Meta to unveil AI-powered smart glasses at Connect as Zuckerberg pushes 'superintelligence'
Company expected to show consumer smart glasses, Ray-Ban updates and AI feature roadmap while flagship Orion AR headset remains years away
Meta plans to unveil artificial intelligence–powered smart glasses at its Connect developer conference on Wednesday, continuing CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s push to position wearable devices as the next major interface for human-computer interaction.
The company is expected to present new consumer-ready smart glasses that analysts say will include a small display controlled by a wristband and early integrations with Meta’s services, while also previewing upgrades to its Ray-Ban Meta product line. Forrester Research director Mike Proulx said the event will be dominated by AI, “specifically AI glasses and superintelligence.” Zuckerberg is scheduled to deliver the keynote at 8 p.m. Eastern.
Analysts said the new glasses are likely to serve as an experimentation platform rather than a final product. Forrester analyst Thomas Husson said they should enable users to access time, weather, notifications, preview and frame pictures, show captions and translate speech, allow early integrations with WhatsApp and Instagram, and display responses from Meta AI. Husson also said the company will likely demonstrate enhanced AI capabilities in Ray-Ban Meta glasses to better interpret a user’s surroundings and context.
Meta last year teased a prototype called Orion, which Zuckerberg described as “the most advanced glasses the world has ever seen,” but the company and analysts say Orion’s holographic augmented-reality headset remains years from consumer availability. Instead, the near-term devices on display are expected to be smaller, more limited smart glasses that bring Meta’s AI features to a broader audience.
Meta has not released comprehensive sales figures for its smart-glasses products, but company executives have said early demand has exceeded expectations, helped in part by social media creators. The new demonstrations are aimed at showing consumer-facing use cases and drawing a path from existing devices to more advanced AR systems.
The Connect event is also expected to highlight broader AI developments from Meta, including updates to its standalone Meta AI app and the company’s recruitment and investment in AI talent. Zuckerberg has publicly discussed a vision he calls “personal superintelligence,” saying in July that such systems could accelerate human progress. Industry observers note that the term “superintelligence” overlaps with what others describe as artificial general intelligence (AGI).
Forrester and other analysts say Meta’s renewed focus on AI glasses represents a strategic pivot from the company’s 2021 emphasis on the metaverse, when it rebranded and invested heavily in virtual reality. “For more than a decade, Zuckerberg’s long-term vision with Oculus and the Metaverse has been that glasses and headsets will blur the lines between physical and digital worlds,” Husson said, adding that momentum to move beyond an early-adopter niche has grown only recently.
Competition in wearable AI hardware is intensifying, with several companies preparing their own entries. Meta’s Connect presentation will be watched for tangible timelines, product details and demonstrations of how its AI assistants and social platforms will operate on wearable displays.
Zuckerberg’s keynote and the company’s product demonstrations at Connect are expected to outline where Meta sees smart glasses fitting into everyday life and how the company plans to integrate its AI research into consumer hardware. The session begins Wednesday evening at 8 p.m. Eastern from Meta’s Menlo Park campus.