From always connected pendants to conversation-recording pins, companies are betting billions that consumers want AI-powered wearables. The global market for these devices is projected to grow from $43 billion today to over $300 billion by 2033 — and that's before Apple and Samsung have fully entered the space. Shipments of AI-enabled smartglasses grew 110% in the first half of 2025 alone, and revenue is forecast to quadruple in 2026. But there’s one big problem that could stop all of this momentum: no one has figured out how to crack all-day wearability.

It’s not really a form factor issue any more. Most of the pendants that have come to market are “wearable” enough in the practical sense, although the doomed Humane AI pin turned out to be a fire hazard . The much derided Friend AI necklace actually didn’t look all that bad, but still faced backlash from an ad campaign that people deemed “creepy.” Many of the smartglasses in the market are only a little heavier than traditional glasses, and unless someone is really paying attention, the smartglasses look pretty normal.

The main issue standing in the way of adoption of these devices is a concern about privacy. We’re accustomed to carrying phones and wearing watches throughout the day and using them in all sorts of different contexts – my phone plays music during my morning run, delivers work messages during the day, and provides entertainment in the evening. Aside from a comedy show last year where I was asked to put my phone in a secure bag, I’ve never been asked to turn it off or leave it behind, despite the fact that my phone has audio, video, and recording capabilities.

But AI wearables face different concerns, even though many of the concerns are based on how new the technology is. People will still ask me to remove my glasses at social events, for example, even as others use their phones to take video and photos. And on the occasions where I’ve tried out AI pendants and pins, I get pushback, even though I could theoretically hit the record button on my phone, put it in my bag, and then upload the recording to an LLM.

Regardless, many companies are pushing back and creating policies around the use of smartglasses and other AI wearables in the workplace, and businesses are also starting to create rules around using them as well. My gym, for example, has a sign that prohibits smartglasses in locker rooms and saunas, which makes sense, but also means that when I wear my glasses to the gym I need to remember to take them off in certain areas, store them, and then remember to put them back on. And I don’t even have a prescription, so having to remove my glasses is an annoyance and doesn’t actually impact my ability to see the world.

Solving these problems is essential to smartglasses adoption, and Solos might have figured out a solution. Spun off from Kopin in 2019, Solos has a focus on privacy and says they aren’t interested in collecting data to build large models. "Our model is not based on data, advertising, or training models,” says Kennth Fan, the co-founder and CFO. “None of those are in our monetization scheme. Our approach is really to create the best hardware and software product, make users delight in that — and that's how we monetize."

This is in line with many other independent smartglasses companies, but Solos goes one step further. The company plans to release an unannounced version of their temple arms later this year that contains no electronics, allowing users to attach a "dummy temple" to their prescription front frame when in environments where the smart functions should not be used.

"If you're in a place where either you can't or shouldn't have the electronics on, you could actually take those off, put on basically a dummy temple and still wear glasses and still be able to see properly,” says Fan. “You take the smart glass functionality out and just store the temple in your eyeglass case."

This simple solution could be a game changer in terms of allowing users to wear smartglasses all day and not have to worry about unwanted scrutiny. By letting people demonstrate that they are swapping in their “private” temple, trust will be built, but it’s a pretty simple swap and lets people continue to wear their glasses without having to juggle multiple pairs. As AI powered wearables become more ubiquitous, some of this will level off, but it’s valuable to privacy-first options that make wearing them all day seamless and cut some of the friction.