The second half of the AI glasses battle has begun.

Wu Jia, the vice president of Alibaba Group and the president of Alibaba Smart Information Business Unit, said that AI glasses will truly kick off the human - machine interaction revolution in the AI era.

The AI wave is surging from the virtual world into the real world, and a new round of competition has begun on the edge side. From Alibaba's Quark to Li Auto's cross - border move and Google's collaboration with XREAL, AI glasses are experiencing another "new product wave".

Among them, the new Project Aura jointly developed by Google and XREAL is expected to be released by the end of 2025 and go on sale in 2026. As the world's first flagship - level AR glasses specifically designed for the Android XR platform, Project Aura is based on the OST (Optical See through) technology route, announcing that AR has officially entered the "Android moment".

For this joint release, Google will provide platform support in the operating system and XR ecosystem, while XREAL will provide the lightweight AR glasses hardware, which will be equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon® XR chips. According to XREAL, the product is mainly targeted at the developer community, aiming to attract more developers to carry out ecological development and improvement on the product's operating system.

Li Auto recently announced that it will hold a press conference for its AI glasses, Livis, on December 3rd. Judging from the official preview video, this smart glasses comes in multiple color schemes, can perform object recognition, and supports video shooting. It is also equipped with a pickup device, capable of "identifying music by sound" and supporting remote vehicle control, such as opening the electric sliding door, turning on the in - car air - conditioner and seat heating in advance.

Li Xiang, the chairman and CEO of Li Auto, said, "Li Auto's AI glasses are the best AI accessory for Li Auto." He also revealed that they are considering developing a Li Auto AI speaker, hoping to achieve more comprehensive coverage of AI capabilities among Li Auto users.

On November 27th, Quark AI glasses under Alibaba were launched, integrated with Tongyi Qianwen, and topped the best - selling list of smart glasses on multiple platforms within 4 hours of going on sale. In terms of hardware, it adopts a dual - chip design with Qualcomm's AR1 flagship chip and BES2800 chip from BES, paired with a dual - system of Android and RTOS, supporting dual - display, dual - optical engine and image distance adjustment technology. It is equipped with a dual - battery system and uses an array design of 5 microphones and 1 bone - conduction device.

As the large - scale AI model technology continues to improve, edge - side devices are gradually being launched, and glasses have become the category with the most products being launched first.

AI glasses are a type of smart wearable device that combines artificial intelligence technology with the traditional form of glasses. By integrating various sensors, processors, and intelligent algorithms, they can perceive, understand, and interact with the environment and user instructions. They are more lightweight, with significantly improved wearing comfort, making them suitable for long - term use. At the same time, their deeply optimized voice interaction ability can better meet the needs of modern life.

At the launch event of Quark AI glasses, Wu Jia, the vice president of Alibaba Group and the president of Alibaba Smart Information Business Unit, said that AI glasses will truly kick off the human - machine interaction revolution in the AI era, and the combination of AI glasses and AI creation will become the mainstream form of future creation. "We believe that in the next few years, shooting and recording centered around mobile phones will significantly shift to first - person shooting and recording centered around AI glasses."

Currently, AI glasses are regarded as one of the best carriers on the AI edge side. Tianfeng Securities pointed out that the large global user base of glasses provides a natural existing market for the intelligent upgrade of AI glasses. Coupled with the currently extremely low AI penetration rate, they together form the core logic for the vast growth potential of the AI glasses market. Looking ahead to after 2030, as AI and AR technologies become mature and integrated, the AI + AR smart glasses industry is expected to enter a period of rapid development, and its core growth momentum will come from the gradual replacement of traditional functional glasses (such as myopia glasses and sunglasses).

Wellsenn XR predicts that by the mature stage of the industry, the global sales volume of AI + AR smart glasses is expected to reach about 1.4 billion pairs, corresponding to a penetration rate of about 70%.

In terms of the industrial chain, the AI glasses industrial chain can be divided into optics, chips, displays, structural components, microphones, cameras, interaction, batteries, sensors, speakers, etc.

Since the second half of this year, the development of smart glasses has accelerated. In addition to Alibaba, Xiaomi, Baidu, Meta, etc. have successively launched new glasses products. China Galaxy Securities believes that the core change lies in the application of AR display function, which enables smart glasses to evolve from relatively simple audio and shooting glasses in terms of technology to AI + AR glasses with relatively high technical thresholds.

Securities firms believe that the ultimate form of AI glasses in the future may be the AI + AR form, that is, AR optical display + AI services. In terms of AR, in the cost breakdown of Huawei's AR glasses, the optical module and the screen account for the largest cost. In terms of AI, in the cost breakdown of Xiaomi's smart glasses, the chip has the highest cost, accounting for more than 25% in all versions of Xiaomi's smart glasses. Therefore, analysts point out that in the future, computing chips, optical modules, and screen displays may be the three largest cost expenditures for AI glasses.

This article is from the WeChat public account "Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily", author: Xiao K, published by 36Kr with authorization.