Cortney Harding

We’re no longer moving toward the next computing era—we’re watching it arrive on our faces. Smartglasses are shifting digital experiences out of phones and laptops and into the physical world, where information doesn’t live on a screen—it lives in front of your eyes. Paired with AI, these devices won’t just display content. They’ll understand context, anticipate needs, and help us act in real time. In this keynote, we’ll cut through the hype to understand what smartglasses really are (and what they’re not), why this moment is different from past waves of wearables, and how AI turns glasses into something far more powerful than a heads-up display. We’ll explore the real-world use cases that are scaling first—from frontline operations to customer experience to field service—along with what leaders need to get right around adoption, privacy, trust, and ROI. This is a practical roadmap for the “ambient” future: a world where computing fades into the background and your environment becomes the interface.

The hard part of smartglasses isn’t the hardware—it’s the humans. Wearables have a long history of impressive demos and disappointing adoption, not because the technology wasn’t “cool,” but because it didn’t fit into real life. People won’t wear something on their face unless it earns its place quickly, clearly, and repeatedly. In this keynote, we’ll explore why past waves of smartglasses struggled and what’s changed now—lighter devices, better optics, stronger ecosystems, and AI that makes the experience genuinely useful. More importantly, we’ll break down what actually drives adoption: comfort, trust, workflow fit, social acceptance, and proving value in minutes—not months. You’ll learn how to choose the right first use cases, avoid “pilot theater,” and design programs that scale responsibly. If your organization wants smartglasses to deliver real impact (not just headlines), this talk offers the playbook.