Smart Glasses, Smarter Small Businesses: AI Wearables Are an Entrepreneurial Tool

By SBE Council at 3 September, 2026, 2:18 pm

By Karen Kerrigan –

For entrepreneurs and small businesses, valuable technologies eliminate friction. Various digital tools are helping small businesses eliminate steps, and accomplish a task or project more efficiently, in less time, and at lower cost. AI-powered smart glasses are helping small business owners  eliminate operational downtime, automate content creation, and improve workplace accessibility, among other uses.

The use of smart glasses among businesses is increasing as the combination of cameras, audio, voice commands, and AI allow entrepreneurs and their teams to capture information, communicate, create content, and access AI assistance while keeping their hands and attention on their work.

Turning Everyday Work into Marketing Content

Prescott, Arizona deli owner Deb Kovacs began wearing smart glasses while making sandwiches and interacting with customers in her Speed’s Hangar Deli shop. Rather than pausing work-flow to stage and shoot social media content, her smart glasses capture her daily work, unique personality, culture of the deli, and of course the creation of her famous sandwiches.

According to a Tuscon.com report, videos from the deli have generated an estimated 25 million to 30 million views across social media platforms. Customers have traveled from around Arizona, across the country, and even from London after discovering the business online. If you visit the deli’s Facebook page, you will find Deb’s various videos using her smart glasses.

At Black Top Motors in Phoenix, Arizona co-owner Eddie Sanchez uses Ray-Ban Meta glasses to walk around his dealership, discuss vehicles, and show customers what is happening behind the scenes (See Eddie in action via Black Top’s Facebook page here). One video generated more than 100 unsolicited inquiries about a truck appearing in the background of a posted video.

These business owners’ success stories typify the kind of grassroots marketing – authentic, inexpensive, and woven into the normal workday of the business – that makes content both appealing and effective. Makers, artisans and other “hands-on” small business owners are using smart glasses in similarly efficient ways. Instead of stopping work, positioning a phone and setting up a tripod, a chef, landscaper, renovator, designer, or artist captures first-person content during the course of their work. (See independent woodworker Handy Dandy Brandy’s personal use-case story on TikTok.)

Beyond the value of on-site video creation at a physical business location, entrepreneurs and mobile professionals on the go are also embracing smart-glasses technology. For example, a real-estate franchise network in Japan has begun supporting the adoption of Ray-Ban Meta glasses to explore applications such property tours, social media communications, and sharing sales-related information. Already, many U.S.-based real estate agents are effectively using video and various platforms to reveal and showcase listings. A personalized hands-free property walk-through, where agents can document property details, open closets, doors, and appliances hassle-free as they move throughout a home, and access AI to support other tasks, represents another service tier that is efficient for both the agent and their clients.

The hands-free workflow benefit that allows for simultaneous communications or other work tasks such as content creation, information access, real-time translation and transcription, or contextual AI-assistance is beneficial across industries. For example:

Field Service and Repair: Local plumbers, electricians, and HVAC technicians are wearing smart glasses to stream live video feeds to senior mechanics or manufacturers, which allows them to troubleshoot complex repairs.

Specialty Retail and Design: Boutique store owners and custom interior designers are using smart glasses to quickly capture room dimensions, scan product tags, and log inventory lists while interacting face-to-face with clients.

Local Medical and Dental Practices: Boutique clinicians and mobile healthcare providers use smart glasses for real-time dictation, hands-free note-taking, and secure video consultations.

Expanding the Workforce

At Bosma Enterprises in Indiana, manufacturing manager Eric Knight, who is visually impaired, uses Meta glasses to navigate a warehouse and perform inventory-related work. According to a Business Insider report, Eric can ask the glasses what is in front of him and have barcodes, SKUs and documents read aloud. The technology can also describe his surroundings as he moves through the facility.

For small businesses struggling to find workers, technologies that help people with disabilities perform a broader range of jobs could ultimately expand the available talent pool.

An AI Assistant for the Job Site

In July 2026, Meta announced nearly $2 million in AI Glasses Impact Grants supporting organizations experimenting with practical uses of smart-glasses. The use cases are helping other small business owners learn how the technology can be deployed as a tool to support team members in the field. For example:

Michigan-based Onsite is developing an integration allowing field-service contractors to use their voice and field of vision to capture job notes, create estimates and receive technical diagnostic support — hands-free.

California-based Proformance-AI is developing an AI copilot for roadside mechanics that can provide real-time diagnostic guidance while they continue working on a vehicle.

In New Mexico, Mycelia Foundation is equipping rural broadband installers with glasses that provide hands-free safety guidance.

And, North Carolina-based Agerpoint is developing applications that allow farmers and growers to receive real-time information about crop health as they move through their fields.

Small Business Competitiveness and Productivity — Right In Front of Your Eyes

Smart glasses are helping small businesses with a variety of tasks: to dictate notes and reminders, make calls, send messages, create content, resolve problems “in the field” more quickly, and use AI to analyze things they are looking at. Live translation allows small business owners and their teams to communicate with customers, fellow employees, suppliers or business partners across languages.

The growing use and value of smart glasses reveal a principle we consistently see through SBE Council’s research on technology and small business adoption: entrepreneurs are remarkably creative in figuring out how new tools can make their businesses work better. With smart glasses, the multifaceted features of this wearable tech – camera, communications device, translator, marketing assistant, accessibility tool, field-service assistant, and AI copilot — is delivering what other digital tools are providing to boost competitiveness and growth: saving time, lowering costs, supporting innovation, and helping business owners reach and serve new customers.

My guess is that we are probably only seeing the beginning of what entrepreneurs and their teams will do with this uniquely useful tech tool.

Karen Kerrigan is President & CEO of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council.