decade ago, Google Glass, Microsoft HoloLens, and Magic Leap made augmented reality (AR) devices look inevitable. Then Meta bet its future on the metaverse. Neither paid off, but AI may be the catalyst AR needed.
The appeal of AR is simple: wear a device that layers graphics like messages, directions, and information over your environment, no other device needed. At a time when people are actively trying to spend less time on their devices and out in the real world, this should have been a no-brainer. So why hasn't it taken off? It comes down to three factors: utility, form factor, and price.
Convincing people that they can ditch their laptop or phone for something to wear on their face takes a lot of mental reframing. That is especially difficult to do when these devices are often bulky, heavy headsets that, in most cases, require another dangling accessory to be tethered to, such as a computing puck or a battery. Even for the most experimental of users, paying to play can be a bit difficult as the price tags are high, with headsets like the Apple Vision Pro retailing for $3,500.
But to fix all three of these issues, the first step may be to convince people of the utility of AI.
There has been an increase in demand for smart glasses in the past year, influenced by people wanting an AI assistant to break out of just a chatbot interface on a device screen and into the real world. According to IDC data, smart glasses without displays surged 167% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2026, with approximately 2.25 million units sold. That has trickled into AR, ER, MR, and VR categories, which the same data says have grown 86% year-over-year.
While smart glasses without displays have been shown to provide AI with more context via cameras and microphones, AR can take this much further. Not only can you give the device context about the world through its cameras, but you can also see the results overlaid directly in your environment. For instance, asking something like 'How would this piece of furniture look in my living room?' would show you the answer anchored in your actual space, in real-life proportions. The rise of AI has also pushed manufacturers to develop more capable wearable processors, like the Snapdragon AR Elite that Qualcomm unveiled at AWE. As those chips get smaller and more powerful, so too could the headsets that house them, directly tackling the form factor problem.
We saw a glimpse of this at AWE with both the XREAL Aura and the new Snap Specs, which mimic the form factor of regular glasses, albeit chunkier, ditching the traditional headset entirely for AR experiences.
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As demand grows and companies iterate, prices for AR glasses will naturally drop, and the hardware will improve. That will mean longer battery life, lighter frames, and all-day wearability, potentially giving AR the mainstream moment it has been waiting for. The Snap Specs offer the biggest meaningful step toward that reality, but it's still several steps away from being a product anyone will buy to replace their phone. Still, the path ahead has never been clearer, thanks to breakthroughs in chips, displays, and general miniaturization of technologies. And, AI is likely to continue to fuel new features to make smart glasses more useful and hardware advances that will accelerate progress toward AR.