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Key takeaways

• Samsung shared the first details of its upcoming AI smart glasses.
  
• The glasses look to rely on AI and smartphone integration rather than being a standalone device. 
  
• These would be the company's first foray into the smart glasses market.

2026 is poised to be the year Samsung enters the smart glasses market -- and we finally have direct confirmation from the company. During an interview with CNBC, a Samsung executive shared details about the company's upcoming AI smart glasses, including how they'll operate and what they'll be able to accomplish.

Samsung's executive vice president of mobile business, Jay Kim, discussed the AI smart glasses during MWC in Barcelona. Kim shared that the glasses will be released later this year and will feature an eye-level, built-in camera. 

Also: Best of MWC 2026: The biggest news we saw this week

Meant to focus heavily on artificial intelligence (AI), the Samsung smart glasses will connect to your phone, presumably as part of the Galaxy ecosystem, which will be able to process the information that the camera captures.

According to Kim, the glasses will be more of a gateway for AI to capture and understand what you see, rather than a completely standalone device, so it can then feed the information to the mobile phone.

"Everybody talks about what the next AI device is, and I know I've been looking at many different types of devices. Glasses, obviously is one of them, and everybody's looking at it," Kim told CNBC. "I think the XR on headset will sort of be around. But not as a sort of mass scale business."

Also: Can Meta see your private life through its Ray-Ban smart glasses? What to know

Samsung launched the Galaxy XR last year, an extended reality headset featuring spatial audio, 360-degree views of immersive content, and Gemini for AI. Yet the new AI smart glasses that Samsung discussed are another business category entirely, growing quickly because they're smaller and less expensive. 

Companies like Xreal and Meta are already deep into the smart glasses market, with built-in AI experiences, phone integrations, and some augmented reality features.

Kim declined to comment on whether the Samsung smart glasses will feature a built-in display, but all rumors point to the contrary: Samsung maintains that the glasses will feature heavy integrations with its phone and Galaxy Watch, which users can reach for if they need a screen.

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