Is AI the Ultimate Solution for XR? XREAL CEO Reveals the Future of Smart Glasses!

Mixed reality (MR) is quietly entering the public eye, with AR glasses and similar devices gaining popularity. Yet, high prices, limited content, and uncomfortable wearability remain major hurdles. As XREAL founder and CEO Chi Xu puts it, the mixed reality industry is still in its 'early first half.' He notes that despite several waves of VR and metaverse hype, the market always cooled because the technology and user experience failed to meet expectations. This time, however, the rise of AI may bring a different ending.

Optical Innovation: The Foundation for AR's Takeoff

The XR/AR sector is booming, and XREAL’s market performance is a testament to the potential of Chinese companies in this blue ocean. According to IDC, XREAL has been the global AR sales leader for three consecutive years, with its 2024 market share surpassing the combined total of the second, third, and fourth place brands! Chi Xu is thrilled, seeing this as a golden opportunity for Chinese firms to define the next generation of smart devices.

Facing the so-called 'hundred-glasses war,' Chi Xu remains clear-headed. He believes much of the noise is media and capital hype, and that true breakthroughs require deep work in core technologies like chips and sensors. The launch of XREAL One Pro embodies this philosophy, combining an ultra-light body and 1080p Micro-OLED display with revolutionary advances in optics, computing, and ecosystem integration.

The most striking feature of the XREAL One Pro is its breakthrough 57-degree field of view (FoV)—not just a spec bump, but the result of XREAL’s proprietary X Prism optical engine. Using PIR total reflection optics, it delivers a wider, purer display while keeping the device compact. This shatters the FoV bottleneck, turning the virtual screen from a 'patch in front of your eyes' into a true 'surround spatial canvas,' expanding the view by 38%!

AI Empowerment: The 'Magic Assist' for Spatial Computing

Chi Xu’s insight is clear: AI is the 'final piece' for XR and AR, connecting hardware, systems, ecosystem, and interaction into a complete loop. He points out that 3D interaction has always been 'high entropy'—even Apple’s advanced capture tech can’t solve it perfectly. AI fills this gap.

'Why can AI do this? We no longer rely solely on 3D capture,' Chi Xu explains. 'Now we can use more human-like interactions: voice, AI-driven exchanges, and in the future, AI could even 'live' in your glasses. With cameras, it can sense what’s in front of you in real time and proactively anticipate your needs. These interaction innovations will greatly improve XR’s efficiency and smoothness.'

The XREAL One Pro’s power comes from XREAL’s self-developed X1 spatial computing chip—the world’s first AR glasses-dedicated chip. As smart glasses move toward split architectures, the X1 chip excels at balancing compute, latency, and bandwidth between glasses and compute units, achieving an astonishing 3ms ultra-low latency and new levels of device compatibility.

Notably, XREAL’s partnership with Google is a major milestone. Project Aura, the world’s first Android XR-compatible smart glasses, features XREAL’s upgraded X1S chip and works with Qualcomm’s solutions for external compute units. This marks the first deep integration of a Chinese AR chip with a global XR platform and the full landing of the Android XR ecosystem on glasses.

Is the 'iPhone Moment' Near?

Smart glasses are poised to become the key mobile device of the AI era—a consensus in the industry. Chi Xu says XREAL hopes to create a product for the history books and looks forward to working with partners to welcome the 'iPhone moment' of spatial computing.

Imagine how AI-powered smart glasses could transform daily life—not just cold electronics, but your most intimate assistant, understanding your gaze, listening to your heart, even anticipating your intentions. Whether for work, study, entertainment, or socializing, the fusion of AI and XR/AR will make everything smarter and more immersive. This is not just technological progress, but a true evolution in lifestyle. Are you ready?