 2010 she began working as a model for Seventeen magazine, and in the same year she made her acting debut in Give And Go, where she played the lead role.

She continued to appear in roles in Confessions and Sadako 3D. In 2013 Ai was awarded the Newcomer of the Year prize at the 36th Japan Academy Program. In 2014 she ended her modeling career. Hashimoto loves manga, karaoke, and bicycle rides. She says that when memorizing her scripts, she avoids trying to understand the character from the lines and instead strives to understand their spirit and motivation. Hashimoto is obsessed with eating tomatoes and calls the number three her favorite.