Alibaba unveils Quark AI Glasses and voice chatbot as it expands consumer AI lineup

Alibaba has set the price of its new Quark AI Glasses at 4,699 yuan ($659.4) ahead of a pre-sale launch on October 24 via its Tmall online platform. After discounts, the cost drops to 3,999 yuan. The company said orders will begin shipping in December.

This marks the first time Alibaba is entering the wearable AI space with a product built specifically for regular users, not businesses. These smart glasses come with built-in access to the company’s Quark AI assistant, powered by its internal Qwen language models. They also support hands-free calls, streaming music, and real-time language translation. The product was initially teased back in July.

Alibaba targets Meta and Xiaomi in smart glasses fight

The smart glasses category is heating up fast. Alibaba’s Quark AI Glasses are its direct move into a space already dominated by Meta, whose Ray-Ban smart glasses are already on the market. And in China, Xiaomi has joined the race too, launching its own AI eyewear earlier this year.

The Quark Glasses are part of Alibaba’s larger push to inject AI into consumer tech, not just enterprise tools. “Many tech companies see wearables, especially glasses, as the next frontier in computing,” a rep from Alibaba said.

Alibaba’s stock surged in response, with its Hong Kong shares jumping 1.7% after the news broke. In U.S. premarket trading, the stock also moved up.

The company didn’t just announce the glasses though. On the same day, Alibaba launched a brand-new feature inside its Quark app — an AI Chat Assistant. This feature is also built on its Qwen3 models and offers users a chatbot-style experience with both text and voice input.

Alibaba adds voice AI chatbot to Quark app

The AI Chat Assistant lives inside the Quark app, which is Alibaba’s main consumer-facing AI product. The new mode lets users switch into a chat format where they can ask questions, hold conversations, or search for information — all in one place. The company said it allows “AI search and conversation” under one roof, streamlining everything users need into a single application.

The chatbot also has a few specific skills. Alibaba confirmed the assistant can handle photo editing, AI-powered writing, and what it called “photo-based problem solving.” It didn’t explain that last part, but it seems aimed at solving math or logic problems by analyzing pictures.

With this launch, Alibaba is squaring up against global players like OpenAI (ChatGPT) and DeepSeek, who have also been releasing fast-evolving AI tools in the chatbot space. The fact that the Quark assistant is now voice-enabled means Alibaba is trying to position itself in that cross-section between AI, voice, and mobile utility.

All of this ties back to the company’s bigger AI roadmap. Over the past year, Alibaba has rolled out multiple updates to its Qwen models, pushing hard to boost its cloud business — the core platform that sells these models to enterprise clients. But Thursday’s double announcement — the Quark glasses and the AI Chat Assistant — is clearly focused on getting AI into the hands of everyday users, not just tech teams.

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