The new silicon is 28 per cent smaller than its predecessor and promises to trim smart glass temple arms by 20 per cent. That means fewer headset fashion crimes and potentially more wearable designs from companies like Meta and XReal.

It handles computer vision, wake-word detection, Bluetooth, and video playback more efficiently, which should help the devices stay powered longer without the usual overheating or battery panic.

However, the big gimmick is what Qualcomm calls "on-glass AI," powered by its third-generation Hexagon NPU. This silicon slice can run small language models with up to 1 billion parameters locally, enough to push Llama 1B and similar models directly on the device.

Qualcomm SVP of XR Ziad Asghar said: “This demonstration was a world’s first: an Autoregressive Generative AI model running completely on a pair of smart glasses.” He says as he asked the glasses for a fettuccine alfredo recipe mid-demo like it was no big deal.

Qualcomm naturally name-dropped Meta’s Ray-Bans and the Orion AR prototypes as examples of where this might all end up. This means that your next AI assistant might live on your face, assuming the battery holds out and the UI doesn’t make you cross-eyed.

It's a modest update on paper, but if Qualcomm’s claims about efficiency and real on-device AI hold water, it could finally make smart glasses more than just Bluetooth speakers with a lens.