AUGMENTED REALITY 2030

I forecast the AR market grows from roughly $42 billion in 2025 to $600 billion by 2030. That is not 10X. It is more than 14X.

But the bigger story is the convergence of AR, spatial computing and augmented intelligence. AR is the interface. Spatial computing maps and understands the physical world. Augmented intelligence is the brain: AI that sees what you see and delivers context in real time.

Big Tech is already placing the bets. Meta has poured tens of billions into Reality Labs while Ray Ban Meta smart glasses are selling by the millions. Apple built its spatial computing platform around Vision Pro and visionOS and continues moving toward intelligent glasses. Google is bringing Gemini directly into eyewear through Android XR. Snap has invested more than $3 billion in AR and is bringing consumer SPECS to market. Niantic is moving beyond gaming. Niantic Spatial is building a 3D understanding of the physical world for AR glasses, robots, drones and physical AI. Pokémon GO already proved the economics, generating more than $6 billion in lifetime player spending, and it built the map on the side: 700 million players crowdsourced 30 billion urban images while chasing Pikachu, the 3D world model Niantic Spatial now runs on.

I put my own name behind this prediction too. I joined the advisory board of Augmento, the Dubai based AR company, because I prefer skin in the game over PowerPoint predictions.

Here is the line that matters: AR will not replace your phone. It will replace your attention. The next decade layers intelligence onto your glasses, windshield, workplace, city and eventually your eyes. The screen is disappearing. The world becomes the interface.