The market of A.I.-powered glasses appears to be heating up as tech giants race to create the next best personal A.I. devices. Later this month, Meta (META) is slated to unveil Orion, the company’s long-rumored augmented reality (AR) glasses, which CTO Andrew Bosworth touted as “the most advanced piece of technology on the planet in its domain.” Snap, the company behind Snapchat, also plans to reveal its fifth-generation AR glasses, called Spectacles, which can overlay custom filters over a user’s physical surroundings and record videos. Now, startups have entered the playing field, too, with A.I.-powered eyewear in an effort to take on Big Tech in the A.I. wearables space.
Innovative Eyewear, a Miami-based smart glasses company founded in 2019, claims it has seen sales “double” since introducing ChatGPT features on its frames about a year ago, according to Harrison Gross, the company’s co-founder and CEO. Through Innovative Eyewear’s app, Lucyd, users can directly talk to OpenAI’s A.I. chatbot through the frames’ microphones and listen to the A.I.’s answers through headphones. Because customers can seamlessly interact with ChatGPT without looking at their smartphones, these glasses could help reduce screen time and increase productivity, according to Gross. “We see A.I. as a second brain that can genuinely expand your cognitive abilities and your access to information,” Gross told Observer. “I often describe it as like having Wikipedia in your glasses.”
Innovative Eyewear’s growing sales suggest demand for A.I. wearables is on the rise. During Meta’s second-quarter earnings call in August, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the second generation of Meta’s Ray-Ban Smart Glasses, which include A.I.-assistants powered by the company’s Llama model that can respond to user voice queries, appear to be catching wind, calling the trend a “very positive surprise.” The global smart eyewear market was valued at $1.23 billion in 2022 and is projected to grow 27 percent annually now through 2030, according to market research firm Grand View Research.
Innovative Eyewear, which has collections with Nautica, Reebok and Eddie Bauer, says its glasses serve a different customer base than Meta’s. The company’s frames are marketed to everyday users, whether that’s the “daily driver” or “somebody who listens to a lot of podcasts and music,” whereas Meta’s frames are made for a narrower demographic, Gross said.
“The Meta product, in my view, is really geared towards the content creator niche,” Gross said. “If you’re a content creator making lots of Instagram videos, their product is better for that use case than ours is.” Users of Meta’s Ray-Ban can live stream video from the glasses to Facebook and Instagram, which some analysts say is a feature “most interesting for influencers,” according to a note from research firm Moors Insights and Strategy.
Some smart eyewear companies are trying to differentiate themselves through aesthetics. Solos, for instance, is positioning its A.I.-powered glasses as more of a fashion piece than a novel tech gadget. In June, Solos introduced a live A.I. search feature to its AirGo3 Smart Glasses that can spit out up-to-date information on the weather, news and stocks. Users can activate the A.I. through an app that combines models like ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude, according to Kenneth Fan, co-founder and CFO of Solos.
Unlike Meta’s and Innovative Eyewear’s built-in A.I. features, Solos’ pairs have a modular design where the front frame can be separated from the electronics in the back. That way, Solos can swap the front frames to create glasses in a variety of colors, fits and styles without manufacturing the glasses as a single unit. The patented design gives consumers choice, which Fan claims is in part why interest has “gone up considerably” since the launch of ChatGPT.
“Glasses are very personalized,” Fan told Observer. “We want to be comfortable in stylish classes first, and then add the smart features.”
A.I.-powered glasses could take years to see returns
While there seems to be a growing interest in A.I.-powered glasses, some experts are torn about whether the technology will catch on with consumers in a meaningful way. Historically, smart eyewear has struggled to find mainstream success. For instance, Google pulled the infamous Google Glass from the market twice after its 2013 release because of customer dissatisfaction and privacy concerns. Intel shut down its Vault glasses project months after the hardware giant unveiled it in 2018, citing difficulties in scaling. Amazon’s Echo Frames, which includes Amazon’s A.I. assistant Alexa, hasn’t gained widespread traction since its 2019 launch.
“Meta has already offered A.I.-powered glasses sold through channels where consumers would typically buy glasses, but so far uptake has been relatively low compared to traditional glasses,” Jitesh Ubrani, a research manager at market intelligence firm IDC who covers wearables, told Observer. “Until we get to a point where A.I. is genuinely useful rather than just novel and the glasses themselves are indistinguishable from their traditional counterparts, consumer adoption won’t be widespread.” As of 2023, the U.S. optical market is valued at $65.6 billion, with 93 percent of adults in the country wearing eyewear on a regular basis, according to the trade association The Vision Council.
Ubrani noted that it could take “years” for A.I.-powered glasses to be a hit. Nevertheless, Meta has sold over one million of its latest Ray-Bans since its release and sold out many of its styles. It’s a sign that A.I.-powered glasses may have “lots” of potential to become an accessory that’s widely worn, according to Avi Greengart, president and lead analyst at research firm Techsponential focused on consumer technology. The smart glasses market is still in its early stages, which means there’s “plenty of opportunity to innovate,” compounded with the “enormous ecosystem advantages” tech giants like Apple and Google can bring, Greengart told Observer.
Regardless of how quickly consumers flock to the frames, some analysts say tech startups could face challenges on the technical side. Startups don’t control the intellectual property of A.I. systems, which means that glasses are subject to bias, hallucinations and other “hurdles” that ChatGPT and other A.I. products face, according to Ubrani. Smaller companies, he added, also have to rely on existing hardware for displays, processors and batteries, which may not be advanced enough to address design challenges.
“Things that go on your face are subject to unique style, fashion and medical considerations that make product design, distribution and pricing especially difficult,” Greengart said. “You need to solve for different face shapes, different prescriptions, and it still has to be useful enough to justify its price point and any compromises.”
Regardless, the smart eyewear companies that spoke to Observer say they remain bullish on the emerging sector. Looking ahead, Solos is set to release its AirGo Vision glasses with a built-in camera that can detect and identify surrounding objects using ChatGPT-4o by the end of the year. Innovative Hardware has plans to get its frames into brick-and-mortar stores like Costco, America’s Best and Sam’s Club in an effort to reach middle America, Gross said. “I think it’s gonna be interesting to see how the space evolves over the next few years,” the CEO said.
