Facebook pins hopes on AI smart glasses for future growth

After investing an estimated US$77 billion into its metaverse ambitions with little to show for it, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has outlined a new vision for the company: a future in which AI-powered smart glasses are worn by almost everyone.

Speaking during Meta’s Q4 2025 earnings call on Wednesday, Zuckerberg compared the potential rise of AI glasses to the early days of smartphones.

“Billions of people wear glasses or contacts for vision correction,” he said.

“And I think that we’re at a moment similar to when smartphones arrived, and it was clearly only a matter of time until all those flip phones became smartphones. It’s hard to imagine a world in several years where most glasses that people wear aren’t AI glasses.”

Meta reported strong financial results on Wednesday, beating Wall Street expectations of $58.59bn USD with $59.89bn in revenue for the fourth quarter of 2025. 

Part of this is due to Meta’s Ray-Ban Meta glasses, which have already gained traction internationally. Now the company is positioning AI eyewear as the next mainstream consumer device.

Facebook isn't alone in seeing the potential for profit from the devices. Other tech giants are also taking note: Google and Apple are expected to launch smart glasses of their own soon.

Apple, in particular, has faced challenges with its Apple Vision Pro headset, which has largely failed to gain widespread adoption despite significant fanfare.

Meanwhile, OpenAI is reportedly developing its own AI hardware, with CEO Sam Altman hoping it performs better than the Humane AI Pin, a device that struggled to find a market.

The technology comes at a time when real-world uses for smart glasses like Meta's are increasingly murky.

Recently, Mashable looked at how Instagram and TikTok influencers and would-be content creators are churning out low-effort prank and pickup artist videos using the discreet recording features of Meta Ray-Bans and other smart glasses.

It's not an overseas-only dilemma either, with the technology used to harass a woman in King's Cross last year, which raised interesting questions about our own privacy laws. 

Whatever happens, we can expect to see more of these devices out on the street in the years to come. How they will be used remains to be seen.