A wave of AI-powered wearables is turning body-worn devices into personal assistants just as concerns mount over how much they can see, hear and know, according to intelligence and productivity platform GlobalData.
GlobalData’s latest report ‘AI is Moving Wearables from Personal Tracking to Personal Assistance, Raising the Stakes for Privacy,’ examines how AI is redefining the role of wearables while creating new trade-offs around convenience, access, and privacy.
Amanda Mitchell, Senior Analyst – Telecoms Practice at GlobalData, comments: “AI is moving wearables beyond tracking and toward acting on a user’s behalf. Depending on the device or AI agent, these new wearables can book a flight, shop for groceries, dictate a thought, rewind part of a conversation, or get personalised coaching without reaching for a phone. New AI-capable wearables are launching almost weekly, from smart glasses and rings to clip-ons and watches, making personal assistance one of the most important new use cases for body-worn devices.”
The AI wearables push spans established technology vendors and newcomers alike. Apple, Google, and Samsung are building AI assistance across phones, wrists, earbuds, and beyond; Meta is building out from its smart glasses toward a broader individualised AI platform with Muse, its personal AI agent; and Oura and WHOOP are focused on personalised health guidance.
AI-first devices such as Amazon’s Bee, which can be worn on the wrist or clipped on, are built around everyday organisational tasks, such as capturing conversations and turning them into reminders. Rather than one new kind of wearable, we are seeing a broad range of devices competing to keep AI within reach throughout the day.
Mitchell continues: “That convenience raises a harder question about privacy. Smart glasses can record people who may not know they are being captured, while other devices can tap into microphones, health information, email, calendars, and conversations. Meta responded to consumer pressure by making the recording light on its smart glasses more tamper-resistant, but overall, the industry appears to be moving faster to launch new devices than to make them less invasive.”
Mitchell concludes: “Regulators in some places are starting to take notice, however. In October, the European Data Protection Board called for recording cues that are difficult to miss and said manufacturers cannot simply shift privacy obligations onto wearers, while bans and restrictions are emerging in countries such as Norway and Australia. Consumers will ultimately have to decide whether always-available assistance is worth giving AI that much access to their lives.”
