Meta's AI-Powered Wearables Unveiled at META Connect 2025: A Catalyst for Growth or Margin Pressure?

Meta Platforms unveiled its latest generation of AI-powered smart glasses, including the Ray-Ban Display and Oakley Meta Vanguard, expanding wearable AI capabilities. The company's push into integrated AI wearables could influence its broader investment narrative and future growth catalysts. Meta's heavy investment in AI and smart wearables aims to unlock new growth, while offsetting rising costs and navigating global regulatory pressures.

Meta Platforms has recently introduced its latest generation of AI-powered smart glasses, including the Ray-Ban Display and Oakley Meta Vanguard. These new devices represent a significant step forward in the company's push into integrated AI wearables, which could influence its broader investment narrative and future growth catalysts.

The Ray-Ban Display, priced at US$799, features an embedded display in the right lens, offering a range of functions that surpass the capabilities of earlier models. The device can show text messages, camera viewfinder previews, turn-by-turn navigation, live captions, real-time translations, and display what a user is listening to on Spotify. Control remains versatile with both voice commands and the new Meta Neural Band, a wrist-based accessory that allows users to operate the glasses through simple hand gestures.

Meta has described demand for demonstrations of the Ray-Ban Display as "strong," with appointments already fully booked through mid-October. To raise awareness, the company is opening a series of pop-up stores called Meta Lab. The first store will open in Las Vegas on 16 October, followed by another in Los Angeles on 24 October, and a third in New York City on 13 November. In addition to these temporary sites, the glasses will also be available to try at select Ray-Ban, Verizon, Best Buy, and LensCrafters stores.

Meta's heavy investment in AI and smart wearables aims to unlock new growth opportunities while offsetting rising costs and navigating global regulatory pressures. The company's foray into wearable AI technology could provide a new revenue stream and diversify its business model, potentially offsetting the impact of regulatory challenges and declining user engagement in its core social media platforms.

Meta Ray-Ban Display smart glasses officially went on sale in the United States on 30 September, with international availability expected from early 2026.