How AI Is Powering the Next Wave of Smart Wearables: Smart Glasses & Smart Rings

The smart wearables market is entering a decisive new phase, driven by rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), miniaturized sensors, low-power computing, wireless connectivity. Here WAWT expects wireless power to play a pivotal role enabling innovating designs, charging mechanism, fast charging, facilitating lower size (sleek and lightweight) batteries, and enhancing user experience. While smartwatches and smart fitness bands laid the foundation, smart glasses and smart rings are emerging as the next-generation form-factors redefining how users seamlessly interact with digital information, health data, and the physical world. AI now sits at the core of this transformation, enabling contextual awareness, real-time decision-making, and seamless user experiences all within compact, always-on devices.

While few OEMs and ODMs have already adopted wireless power, there are many still at development stage in introducing the much-needed wireless power technology. WAWT expects introduction of an innovative wireless power solution which though would be new to the market but could also be compatible with existing ones. Varying designs, form-factors, as well as use-case would determine the type of wireless power solution to adopt. Based on WAWT’s latest comprehensive report on wireless power market (Wireless Power Intelligence Service), the wireless-power-enabled smart glasses market, currently at the nascent stage, is expected to grow at a CAGR of more than 150% in next 2-3 years. The smart rings market would grow CAGR of more than 35%, due to existing levels of adoption of wireless power. Interoperable wireless power technology, which can also change other mobile and other consumer devices would gain faster share, led by innovative design and efficiency checks.

At Wired and Wireless Technologies (WAWT), we recognize smart glasses as a pivotal node in the growing ecosystem of connected wearables – one that leverages wireless power, advanced sensors, and intelligent computing to enable continuous, real-time information exchange.

AI as the Intelligence Layer of Wearables

At its core, AI transforms smart wearables from passive data collectors into proactive digital companions. On-device AI models and edge inference allow wearables to interpret voice commands, gestures, environmental data, and biometric signals in real time. This reduces latency, enhances privacy, and minimizes reliance on cloud connectivity critical for ultra-compact devices like rings and glasses.

AI in smart glasses would possibly enable computer vision, real-time translation, object recognition, navigation overlays, and contextual assistance, while smart rings would rely heavily on AI-driven analytics for health monitoring, sleep tracking, stress detection, and predictive wellness insights. Advances in lightweight AI models and neural processing units (NPUs) are making it possible to deliver these capabilities within stringent power and thermal constraints.

The Rise of Smart Glasses: From Niche to Mass Adoption

After years of experimentation, 2024–2025 marked a turning point for smart glasses, with consumer adoption accelerating significantly. According to recent industry reports, Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses achieved strong commercial traction, crossing the one-million-unit milestone and validating consumer demand for AI-powered, lifestyle-oriented eyewear. The success has shifted industry perception smart glasses are no longer experimental gadgets but viable consumer electronics platforms.

In late 2025, Meta launched the second-generation Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses, featuring improved battery life, enhanced audio, sharper cameras, and deeper AI assistant integration. These updates highlight a broader industry trend: prioritizing usability, comfort, and all-day wear over bulky AR-first designs.

Meanwhile, Google officially confirmed its return to the smart glasses market, announcing plans to launch AI-powered Google Glasses in 2026 under its Android XR ecosystem. The company’s renewed focus on AI-first interaction positioning glasses as a potential smartphone replacement signal intensifying competition. Google’s strategy aims to leverage real-time AI assistance, multimodal inputs, and tight integration with Android devices and cloud services.

Apple, though yet to announce a commercial product, has also fuelled market anticipation through increasing disclosures around its spatial computing and smart eyewear roadmap. Financial institutions such as the Bank of America Institute project that while AI glasses dominate near-term volumes, AR glasses are expected to mature by 2027 and potentially surpass AI glasses by 2030, reshaping the wearable landscape.

WAWT expects 50+ OEMs of smart glasses and 10+ OEMs of smart rings to introduce their innovative products in the market in the next 2-3 years. The identification of the ‘killer application’ would determine the success and growth rate for each of these wearable devices.

Smart Rings: Subtle, Powerful, and Always On

Parallel to smart glasses, smart rings are gaining momentum as discreet, health-focused wearables. Unlike smart watches, smart rings offer continuous biometric tracking without screen distractions, making them ideal for long-term health monitoring. AI algorithms play a crucial role in extracting meaningful insights from signals such as heart rate variability (HRV), blood oxygen levels, skin temperature, and sleep cycles.

By late 2025, consumer awareness and availability of smart rings expanded significantly, with multiple brands launching in markets such as India and Southeast Asia. Industry roundups from some highlight growing demand driven by wellness-focused users seeking non-intrusive devices. AI-powered trend analysis and predictive health alerts are becoming key differentiators, enabling early detection of fatigue, stress, and potential health anomalies.

Power, Connectivity, and the Wireless Challenge

As AI capabilities expand, power management remains one of the most critical challenges for smart glasses and rings. These devices require compact batteries, efficient wireless charging, and ultra-low-power operation to maintain user comfort and usability.

Wireless power technologies including inductive, resonant, NFC-based, RF-based, Infrared-based as well as multi-frequency solutions are increasingly important for wearables. Smart rings, in particular, benefit from contactless charging due to their sealed form-factor, while smart glasses demand lightweight charging solutions that integrate seamlessly into cases or everyday accessories.

AI also contributes to power efficiency by optimizing sensor usage, dynamically adjusting workloads, and enabling predictive power management. This convergence of AI and wireless power is accelerating innovation across the wearable ecosystem.

What This Means for the Wearables Ecosystem

The convergence of AI, smart optics, biometric sensing, and wireless power is creating a new class of context-aware, always-available wearable interfaces. Smart glasses are redefining human–machine interaction, while smart rings are reshaping preventive healthcare and wellness monitoring. As AI models become more efficient and hardware ecosystems mature, adoption is expected to expand beyond early adopters into enterprise, healthcare, automotive, and industrial applications.

The next wave of competition will be defined not only by AI features, but also by battery life, charging convenience, charging speed, interoperability, ecosystem integration, interoperability, and form-factor innovation areas where wireless technologies play a decisive role.

About WAWT

Wired and Wireless Technologies (WAWT), through its comprehensive research data, insights, and market intelligence on the wireless power market solution titled “Wireless Power Intelligence Service”, covers various types of wireless power technology solutions using different frequency levels inductive, resonance, NFC, RF, and Infrared-based. WAWT monitors the use of wireless power solutions across 30+ application markets, including automotive, consumer, computing, wearables, hearables, medical/healthcare, smart home, industrial, robotics, retail, infrastructure, and defence/space sectors.

Please email us at analyst@wawt.tech. Follow our LinkedIn page (WAWT) for the latest market updates, trends, and insights on the wireless power, wireless charging, and allied technologies.