Ant Group pushes wider adoption of AI-enabled smart glasses for mobile payments
Chinese fintech giant Ant Group is pushing the wider adoption of smart glasses to facilitate digital transactions, extending the reach of mobile payments beyond smartphones.
The first such payment outside mainland China was recently completed in Hong Kong using Meizu's StarV smart glasses, according to a statement on Thursday by the company, an affiliate of Post owner Alibaba Group Holding.
That transaction was made via AlipayHK, the Hong Kong platform of Ant Group's flagship Alipay app, using Meizu's smart eyewear to scan the QR code and use voice command. The whole process – including voice interface, intent recognition and voice authentication – was powered by Ant's artificial intelligence (AI) system.
The mobile payments functionality shows that proponents of AI glasses are expanding use cases to help broaden the adoption of smart eyewear.
The Ant-Meizu initiative comes days after a similar launch on the mainland by augmented reality (AR) glasses maker Rokid with the Hangzhou-based fintech giant. The Rokid eyewear introduced on Tuesday supports in-store payments by scanning the QR code and confirming payment with a voice command.
'In the coming years, this technology could enable people to complete transactions simply by looking at or gesturing towards a product,' Ant said in an earlier statement on Tuesday.
The latest Ant announcement confirmed a Post interview in April with Meizu owner DreamSmart Group, operated by Chinese auto giant Zhejiang Geely Holding Group. The firm said it was working with Ant International, which was spun off from the fintech company last year, to enable mobile payments via Meizu's smart glasses.
Ant said on Thursday it expected to expand the adoption of smart glasses for payments through its e-wallet partners worldwide. This includes 36 mobile payment apps, including Line Pay and GrabPay, through the Alipay+ network that connects more than 1.7 billion user accounts in 70 markets.
Global shipments of smart glasses, excluding AR eyewear, more than doubled to 1.6 million units in 2024, according to Beijing-based market researcher Runto.
On top of its QR code and facial-recognition functions to facilitate payments, Alipay in June last year introduced its tap-and-pay service on the mainland, enabling consumers to settle transactions by tapping their smartphones on merchant terminals or payment tags.
While that technology is similar to those used by Visa and Apple Pay, the nationwide coverage of Alipay has helped the platform sign up 100 million tap-and-pay users as of April 2025.
Alipay rival WeChat Pay, owned by Tencent Holdings, introduced its palm-recognition payment technology on the mainland in 2023. - SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
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