Google Restarts, Alibaba Enters the Game: Will AI Glasses Become a Myth or a Joke?

Behind the "Battle of a Hundred AI Glasses", there is an ecological gamble driven by the collective anxiety of tech giants, fearing to miss out on the next - generation user interface. The key to victory or defeat lies not in hardware specifications, but in the construction of closed - loop vertical scenarios and the control of real - world data.

Different from a few years ago, the AI glasses market is no longer a testing ground for a few tech enthusiasts. It has turned into a relentless marathon. Google has restarted its Glass project, Alibaba has launched six new products in a row, and even Li Auto, an automaker, has joined the fray. With tech giants flocking in, the "flood - of - models" strategy has made a comeback.

The frenzy of capital stands in stark contrast to the calmness of the market. On one hand, the global AI glasses market is expected to reach $4.2 billion in 2025, a year - on - year increase of 67.2%. On the other hand, consumers are still hesitating between watching and trying.

The real question is, is this hardware carnival driven by technology and capital an inevitable evolution of intelligent interaction, or just another over - hyped concept bubble? Will it be the next - generation super terminal that can revolutionize human - machine interaction, or will it end up like Google Glass, which was well - received but had poor sales?

Observation: Why are the giants all "wearing glasses"?

The latest data shows that in the first quarter of 2025, the global shipments of smart glasses reached 1.487 million units, a staggering year - on - year increase of 82.3%. The growth rate in the Chinese market was even more remarkable, reaching 116.1%, with 494,000 units shipped.

By the end of 2025, the AI glasses market is truly a battlefield where numerous players are vying for dominance.

Within just one month, Quark has continuously launched six AI glasses models, covering both consumer - grade and professional scenarios. Google has quietly restarted its Glass Enterprise Edition, and the new product Project Aura, developed in cooperation with XREAL, is expected to be unveiled by the end of the year. Coupled with manufacturers like Huawei, Xiaomi, and Meta, which have long been in the game, the market has quickly evolved from a marginal exploration to an all - out war.

According to the observation of "TrueView", the mainstream players in the current AI glasses market can be clearly divided into three categories:

Firstly, platform - type giants, such as Alibaba, Google, and Meta. They have a vast user base and data entry points. Their logic for entering the market is essentially ecological extension and defense.

Secondly, smartphone manufacturers with both hardware and software capabilities, such as Huawei and Xiaomi. They are good at integrating hardware capabilities with system experience.

Thirdly, the integration of vertical scenarios and technology, such as Rokid. By deeply integrating "AI + AR", it has established a differentiated competitive edge in scenarios like intelligent teleprompter, cross - language conferences, and industrial inspections.

Each type of player, each manufacturer, and each business model has its own rules, technologies, and user profiles. The differences are so great that the market can hardly keep up. The entry strategies and product positioning also vary significantly.

Take Alibaba as an example. The company's entry into the market follows a certain pattern, consistent with the group's "ecological integration" strategy this year. It has aggressively entered the consumer - grade market, with the starting price set below $2000, and has deeply integrated core ecological resources such as Tongyi Qianwen large - language model, Alipay, and Gaode Navigation.

Its Quark AI Glasses S1 supports voice or photo - based AI Q&A. The self - developed Master Agent large - language model control system can independently break down complex instructions and enable multi - round conversations. According to information on recruitment platforms, Alibaba is quietly building offline channels. It may cooperate with traditional eyewear stores to expand its network, aiming to fully integrate its online ecosystem with offline touchpoints.

The Li Auto AI Glasses Livis supports remote vehicle control, such as opening the electric sliding door, turning on the in - car air - conditioner and seat heater in advance. While having general functions, it is more focused on automotive scenarios. Smartphone manufacturers, including Xiaomi, have built their advantages in flexible OLED technology, health monitoring, and full - scenario perception.

Looking at the entire industry, this hardware wave led by giants has spawned at least 40 new AI glasses products in the first half of 2025, 2.3 times the total number in 2024.

However, the "flood - of - models" strategy has not led to an explosive growth in sales. An industry observer told "TrueView" that at present, AI glasses are still in the stage of market awareness and user habit cultivation. The core goal is not to achieve rapid scale and high sales volume, but to lower the user threshold, cultivate usage habits, build brand awareness, and develop scenario stickiness. The strategy is to quickly capture market share with cost - effective products and then achieve a commercial closed - loop through ecological services.

The extensive layout of large - scale manufacturers reflects their widespread anxiety. Functions such as AI assistants, object recognition, music playback, and photo - taking are highly homogeneous. Even with saturated resource input, it is difficult to create a significant gap in the short term. Many small and medium - sized manufacturers can quickly catch up.

This is very different from the path of smartphones, which took more than a decade to become homogeneous. As a result, giants are reluctant to over - invest in marketing. The core of the competition is no longer the hardware itself.

Comparison: A more difficult "interface" climb than smartwatches

The rise of AI glasses is a re - verification of the triangle law of technology, cost, and scenarios. However, its story is not unique. Its evolution path has both similarities and differences with the smartwatch market.

Similar to the early days of smartwatches, which relied on smartphones for linkage and had limited functions mainly for notifications and health tracking, today's AI glasses are undergoing a transformation from accessories to terminals.

The driving force comes from the lightweight breakthrough of large - language models on the terminal side. The inference efficiency of models such as Tongyi Qianwen Mini and Gemini Nano has increased several times compared to 2023, with the latency reduced to less than 100 milliseconds, making real - time natural voice interaction possible.

This is similar to how the improvement of chip energy efficiency and the miniaturization of sensors in smartwatches paved the way for independent sports and health monitoring.

At the core of business, all hardware waves are about the competition for user interfaces. Smartwatches have established the value of the wrist - worn interface, entering users' lives through health and sports data. AI glasses aim for a higher level, trying to break the handheld limitation and become a context - aware intelligent terminal covering vision and space with the potential of "all - day wear and seamless interaction".

This means that the data collected by AI glasses will be upgraded from heart rate and step count to continuous real - world images from the first - person perspective, environmental sounds, and interaction intentions, thus building a deeper ecological barrier. This is exactly the next - generation device form described by Altman, the head of OpenAI, which can "deeply understand scenarios and take over tasks for a long time".

The success of smartwatches lies in accurately targeting two major pain points: health management and efficient notifications, and building a hardware - software ecosystem around them. This is both the challenge and the opportunity for AI glasses.

There are signs of success in the B - to - B market. For example, Google Glass can identify equipment failures in industrial maintenance, with a similar value logic to the vertical deepening of smartwatches in professional sports.

To break through in the consumer market, a universally applicable scenario with the same level of demand needs to be found. Alibaba's attempt is to make high - frequency services such as navigation and payment voice - enabled and visual, achieving "what you see is what you get". However, this requires the experience to be better than that of smartphones and smartwatches. When users can pay and navigate with a simple wrist - raise, why do they need glasses?

Smartwatches took several years to balance battery life, comfort, and ecosystem. AI glasses face more severe challenges. They need to excel in wearing comfort, battery life (currently, the mainstream is only 4 - 6 hours), heat dissipation, and privacy and security. In terms of the ecosystem, they cannot simply mirror the functions of smartphones like early smartwatches. Instead, they need to create a unique scenario - based closed - loop, similar to how Apple Watch built an independent service around health.

This requires manufacturers to have top - notch hardware integration, AI technology, and cross - ecosystem integration capabilities.

The Core: The underlying logic and the key to victory for the giants

Looking beyond the surface of the giants' intensive entry into the market, their strategic core can be attributed to two intertwined main lines: ecological positioning for the next - generation interaction interface and an extreme desire for real - world data. Together, these form the underlying logic of the current rapid development of the industry and point to the key to victory in the future.

The "Battle of a Hundred AI Glasses" is essentially an ecological defense and expansion war that cannot afford to fail. For all - around giants like Alibaba, Google, and Baidu, AI glasses are the last missing piece in their vast digital empires.

They have all the elements, including computing power, large - language models, payment systems, navigation, and content. The only thing they lack is a hardware interface that can be attached to users all day long and enable seamless interaction.

Alibaba's strategic shift is highly representative. It has quickly upgraded from an initial tool - oriented approach centered around Quark to an ecological battle centered around the Qianwen App.

Alibaba internally positions Qianwen as the "symbol of Alibaba's AI consumer - facing brand". In an unprecedented move, it assembled more than 500 elites in 96 hours to form an independent project team, abandoning the traditional OKR system and going all - out.

This is not just about a pair of glasses or an app. It is about creating a super AI interface that can carry and connect all core businesses such as e - commerce, local services, and cloud services. The glasses and the app are just the tangible extensions of this ecosystem.

Baidu and Google, like "twins from different countries", follow a similar logic. Baidu has defined AI glasses as an "S - level strategy", and Google has restarted its project and joined hands with major supply - chain players. What they are competing for is not the market share of glasses, but the moat of their own ecosystems and the high - ground of users' minds in the next decade.

The "Battle of a Hundred AI Glasses" is also a battle for real - world data in the future. The evolution of large - language models is currently facing a bottleneck. The text and video data on the Internet are becoming redundant, while the physical and temporal data reflecting the operation rules of the real world are extremely scarce.

Li Xiang of Li Auto predicted three years ago that "AI glasses are the best carrier for collecting real - world data", and this insight has become an industry consensus.

As the only device that can perceive the user's environment, behavior, and even intentions from the first - person perspective all day long, glasses will become the ultimate sensor for collecting multi - dimensional continuous data, including vision, sound, location, and point of gaze.

These data are crucial for training world models that can understand and interact with the physical world.

Therefore, when giants invest in glasses, they are also hoarding the most critical strategic resource for the next round of AI competition: high - quality real - world data. Whoever controls these data may gain an advantage in the AGI race.

When the ecological battle and the data battle overlap, the competition dimension of the industry is completely reconstructed. The homogenization of hardware itself has accelerated the shift of the competition focus to software, ecosystem, and user experience.

In the next stage, the competitive barrier among players will shift from hardware innovation to ecosystem integration ability. The key to victory lies in whether the glasses can be seamlessly integrated into a necessary and high - frequency service closed - loop.

Alibaba's attempt is to integrate navigation, QR - code scanning, and payment to achieve "one - glance access". Li Auto combines vehicle control to create a "car - human integration" experience. Pure hardware manufacturers that cannot build a unique ecological value will face difficulties.

The "barrel effect" of user experience will be magnified infinitely. Under the story of ecosystem and data, any shortcoming of the product itself will be fatal.

The 40% return rate of Xiaomi's first - generation glasses and the failures of other brands due to Bluetooth connection or chip compatibility issues all confirm this. Users will not tolerate poor wearing experience, short battery life, or slow interaction for the sake of a great ecological concept.

At the same time, strategic patience will become a scarce resource. Whether it is cultivating an ecosystem or accumulating effective data, it requires long - term and continuous investment and cannot be achieved overnight. Alibaba's calm and restrained approach to traffic investment reflects its clear understanding that this is a long - term battle.

Although large manufacturers have resources, only those who are willing to endure initial losses, continuously iterate their products, and patiently cultivate scenarios may reach the end.

The current AI glasses boom is essentially the giants' race to build the infrastructure in the new era. It is not only a defensive extension of the mobile Internet ecosystem but also an active positioning for the era of general artificial intelligence.

Hardware is the carrier, the ecosystem is the moat, and data is the future currency. The outcome of the "Battle of a Hundred AI Glasses" will not be determined by a single "blockbuster product", but by who can find the most stable and sustainable balance among hardware experience, ecosystem synergy, and data value.

Greatness will come, but it will never be in the way we expect. For AI glasses, we should be more patient and less mythical.

This article is from the WeChat official account "TrueView". Author: Lao Lian. Republished by 36Kr with permission.