Published in AR, tech
Image credit by Argo
Laura
April 22, 2025
AR in 2025: What consumers really want (and why many still don't care)
A new survey of 52,000 Americans reveals the preferences of augmented reality users: gaming dominates (59%), followed by education (42%) and social applications (41%). Visual search is gaining ground with continuous increases over several years. However, the study also highlights a major challenge: 61% of non-users (who still represent 65% of the public) have no interest in this technology, an increase of 6 points since the last survey. For AR to win over the general public, developers will need to go beyond tech-savvy early adopters and convince a more reluctant audience, especially with educational and practical applications.
Augmented reality is nice on paper, but does it really excite people? AR Insider wanted to get to the bottom of it by surveying over 52,000 Americans.
Among the people who are already using AR, gaming is clearly the big winner (59% are all in). Next come education (42%), social stuff like funny filters (41%), city guides (40%), and visualising products at home before buying them (38%).
Some interesting points: after a big drop during Covid, in-store shopping AR is stabilising. However, social AR continues to rise, which is not surprising - we all love sharing selfies with silly filters!
Visual search (like Google Lens or Ray-Ban Meta glasses) is also on the rise - 33% of AR users are interested in it, compared to 27% a few years ago. It makes sense, with all the advances in AI making object recognition more and more impressive.
But there's a catch: on the side of non-users (who still represent 65% of respondents), 61% couldn't care less about AR, regardless of the format. And this figure has risen by 6 points since the last survey. Ouch! Is the novelty effect wearing off?
Among these skeptics, if we had to convince them, it would be with educational AR (14%), city guides (11%), or product visualisation (9%).
The thing to remember is: AR developers would do well to listen to these non-users if they want to conquer the general public someday. Tech-savvy nerds are already convinced, but how to win over Granny Josette or Uncle Bernard? That's the whole challenge for AR to really take off!
Augmented reality is nice on paper, but does it really excite people? AR Insider wanted to get to the bottom of it by surveying over 52,000 Americans.
Among the people who are already using AR, gaming is clearly the big winner (59% are all in). Next come education (42%), social stuff like funny filters (41%), city guides (40%), and visualising products at home before buying them (38%).
Some interesting points: after a big drop during Covid, in-store shopping AR is stabilising. However, social AR continues to rise, which is not surprising - we all love sharing selfies with silly filters!
Visual search (like Google Lens or Ray-Ban Meta glasses) is also on the rise - 33% of AR users are interested in it, compared to 27% a few years ago. It makes sense, with all the advances in AI making object recognition more and more impressive.
But there's a catch: on the side of non-users (who still represent 65% of respondents), 61% couldn't care less about AR, regardless of the format. And this figure has risen by 6 points since the last survey. Ouch! Is the novelty effect wearing off?
Among these skeptics, if we had to convince them, it would be with educational AR (14%), city guides (11%), or product visualisation (9%).
The thing to remember is: AR developers would do well to listen to these non-users if they want to conquer the general public someday. Tech-savvy nerds are already convinced, but how to win over Granny Josette or Uncle Bernard? That's the whole challenge for AR to really take off!
Augmented reality is nice on paper, but does it really excite people? AR Insider wanted to get to the bottom of it by surveying over 52,000 Americans.
Among the people who are already using AR, gaming is clearly the big winner (59% are all in). Next come education (42%), social stuff like funny filters (41%), city guides (40%), and visualising products at home before buying them (38%).
Some interesting points: after a big drop during Covid, in-store shopping AR is stabilising. However, social AR continues to rise, which is not surprising - we all love sharing selfies with silly filters!
Visual search (like Google Lens or Ray-Ban Meta glasses) is also on the rise - 33% of AR users are interested in it, compared to 27% a few years ago. It makes sense, with all the advances in AI making object recognition more and more impressive.
But there's a catch: on the side of non-users (who still represent 65% of respondents), 61% couldn't care less about AR, regardless of the format. And this figure has risen by 6 points since the last survey. Ouch! Is the novelty effect wearing off?
Among these skeptics, if we had to convince them, it would be with educational AR (14%), city guides (11%), or product visualisation (9%).
The thing to remember is: AR developers would do well to listen to these non-users if they want to conquer the general public someday. Tech-savvy nerds are already convinced, but how to win over Granny Josette or Uncle Bernard? That's the whole challenge for AR to really take off!
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