Meta's Head of AI Glasses Reveals the Playbook to Win Wearables in 2026

0:00 What are things you're already wearing and using? Glasses, number one, but excited about other things that people are already wearing and not very excited about ones that you don't see people using frequently like some of these devices that you clip on or that you if you don't see a lot of people doing that already with analog versions, I think it's unlikely that you're going to see an AI version take off. >> Okay. Okay. So, it's the fact that it's a common device, it has utility outside of the AI means that it won't be too much of an addition to put on your body to wear and therefore it has the best chance of winning.

0:34 >> Yeah. If it's providing value outside of the AI, then the AI is going to keep getting better and providing more value as it gets better. >> There have been attempts to do it and it hasn't worked. Thinking about the humane pin for instance or the Google Glass. >> So, what do you think is different about this time? I mean, I think the biggest thing is that at the core, it's a good-looking, comfortable, stylish pair of glasses. I mean, it's the reason we're partnering closely with SLR Exotica. They're our partner we've been working with for years. They're the makers of RayBan, Oakley. They have many other brands both owned and licensed.

1:10 They have a number of stores. They are experts at lenses, experts at manufacturing. and working with them is because they deeply understand what it means to have a good-looking, stylish, comfortable pair of glasses that works well for people. And that is the core of what we're trying to do with the glasses. And so we've we've launched the Ray-B band Wayfair was the first. Then we had other Ray-B band styles. We've launched the Oakley Meta Vanguards, which are sport, the Oakley Meta Housins, which are lifestyle Oakleys.

1:38 That's just the beginning of what we want to be a really broad selection of brands and styles and SKs. We want them, everyone's face is shaped differently. everyone has a different sense of style and we need to make sure that they're comfortable and people like how they look at them. >> So, I definitely agree with you that the way that these things have looked has been a major impediment to them. Google Glass, for instance, didn't win any fashion awards. And you look at a pair of Ray-B band Metas and you know, they they look nice. Like I I would like look at them at a glasses store and be like, you know, maybe maybe these what it takes to change consumer behavior is crazy, right? People sort of get set in their ways. And so and that's the way that they operate. And if you think about them using phones for instance, to to be able to have AI functionality on your phone and then to move to start using it somewhere else, it has to be more than it's just it just looks a little bit good. So how do you think about creating what effectively you're trying to do is create a brand new consumer behavior?

2:41 >> Well, our top use case on the glasses is audio. It's talking on the phone or it's listening to music. The thing I usually tell people is, hey, if you're going to be walking outside, which you should do, it's healthy for you. It's good to move around during the day, get some sunlight, and you've got to make phone calls, this is a great product for you. We've got it's comfortable, the audio is very loud, the mics perform better than any earbuds you could get because we've got five microphones and we have amazing noise suppression. And so, if you're going to do phone calls, it's great. I was just skiing and I was going downhill at 40 m an hour wearing my Oakley Meta Vanguards and got a call from my friend I was trying to meet up with and had a conversation with him while I was on my way and I asked him in the middle, can you tell that I'm skiing right now? Or he actually didn't realize.

3:29 >> Wow. >> So, it's it's great for like it's great for those use cases. Or if you're on on the beach throwing the football around, it's just it's listen to some music. It's a great way to make the experience better. Photos and videos are are the other thing. We see a lot of content shared on Instagram that otherwise wouldn't have be capt would not be captured. We saw some great footage from the Olympics that just happened with practice rounds. one of my good friends is a firefighter who was sending me a video yesterday from the fire truck that he was you know, driving to the scene and and rescuing someone. I mean, you're just seeing some great footage that you otherwise would miss. And then the AI is where I think you're going to see the next real trajectory of growth is people find that they're able to do things they never thought were possible and are just really convenient with their glasses.

4:16 The older versions of the Ray-B bands the meta ray bands were mostly for outdoor use. I mean I have a pair here, right? These are Oakleys. Great for sports. Great for sports. and actually I had spoke with spoken with the the person who ended up leading the Google Glass project and one of his biggest regrets was actually starting it as an indoor product. >> because these things are much better, people feel much better about them if you're outdoors with them as opposed to if you're indoors with them.

4:49 You know, so much of the talk around AI is it's a level it's going to level things up and it's, you know, sort of this revolutionary thing. And I wonder is that that revolutionary? Like shouldn't we be expecting more of it? And maybe I'm just like perpetually dissatisfied and unappreciative of what's happening. But I'm curious what you think. Like is that really a revolution or is that something that just helps us be a little bit more productive?

5:15 >> AI in general or smart notific more intelligence around notifications. >> I think that just the AI again that we talked about that's listening and can handle these tasks for us. I think it's going to be pretty revolutionary. I think well I think it'll be both. I think there'll be a number of things that each individual one is tiny like it's just a oh yeah that's like a small improvement >> but if you add that up throughout the day or throughout the week or throughout the month it's the sum of that will be meaningful. And then similarly, I do think there the AI will do things for you that you're shocked it was able to do and will find pretty revolutionary. I mean, there is small things. I mean, the the minute I stopped running with my phone, you know, I go for some pretty long runs and I do need to be able to contact other people while I'm out there because things can go sideways. Also, I'm a father and so if >> I need to be reachable. the the day I was able to stop bringing my phone with me because I had a cellular connected watch was a pretty big thing. And I think for many people that feels like, >> oh, big deal. You can do phone calls on your on your watch now. I usually have my phone. But for for me that was a a major thing. But that's an example of like small things that add up. I think there's a strong argument to be made that the company that has the best assistant will be the one that takes everything because again, if you're trusting this with like to be deep in your life and to be and to be, you know, responsible for some of your activities, you're going to want to use the best option. So, I'm curious if you agree with that. And if you do, does that mean that Meta to win this battle needs to have the best AI assistant on the market?

7:01 I think it's going to be a combination of things. I think that when we talk about wearables, I think if people don't like the device, they're not going to wear it. >> True. >> I think it needs to be comfortable. It needs to be stylish, especially if it's glasses or some or even watches. If you don't like the way it fits on you and what it says about you, then you're not going to wear it. even if it does, even if it's 20% better in terms of functionality than than the alternative, I also think the software needs to be really amazing. And so, I mean, we're it's no it's also no secret. I mean, there's a lot of there's a lot of a lot of the devices you mentioned where, you know, these are rumors. I think I've heard heard those rumors from many places, so there's probably some credibility to them.

7:48 >> well, I will say actually open OpenAI for sure is not a rumor. They are building a family of devices. Google is building these devices. Amazon has the Echo in the market. I think the only one that's rumored is Apple. >> We're going to be assuming everyone enters the market. We're going to be competing with companies who have released devices with really high quality, you know, good performance devices you can depend on every day. So, our quality needs to be really good. And then the AI needs to be amazing. And, you know, we we've been working on it internally. I think that that's pretty well known. We're using a bunch of the new models internally and feeling pretty good about the progress we're making. I think we're going to have some really exciting things to show people in the first half of this year as we start to launch new models and new features on top of them, new features on mobile phones, but also new features in wearables that I think are going to be pretty good.

8:44 >> All right, looking forward to that. I guess the point I'm making is it seems more than more than in this more than other types of computing. it's kind of winner takes all. That that might be my my perspective. Like if you're going to have an agent that you so trust with everything, you're probably going to have one. Doesn't that sound right? Like it's like you'll have one inbox. Doesn't really work to have multiple multiple email addresses. I think there's a number of reasons why I think you'd use why many people use one assistant more than many. I mean, one is >> you pay for each of them and so you probably want to pay for fewer rather than more. Second, like the more you work with it, it learns about you, the better it'll perform outside of underlying capabilities. So, I I do think that people will for the most part choose one assistant, but they may also choose one assistant for different tasks, right? I mean, I'm sure I'm a bit of an outlier since I'm right in the middle of the technology, but I use a bunch of different assistants and I use different ones for different things that I'm trying to do. That could be point in time based on what's better at what right now and maybe that'll consolidate as as the models mature. But we are very focused on we we want our glasses to be the ones that offer people the broadest selection of brands and styles that we think people will like to wear and in making our software the best. And we've been I mean there are other devices in the market but we have been we believe there's going to be a lot more competition coming than I think that we've than than we've faced re than we faced to date.

10:28 Part of it is that a lot of people have tried to build glasses and it didn't work out at first ourselves included. Our first our first launch didn't go as well as we had hoped it to but then when others pulled back from the market I think we doubled and tripled down. And I think, you know, when you're looking at seems like now every year or maybe more frequently than that, we're launching new hardware, >> right?

10:49 >> It's because we've been investing heavily for many years and you're starting to see the fruits of that come to market. >> What is your facial recognition plans? There was a New York Times article talked about this feature called name tag. The Times said it would let wearers of the smart glasses identify people and get information about them via Meta's artificial intelligence assistant. I saw the article. I'm familiar with the one that you're mentioning. I mean, it's it's worth noting just out of the gate, you know, we do not have a feature that's launched that helps you, right?

11:21 We we don't have a feature called that or that does that feature that's launched in the glasses. It is one of the most frequently requested features from people. Mhm. >> I mean, we hear, you know, we hear from our our blind and low vision community that they wish they knew who was in front of them, who was walking by. >> we hear from people who go to conferences and events. It would be great to be, you know, you're going there to meet people.

11:50 It would be nice to be able to recognize the people that you're meeting. We hear from just a number of people, you know, just anecdotally, hey, I wish unprovoked. What I really wish these could do is help me remember the names of the people I've met before. And so we get a lot of we get a lot of asks. I don't think we're the only company that's heard that before. You know, we've it's certainly been developed and prototyped by a number of companies that that we've heard about. But to launch a feature like that requires being really thoughtful with how it works, making sure it's privacy first, making sure that it's not creepy, making sure that it's providing value while not making people uncomfortable. I mean, the the fundamental talent of these devices, if I'm wearing them and you're uncomfortable with me wearing them, I'm probably gonna stop wearing them.

12:38 >> Yeah. They're not worth anything. Yeah.