Alibaba schlägt sich in den "Kampf um die Hundert Brillen" ein. Die erste Quark-AI-Brille taucht auf. Das Unternehmen erklärt: "Die Entwicklung ist abgeschlossen, und die Brille wird innerhalb dieses Jahres vorgestellt."

A magnified model of the Quark AI glasses is suspended in the air, with two oversized lenses demonstrating navigation and AI camera functions respectively. The near-eye navigation function of AutoNavi Maps appears on the left lens, while the right lens quickly switches to the AI camera interface, simulating real shooting scenes and real-time image recognition scenarios.

The exhibition booth is filled with AI hardware "enthusiasts". Although the real glasses were not available for on-site trial wearing, the audience interacted with the screen and perspective to unlock the smart glasses step by step.

On July 26, a reporter from Time Weekly learned from the 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference that Alibaba (09988.HK) made its debut of the first self-developed AI glasses at the Artificial Intelligence Terminal Industry Development Forum. This means that Alibaba has officially joined the "battle of a hundred smart glasses".

Quark AI glasses, provided by the interviewee

Alibaba revealed to the Time Weekly reporter that the research and development of the Quark AI glasses has been completed, and they are expected to be officially released within this year. Currently, the final price of the Quark AI glasses has not been disclosed.

Song Gang, the person in charge of the terminal business of Alibaba's Smart Information Business Group, told the Time Weekly reporter that AI glasses will be the most important product form in the field of smart wearables. They will become another pair of "eyes" and "ears" for humans, with strong scene penetration ability. "Glasses will definitely become the'sensory center' of the next generation of human-computer interaction, which will lead to a sharp explosion of personal data volume. Full-scenario business coverage and leading AI capabilities are exactly what Alibaba is good at."

The Time Weekly reporter learned that the Quark AI glasses are defined internally by Alibaba as "the culmination of the synergy between Alibaba's AI capabilities and its ecosystem". In the future, the Quark AI glasses will be deeply integrated with Alibaba and Alipay's ecosystems: they are equipped with the Tongyi Qianwen large model and the latest AI capabilities of Quark, and also support AutoNavi navigation, Alipay's "Scan to Pay", Taobao price comparison, Fliggy travel reminders, etc.

Quark AI glasses, photographed by the Time Weekly reporter

Taking the navigation scenario as an example, the R & D team, in collaboration with AutoNavi Maps, has developed a near-eye display navigation system suitable for AI glasses, which can provide accurate guidance in mobile scenarios such as cycling and walking. Quark's visual question - answering ability and learning and office capabilities will be natively adapted, enabling the AI glasses to evolve from "music - playing and photo - taking" to a real portable AI super - assistant.

To support the implementation of multi - modal AI capabilities, the Quark AI glasses have undergone a systematic reconstruction in their hardware structure. They have mainstream functions such as calling, music playback, translation, and meeting minutes, and have also achieved breakthroughs in AI interaction, wearing comfort, display and imaging, and battery life.

"Most of the existing products on the market have problems such as uncomfortable wearing, short battery life, and weak AI interaction, and have not really brought AI glasses into the mass consumer market," Song Gang told the Time Weekly reporter. In addition to integrating Alibaba's own ecosystem, the Quark AI glasses will cooperate with globally leading eyewear brands to solve the key bottlenecks in user experience through the integration of technology, channels, services, and C2M customization capabilities.

Jiang Han, a senior researcher at the Pangu Think Tank, told the Time Weekly reporter that AI glasses can further expand Alibaba's business boundaries and enhance its competitiveness in the technology field. By integrating the Tongyi Qianwen large model, Quark's AI capabilities, and ecological services such as AutoNavi, Alipay, and Taobao, Alibaba can provide users with a more convenient and intelligent living experience, thereby increasing user stickiness and brand loyalty.

"The significance of AI glasses to the Alibaba ecosystem lies in that they are not only a new hardware product but also an important entrance connecting online and offline services. Through AI glasses, Alibaba can collect and analyze data in more scenarios, providing strong support for future precision marketing and personalized recommendations," Jiang Han pointed out.

This year is the commercialization year of AI glasses, and the market demand is rising rapidly. IDC predicts that the shipment volume of smart glasses in China will reach approximately 2.9 million units in 2025, a year - on - year increase of more than 120%. Since the second quarter of this year, major companies such as Xiaomi, Huawei, and Lenovo have all had new developments in AI glasses.

The "debut" of the Quark AI glasses marks Alibaba's determination to increase its investment in AI hardware. In recent years, Alibaba has continuously increased its investment in AI and cloud infrastructure. In February this year, Alibaba announced that it will invest more than 380 billion yuan in the next three years to build AI and cloud computing infrastructure to accelerate the digital transformation of various industries.

Alibaba's exhibition booth, photographed by the Time Weekly reporter

Within Alibaba, Quark is an important front for AI - to - consumer (AI to C) business. On February 20 this year, at the earnings conference call for Alibaba Group's December 2024 quarter, Wu Yongming, the CEO of Alibaba Group, pointed out that within the group, the AI to C business is mainly represented by the Quark and Tongyi apps.

"Quark's AI search is currently the most - used application in the AI search field in China. We believe that there is a huge room for improvement in the application of large - language models in AI for users' search, productivity creation, and work efficiency improvement," Wu Yongming said.

Previously, Alibaba merged the Tongyi Qianwen team into the Smart Information Business Group and announced the integration of the Tmall Genie hardware team and the Quark app team, with Wu Jia, a vice - president of the group, in charge of the AI to C business.

The debut of the Quark AI glasses is Alibaba's "challenge" to the consumer - grade AI hardware field, marking another strategic bet in the AI field. So far, Alibaba's AI to C strategy is moving from the software field to multi - form hardware.

(Reporter Yuchen from Time Weekly also contributed to this article)

This article is from the WeChat official account "Time Weekly" (ID: timeweekly). Author: Liu Ting, Editor: Yang Chunxia. Republished by 36Kr with permission.