Meta has a major opportunity to win the AI hardware race

AI wearables have had a cruddy year.

Just a few short months ago, the tech world was convinced AI hardware could be the next big thing. It was a heady vision, bolstered by futuristic demos and sleek hardware. At the center of the buzz were the Humane AI Pin and the Rabbit R1. Both promised a grandiose future. Neither delivered the goods.

It's an old story in the gadget world. Smart glasses and augmented reality headsets went through a similar hype cycle a decade ago. Google Glass infamously promised a future where reality was overlaid with helpful information. In the years since, Magic Leap, Focals By North, Microsoft's HoloLens, Apple's Vision Pro, and most recently, the new Snapchat Spectacles have tried to keep the vision alive but to no real commercial success.

So, all things considered, it's a bit ironic that the best shot at a workable AI wearable is a pair of smart glasses - specifically, the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.

The funny thing about the Meta smart glasses is nobody expected them to be as successful as they are. Partly because the first iteration, the Ray-Ban Stories, categorically flopped. Partly because they weren't smart glasses offering up new ideas. Bose had already made stylish audio sunglasses and then shuttered the whole operation. Snap Spectacles already tried recording short videos for social, and that clearly wasn't good enough, either. On paper, there was no compelling reason why the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses ought to resonate with people.

And yet, they have succeeded where other AI wearables and smart glasses haven't. Notably, beyond even Meta's own expectations.

A lot of that boils down to Meta finally nailing style and execution. The Meta glasses come in a ton of different styles and colors compared to the Stories. You're almost guaranteed to find something that looks snazzy on you. In this respect, Meta was savvy enough to understand that the average person doesn't want to look like they just walked out of a sci-fi film. They want to look cool by today's standards.