Forget About AR Glasses (For Now). AI Glasses Are Next.
As we stand on the brink of a new AI era, technology companies are rewriting the narrative of wearable technology. The allure of AR glasses, with their detailed graphics and digital overlays, is giving way to the practical magic of next-generation smart glasses known as “AI glasses.” AI glasses move the focus from enhancing visual content to enriching our daily lives with intelligently processed information. AI glasses promise to bring a level of convenience and utility that AR glasses, in all their complexity and visual prowess, have struggled to achieve.
For years, Augmented Reality (AR) glasses have been at the forefront of tech enthusiasts’ imagination, promising a future where digital and physical worlds merge seamlessly. “The race to develop AR glasses has always been about pushing the limits of visual fidelity, creating devices capable of overlaying high-resolution digital images onto our physical environment,” notes Tomas Sluka, CEO and Co-founder of CREAL, a leading developer of light field display technology.
But despite the technological achievements, wearable devices have often stumbled when it comes to practicality and form factor. They’re bulky and power-hungry and haven’t found a “killer” application in our daily lives (yet).
Then came AI.
Imagine glasses providing you real-time insights and notifications tailored to your environment and activities. Rather than high-resolution images, simple information guides you through a new city with only arrows and notifications, translates a foreign language in real time, or reminds you of a vaguely familiar person’s name and affiliation as you run into them on the street.
Indeed, to be useful, such information does not require complex visuals. “It’s not about how much you can see, but what you understand from what you see,” explains Sluka.
“This shift is a testament to the evolving relationship between humans and technology, where the value is more in intelligently enhancing our reality with relevant and timely information and less in visual augmentation.” Tomas Sluka, CEO & Co-founder, CREAL
By focusing on utility over spectacle, AI glasses thus offer a more accessible entry point into the world of smart wearables and the potential applications are as diverse as they are intriguing.
The reorientation from AR to AI glasses marks a paradigm shift that is driven by a pragmatic reassessment of what wearable technology can and should offer. “High-resolution displays and rich 3D content, while impressive, come with significant costs, both in terms of device complexity and user accessibility,” notes Sluka. Instead of doubling down on display technologies that allow for high fidelity visuals, the industry’s emphasis is now on delivering smart, timely, and contextually relevant information through a much simpler interface and a connection to your phone. Early applications include EssilorLuxottica’s Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, which uses a voice-controlled interaction with Meta AI’s intelligent assistant.
As AI continues to mature, the value it can bring through simple, intuitive interactions is becoming increasingly apparent. As such, AI glasses represent not just a new product line, but a new approach to technology — minimalist, intelligent, and seamlessly integrated into our lives. They signal a future where technology doesn’t overshadow our reality but enhances it in subtle, smart, and genuinely useful ways.
As we look towards the future, it’s clear that in the shorter term, AR glasses as we’ve come to expect them are giving way to AI glasses. A reminder that less is more, and smarter is better. Investors in Singularity Strategies are exposed to these new technologies as they come to fruition.
About The Singularity Group
The Singularity Group (TSG) quantifies applied innovation for investors in listed equities. TSG is the initiator of the Singularity Index™ (Bloomberg ticker: NQ2045), a global, all-sector benchmark and gold standard for applied innovation. The Singularity Strategies include The Singularity Fund (UCITS Lux), Singularity Reshoring(UBS AMC), the Singularity Small&Mid (UBS AMC), and the recently launched LUKB Smart Farming (AMC). The Swiss investment advisory boutique works closely with the Singularity Think Tank, a network of entrepreneurs and academics with deep insights into innovation value chains. Their input forms the foundation of TSG’s proprietary innovation scoring system that quantifies the engagement of companies within a set of curated Singularity Sectors worldwide across all market capitalizations and industries. The Singularity Innovation Score (SI-Score; see below) defines how much value listed companies are generating through applied innovation.
The Singularity Innovation Score (SI-Score): A company’s SI-Score represents the percentage of its revenues associated with innovation. It reflects a company’s ability to create innovation- versus commoditized -business and -cash flows, and its ability to participate in technological evolution. Changes in the SI-Score are just as important as the absolute value. A company’s SI-Score relative to its overall GICS sector can say a lot about the competitive standing and ability to gain and maintain market share. Regional SI-Scores can be used to evaluate the innovation power of markets as well as to gauge companies’ standing in different regions.
