From September 10 to 13, 2025, the “Inclusive Bund” Summit convened at the Shanghai Huangpu World Expo Park. At the sub-forum titled “From ‘Seeing’ to ‘Trusted Connectivity’: Unlocking the Service Potential of Smart Glasses,” industry experts, corporate representatives, and government officials gathered to discuss the current state, core challenges, and future direction of the smart glasses industry. Participants unanimously agreed that smart glasses hold vast potential as a key gateway for collaboration between next-generation smart terminals and intelligent assistants. Global shipments are projected to reach 15 million units by 2025, with China's market accounting for approximately 1.5 million units.
Industry Enters Critical Phase: Shanghai Builds Full Industrial Chain Layout:
Qiu Wei, Chief Engineer of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization, noted at the forum that AI glasses, as a new type of smart terminal, are currently in a critical phase of transitioning from technological validation to commercial implementation. Tech giants and innovative enterprises are entering the market en masse, poised for explosive growth.
After years of cultivation, Shanghai has established a comprehensive ecosystem spanning the entire smart glasses industry chain, giving rise to a cohort of leading enterprises. In core components, locally developed products like waveguide assemblies and main control chips are widely adopted by domestic peers, while a renowned optical company's Lingang production base commenced construction this year. In device manufacturing and branding, leading ODM firms handle most domestic smart glasses production, while multiple tech companies have launched proprietary brands.
To drive high-quality industrial development, Shanghai has outlined four key advancement strategies: First, strengthening policy guidance by increasing dedicated funding for R&D breakthroughs, technological upgrades, and smart factory construction. Second, tackling core technologies by enhancing edge-side chip AI processing capabilities and hardware-software integration, while accelerating the industrialization of lightweight, wide-field-of-view full-color waveguide display technologies. Third, creating benchmark products by cultivating locally competitive brands and incubating market-recognized hit products. Fourth, invigorate innovation by establishing public technology service platforms and supporting innovation entities' development in Shanghai through a multi-tiered talent service system.
Experience Revolution Takes Center Stage: Solving Pain Points, Reshaping Ecosystems:
Zhou Zhifeng, Vice President of Ant Group, stated that while current AI glasses have surpassed the technical threshold of “functionality,” they still fall significantly short of delivering a “user-friendly” experience. Key obstacles to widespread adoption include insufficient hardware lightweighting, challenges in balancing computing power and power consumption, and a lack of content ecosystems. He emphasized that the industry is at a pivotal turning point, shifting from a “hardware race” to an “experience revolution.” Three core challenges must be addressed: transitioning from bulky hardware to sleek, fashionable designs; evolving from single-function devices to immersive scenario experiences; and moving beyond fragmented AI applications toward native AI and intelligent agent ecosystems.
To address the challenge of trusted connectivity, Ant Group unveiled gPass—a global trusted connection technology framework for smart glasses—at the conference. This framework enables secure, trusted, and instant information exchange between AI glasses and intelligent agents while establishing a secure AI digital service ecosystem for eyewear manufacturers and developers. Currently deployed across multiple leading eyewear brands, gPass supports innovative scenarios like “visual payment.”
Regarding strategic logic, Zhou Zhifeng emphasized that exploring next-generation payment technologies necessitates next-generation terminals. Wearables—particularly glasses—may not fully replace smartphones but will undoubtedly become crucial next-generation access points. “This AI glasses boom represents not just hardware upgrades but a paradigm shift in interaction. Once glasses integrate AI assistants, display screens, and achieve sufficient lightweight design, they can evolve into wearable service gateways, redefining human-machine relationships.” He further predicted that if AI glasses become the gateway for intelligent agent collaboration, they could evolve into a super terminal connecting smartphones, vehicles, and homes. Achieving trusted interconnection, secure data flow, and seamless service integration across multiple terminals and intelligent agents will require concerted industry-wide efforts. Leveraging Ant Group's “AI-first” strategy and its three foundational AI assistants serving over 100 million users, AI glasses as a new interactive terminal will accelerate this transformation.
Building Foundations Through Technical Breakthroughs: Lightweight Design and Multi-Device Collaboration in Parallel:
At the forum, representatives from upstream and downstream enterprises shared technological breakthroughs and industry advancements, with lightweight upgrades and multi-device coordination emerging as industry consensus. Qiu Xudong, Head of Software for Goertek's AI Glasses Products, explained that current market offerings are transitioning from “full-featured AR” to lightweight smart glasses better suited for daily wear. To achieve weight reduction, Goertek is focusing on two key material innovations: First, replacing traditional TR90 and PC materials with ultra-thin, high-rigidity carbon fiber, which can reduce weight by 30%. This carbon fiber achieves a thickness of 0.2mm and enables 3D complex curved surface molding. It also reduces material deformation during wear from 3.5mm to 0.5mm, ensuring optical display stability for users with large fields of view. Second, developing ultra-light magnesium alloy materials that enhance strength by 58% compared to conventional market models, enabling thinner metal structural designs while meeting strength requirements. For critical component miniaturization, Goertek addressed issues like bulky hinges and exposed FPCs by introducing a titanium alloy hinge measuring just 0.3cc and weighing 0.8g. This hinge also supports a 15-degree outward flip function, further enhancing wearability.
Gao Kang, Vice President of Business Development at Hengxuan Technology, revealed that the AI glasses market will see significantly heightened momentum by 2025. The company's flagship 6nm process ES2800 series chip solution has already achieved tens of millions in shipments. By year-end, it will launch the new BES6000 series, with subsequent plans to advance 4nm process technology R&D to further reduce chip power consumption.
Qualcomm's XR Product Marketing Manager Zhang Bin offered insights from a technical architecture perspective, suggesting that future AI will transcend cloud limitations. Through a hybrid architecture integrating edge and cloud AI, it will enable seamless coordination across multiple terminals—glasses, watches, phones, and PCs—delivering a consistent user experience. “Different devices will leverage their respective strengths: Glasses capture what users see and hear, providing real-time environmental information; Watches collect human physiological data for analysis and alerts; Phones and PCs handle complex generation and inference tasks, with phones also serving as interactive hubs for multiple devices and providing computational power; Higher computational demands can be supplemented by the cloud or edge devices.”