Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses might be leading the pack in America, but in China, they’re starting to look a little bit behind. Arguably, the toughest competition is coming from Alibaba, which just announced an update for its Qwen AI Glasses S1 that expands the smart glasses’ AI features and widens its lead over Meta AI.
The biggest addition is the inclusion of proactive AI, which is designed to surface reminders and other useful information based on factors like the weather, your location, calendar items, or, eventually, recent purchase history. That means, for example, that the Qwen AI Glasses S1 might tell you to bring an umbrella before leaving the house if rain is expected, or it might remind you to correct your posture while you’re working.
Alibaba even says that future updates might use information like your recent purchase history to tell you to drink water if you’ve consumed too much caffeine or even assess traffic in real-time to tell you if you should leave from work early to avoid getting stuck.
To be honest, it feels like a lot of stuff that the Apple Watch already does or could do, but it’s still a step further than the Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses, which set reminders but aren’t integrated with GPS, weather, or calendars in the same way.
If proactive AI doesn’t do it for you, Alibaba says it’s also integrating other capabilities from its Qwen App, including ride-hailing, food delivery, trip planning, review searches, and movie ticket purchases. I’m particularly intrigued by the ride-hailing part and food delivery features, which remind me of similar voice-based features rolled out in Amazon’s Alexa+, though cramming those features into smart glasses, as opposed to a smart speaker or an app on your phone, might make them feel more useful.
How well any of these features work is still an open question since I haven’t had a chance to test the Qwen AI Glasses S1 for myself, but on paper, they make a more compelling case for the “AI” part of AI glasses than most AI features that I’ve used in Meta’s Ray-Bans.
