As Tim Cook prepares to hand over the job of Apple CEO to John Ternus, the future of Apple’s product line feels as unclear as ever. Flip phonestouchscreen Macs and perhaps even robotic HomePads could be on deck in the next few years. But then again, the whole wave of AI wearables. And like Apple WWDC developer conference looms, we still don’t know about the AI systems that would be needed to make them work.
Reports of three of the wearable AI devices have been making the rounds for the past year, including smart glasses, a camera-equipped pendant and camera-enabled AirPods. Add to these the Apple Watch and the annually updated iPhones they will use to communicate with them, and it’s a lot of devices in the mix.
Watch this: Is Apple Finally Ready to Talk About Upcoming Wearables at WWDC?
While almost every other tech company in the world can’t stop talking about AI — Google’s I/O keynote last month it was 2 hours of non-stop AI praise again Smart glasses with AI – Apple has been very silent on this matter after its negative launch of Apple Intelligence in 2024. However, the cat is already out of the bag in an important part of Apple’s AI programs, in partnership with Google Gemini for Siri. announced back in January.
Now Apple needs to spill the details on what Gemini-equipped Siri will look like in the real world — and there’s no better time than WWDC.
Glasses like Google and Samsung’s upcoming models rely heavily on camera-aware AI that Apple doesn’t yet have.
AI is a missing piece for the next devices, and the current ones
I don’t particularly like being covered by AI, or the resource drain both naturally and economically caused by AI right now. But the next generation of useful wearable devices that Apple seems ready to build requires a different level of AI — camera awareness, better voice response and the kind of deep text and voice analysis that almost every other major AI platform already offers.
But Apple has yet to build an advanced AI — an AI that can run across all of its devices, managing data privately in a way that it will not disturb anyone and do so without resulting in further increases in subscriptions.
Apple can rely on AI using its hardware, an approach that has already been emphasized with Apple Intelligence. Mac Mini hardware has already become a popular way to run local AI servers. With iPhone and Apple Watch chipsets getting faster every year, there are many Apple wearables that could do without needing to connect to the cloud at all.
A completely missing layer is highly advanced artificial intelligence, or multimodal AI. Apple has the pieces Visual Intelligence on iPhones, but it’s the basics. It feels full Apple Vision Pro it doesn’t have many auxiliary functions that recognize the AI camera of Samsung and Google Galaxy XR headset already, but Vision Pro can easily run itself using the cloud or its more powerful M5 chip — if AI is possible.
Aside from AirPods, the Apple Watch could be Apple’s biggest entry point for Apple.
New wearables may be released over the years, but some are available now
It’s a two-part puzzle right now: Apple needs new AI-ready hardware, but it also needs AI. A recent report from Bloomberg’s well-regarded Mark Gurman claims that Apple’s glasses are now on target by the end of 2027while previous reports point to the launch of camera-enabled AirPods later this year.
Smart glassesas they currently exist, they are completely AI-dependent devices. Meta Mirrors again Google and the upcoming Samsung use microphones, voice chat and live camera recognition methods to translate, see and describe anything in camera range. They can even serve as a pair of auxiliary eyes for those wearers who have low vision. The devices require a phone connection to operate and transmit their AI to the cloud, but they also include a few offline functions that can still be activated with voice commands.
AI glasses are a similar story, just a different approach — mostly for better battery life and as an alternative to wearing glasses.
AirPods could be the first on board for AI penetration.
On the other hand, the camera-equipped AirPods could be the first wave of new wearables this fall to introduce some sensors that will work with Apple’s more advanced Siri. However, Apple may be limiting what the new AirPods can do early on, putting advanced features to help later when Siri’s Gemini-equipped functions are finished.
I would have expected that Apple Watchon the other hand, it can get the benefits of AI quickly. Google Gemini analysis of fire health data Fitbit Air it’s a sign of where Apple can go with the Health app data and its watch. The Apple Watch can also be more responsive to voice commands than the limited set of things Siri currently allows.
Also, the Apple Watch has a small and growing number of hand gestures: Waving and touching fingers for now, but why not add others that can interact with AI? It doesn’t have a camera, but in voice and touch interaction, it can start to show how AI might work in earbuds, glasses and even pendants.
WWDC will tell us more, I’m sure, but not everything. I’ll be there, and CNET will report on it all. I’ll be back with more thoughts on all of this soon.
