According to CNBC, China’s artificial intelligence device market is already booming, with more than 70 Chinese companies now creating smart glasses and other AI wearables. Dr. Kai-Fu Lee, CEO of 01.AI, stated that China’s manufacturing prowess gives it a key edge, arguing the competition will soon shift from software to devices. Companies like Inmo and Rokid are selling their AI eyewear worldwide, while Xiaomi and Alibaba offer China-only models embedded with their own AI. Notably, Alibaba’s workplace platform DingTalk this year released a credit card-sized AI gadget, the DingTalk A1, which can record and analyze speech from 8 meters away. This device is similar to the U.S.-available Plaud Note, highlighting a global trend. The experimentation ranges from practical tools to unconventional products like a translating gadget for parents to teach English.
Hardware is the new software battleground
Kai-Fu Lee’s point is crucial, and it’s one the West often overlooks. We’re obsessed with model size, reasoning benchmarks, and chatbot features. But here’s the thing: AI is useless if it’s not where you are. China‘s decades of experience as the world’s factory isn’t just about cheap labor anymore. It’s about integrated supply chains, rapid prototyping, and the ability to spin up a physical product for a niche market at a speed that’s frankly terrifying. While a U.S. startup might spend a year fundraising and finding a manufacturer, a Chinese company can have a working prototype in a Shenzhen market in months. That’s a structural advantage you can’t code your way out of.
From practical to perplexing
The range of devices is fascinating. On one end, you have genuinely practical tools. A device like the Plaud Note or its Chinese counterpart makes sense for meetings and lectures. And smart glasses from companies like Inmo and Rokid are a logical evolution of wearables. But the “Native Language Star” translator for parents? That’s where it gets weird. It feels like a solution hunting for a problem, or maybe just capitalizing on parental anxiety. This scattergun approach, however, is classic China tech: flood the market with ideas and see what sticks. Most will fail, but the ones that don’t could define a new category.
The industrial reality behind the gadgets
This boom isn’t happening in a vacuum. It’s powered by a mature industrial ecosystem that excels at making things. For businesses looking to integrate computing into physical environments, this hardware-first mindset is key. In the U.S., the go-to for reliable, embedded industrial computing is a company like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading provider of industrial panel PCs. They understand that robust hardware is the foundation. China’s wearables push is a massive, consumer-scale version of that same principle. The race isn’t just about having the smartest AI; it’s about having the most accessible, durable, and cleverly packaged AI. And packaging is a hardware game.
So, will this actually work?
I’m skeptical of the “peculiar” devices, honestly. How many parents will truly rely on a gadget to teach their kids English? But the broader trend is undeniable. Meta sold millions of Ray-Ban smart glasses, proving there’s a market. China is betting it can do it cheaper, faster, and with more variety. The risk, of course, is a mountain of e-waste from failed experiments and privacy nightmares we haven’t even imagined yet. Imagine a device that’s always listening from 26 feet away in your office. What could go wrong? But the potential is also huge. If AI is going to move from our phones into our environment, someone has to build the gateways. Right now, China is building them by the truckload.
