AI innovation powers China's lead in smart eyewear

As artificial intelligence is rapidly evolving and spearheading an industrial revolution, Chinese tech heavyweights are doubling down on the burgeoning smart glasses sector, which experts said is expected to become a key gateway for next-generation human-machine interaction and inject new vitality into the global consumer electronics market.

Fueled by the widespread adoption of large language models, the intelligent and lightweight wearable devices boast strong features such as semantic understanding, voice interaction, image recognition and search functions, allowing users to access information more conveniently and interact with the surroundings in real time, the experts added.

Estimated figures from market research company International Data Corp show that global smart glasses shipments will reach 12.8 million units in 2025, up 26 percent year-on-year. Shipments from the Chinese market alone are projected to exceed 2.75 million units, surging 107 percent year-on-year and ranking first worldwide.

In the first half of 2025, shipments from Chinese smart glasses manufacturers surpassed 1 million units, accounting for 26.6 percent of the global total. The compound annual growth rate of China's smart glasses shipments is estimated to reach 55.6 percent between 2024 and 2029, taking the top spot globally, according to IDC.

Leading Chinese tech companies are racing to make smart glasses the next mass-market device after smartphones. Baidu recently launched its AI-powered glasses Xiaodu Pro, which weighs just 39 grams and integrates a multimodal large model, supporting an array of AI functions, including translation, object recognition, photography, recording and conference memo.

Alibaba's self-developed Quark AI glasses are available for presales on the company's e-commerce platform, with the official release scheduled for next week. The eyewear is powered by the company's Qwen LLM and its Quark AI assistant, featuring hands-free calling, music streaming and real-time language translation to compete with United States-based tech company Meta's smart glasses.

Ye Qingqing, an analyst at IDC China, said the integration of AI models with lightweight hardware devices will give rise to a new human-machine interaction platform, estimating that the AI glasses market is on track to experience rapid growth in 2026.

Continuous breakthroughs in multimodal AI perception and semantic understanding technologies, coupled with customized AI services based on massive data from user behaviors, will accelerate the development of the smart glasses industry and the integration of such devices into people's daily lives, she said.

Ye estimated that Chinese smart glasses shipments will exceed 4.9 million units next year, driven by technological advancements, improved user experience and decline in prices.

Zhu Keli, founding director of the China Institute of New Economy, said that Chinese internet companies have accumulated abundant technological strength in AI algorithms, natural language processing and visual recognition.

"As a next-generation intelligent terminal, AI-powered glasses meet users' growing demands for interaction and real-time information acquisition," he said.

Highlighting that smart wearables are becoming a new growth engine in the consumer electronics market, Zhu said he is bullish on the prospects of AI glasses, which will likely serve as personal digital assistants and deeply integrate with smart homes, vehicle-mounted systems and healthcare applications.

He called for further efforts to boost innovation in key technologies, such as computing power and optical display, to enhance the performance of devices, enrich the content ecosystem and formulate relevant industry standards.

Zhu Mingming, founder and CEO of Rokid, a manufacturer of smart glasses based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, said that in the next three to five years, "AI-enabled glasses will undergo dramatic changes as more interactions will take place through smart glasses".

Last week, Rokid unveiled a lightweight, AI-powered eyewear device in partnership with domestic eyewear brand Bolon. The new device is integrated with leading Chinese AI models, enabling a voice-activated digital assistant.

fanfeifei@chinadaily.com.cn