Eyes on the Future—From Eyewear to Smart Wearables

Iconic and globally established brands owned by EssilorLuxottica—including Ray-Ban, Oakley, Varilux, and Crizal (lenses)—shape how millions of people see and experience the world. With a global retail network that includes Sunglass Hut, LensCrafters, Vision Express, and Apollo, the company operates at the intersection of medical technology, consumer fashion, and retail. From eyewear to smart wearables In recent years, EssilorLuxottica has extended its brand into wearable technology, blending eyewear with digital capabilities. Smart glasses equipped with cameras, microphones, speakers, and integrated display technologies represent a new frontier where utility, lifestyle, and connectivity converge. EssilorLuxottica's Digital Transformation Journey with SAP Click the button below to load the content from YouTube. Always allow YouTube Video by Alexander Januschke and Natalie Hauck This evolution is not just about hardware innovation. It reflects a broader ambition: transforming eyewear into an intelligent interface between users and digital services. The company’s collaboration with SAP brings that vision into sharper focus. Powered by AI, connected to the backbone EssilorLuxottica runs its retail network of 15,000 stores on SAP S/4HANA Retail and is co-innovating with SAP to pilot AI-driven use cases based on Joule. The idea is to help any retailer bring SAP’s AI capabilities directly into smart glasses, creating a hands-free interface between employees and enterprise systems. Using voice interaction, store associates can access inventory and availability data in real time, receive contextual customer insights, and identify opportunities for more personalized service, such as cross-sell and upsell recommendations. In this way, a spoken request can become an immediate action in the backend system. Empowering humans EssilorLuxottica is initially exploring two practical applications for the technology: supporting technicians in the field and empowering associates on the retail floor. For field operations, wearable AI can provide real-time guidance and documentation support, helping technicians navigate complex tasks. In stores, smart glasses could give associates immediate access to customer profiles, order history, inventory data, and ordering capabilities—all through natural voice interaction. The potential was demonstrated live at this year’s SAP Sapphire Madrid, where an AI-enabled pair of glasses helped a store associate identify a returning customer, retrieve their purchase history, reorder products, and suggest relevant add-ons based on customer and purchase context, all within a seamless conversation. Opportunities ahead: from pilot to platform The use cases, currently in a test phase, were developed in just two weeks. They signal broader transformation potential, with the teams targeting commercialization of both pilots by the end of the year. EssilorLuxottica operates a complex global supply network that encompasses hundreds of sites and distribution centers, which presents significant opportunity for scaling AI-enabled workflows across the enterprise. The implications extend beyond retail: the EssilorLuxottica–SAP collaboration illustrates how established industries can use AI and integrated business processes to create new ways of working and serving customers. By transforming eyewear into an intelligent interface connected to enterprise systems, the company is redefining both the product and the experience around it. Top photo courtesy of EssilorLuxottica. Sign up to receive weekly news highlights from the SAP News Center Subscribe today