Meta Demonstrates AI Smart Glasses in Bid to Lead Post-Smartphone Race

Meta is positioning itself as the frontrunner in the race to build the next major computing platform, betting that smart glasses rather than phones will become the primary way people interact with artificial intelligence. Fortune was given access to a private demo room at Meta's Menlo Park, California headquarters, where the company showcased its growing family of smart glasses. The demonstration included the flagship Ray-Ban Wayfarer camera-enabled glasses as well as a more advanced model that projects a high-resolution digital display inside the right lens. Using a companion smart wristband, wearers can control on-screen objects through subtle finger movements, such as tapping the thumb and forefinger together to open an app, or saying "Hey, Meta" to launch an AI chatbot. Meta executives describe this combination of wearable display, gesture control and voice as the template for how most consumers will eventually use AI. NDTV reports that the glasses are experiencing a boom in popularity even as they face privacy backlash and bans in some settings. The reporting collectively frames Meta as having taken an early lead over rivals in the emerging smart-glasses category.

Global Impact

Technological: Meta's early lead in AI-integrated smart glasses could accelerate the shift away from smartphones as the default AI interface, forcing Apple, Google and Samsung to respond with competing wearables and reshaping the consumer electronics roadmap over the next five years. Industry-specific: component makers in micro-displays, optics and gesture-sensing stand to benefit if the category scales, while traditional smartphone accessory markets face long-term substitution risk.