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Qualcomm is using India-based artificial intelligence (AI) to power smart glasses that understand local dialects and customs. The chip company believes this approach will help it capture India’s massive young consumer market.
At its “Snapdragon for India – XR Day” event on July 21, Qualcomm announced partnerships with Indian eyewear brand Lenskart. The companies are planning to create smart glasses powered by Snapdragon chips that run AI models directly on the device.
“India-based LLMs are perfect,” said Alex Katouzian, Qualcomm’s Group General Manager for Mobile, Compute & XR. “Local models understand the use cases of local people. They understand the dialects, they understand where they go and what they want to do.”
This strategy differs from competitors using generic AI models. Qualcomm thinks local understanding gives it an edge over global rivals like Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses.
The Lenskart partnership marks Qualcomm’s biggest push into India’s smart glasses market. Snapdragon chips will power glasses that can handle voice commands and real-time translation without an internet connection.
Savi Soin, President of Qualcomm India, connected the technology to India’s development goals. “This milestone signals a new era in bringing spatial computing to Indian consumers,” he said. The technology will “empower frontline workers, transform education in remote areas, and enable truly inclusive digital access.”
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon platforms already power over 100 virtual and augmented reality devices worldwide. The company created special chips for smart glasses: the AR1 Gen 1 and AR1+ Gen 1, designed to work without a constant phone connection.
The AR1+ chip can run Small Language Models entirely on the glasses. This allows features like voice commands and translation to work anywhere.
Xiaomi’s AI glasses appeared at the event, featuring 2K video recording, a 12MP camera, five microphones, and dual speakers. The glasses launched in China in June but may come to India soon.
Source: Digit
Katouzian sees smart glasses replacing phones as the next major computing device. “Smart glasses are going to be the next computing devices after mobile phones,” he said. They use very little power while providing all-day AI assistance.
India’s 350 million Gen Z consumers want “lifestyle tech” that fits into daily life, according to Katouzian. Smart glasses can turn regular eyewear into devices that provide AI help throughout the day.
Qualcomm is working with other Indian companies, including Jio, Flipkart, and QWR, to build smart glasses and promote local AI models. These partnerships aim to create a complete system supporting both hardware and software for Indian users.
The company sees India as both a major market and a development center for spatial computing technology that could shape how smart glasses work globally.
