AWE 2026 Preview: The “Most Spatial Year Ever.” AR Moves From Showing to Doing Things ft. Ori Inbar
The AI XR Podcast.Show Notes
Seventeen years into building the world's largest XR conference, Ori Inbar is not prone to hyperbole. He has watched hype cycles inflate and collapse, made predictions that turned out too optimistic, and learned to hold claims carefully. That is what makes his framing of AWE 2026 worth paying attention to: he calls it the most consequential year in the show's history. Not because everything is working — there have been heartbreaking layoffs in some corners of the industry — but because the convergence happening right now between AI and spatial computing is unlike anything the field has seen before.
Before Ori joins, the hosts wade through a week of signal and noise. Three big IPOs — Cerebras, Quantium, and others — are absorbing investor attention, with Quantium carrying a $15 billion market cap on what Charlie calls "de minimis revenue," raising questions about whether the quantum AI bandwagon has lapped actual quantum utility. Rony poses the challenge directly: what is the real use case for quantum computing besides breaking encryption?
When Ori arrives, the conversation opens on Snap. Evan Spiegel is expected to make a major consumer announcement at AWE — Ori says Snap has put all their eggs in this basket, and the audience at the show will be the first to see it. Ted frames the stakes plainly: if the price shocks people, it's a consumer breakthrough; if it's expensive and exotic, it stays in the science column. Snap recently acquired Illumix, a spatial universe understanding startup, a move that signals the company is building seriously in this space.
The endgame vision comes from Rony: Oakley-weight wraparound glasses at 30–40 grams, human retina resolution, full indoor/outdoor capability, AR and VR combined, wireless, all variable focus, under $500. Ted adds that it also has to land under $650 fully costed at retail. Ori's honest answer: "I promised myself I'm not gonna predict when this happens. I've tried many times and was always way too optimistic." Ted teases Gixel, a German startup he and Rony are involved in using non-waveguide display technology already above 60 pixels per degree — when you put the prototype on, he says, it is crystal clear.
Defense is the fastest-growing vertical at AWE. Healthcare, manufacturing, aerospace, and automotive are major enterprise sectors. Digital twins are the biggest thing in enterprise XR right now, with world models emerging as the intelligence layer sitting beneath them. Over 10 million AI glasses — display-free — sold last year. Ori's framing of why display glasses matter more: AI is shifting these devices from tools that help you learn about things to tools that actually do things.
Key moments: [00:02:47] Quantum IPO bubble — Rony asks what the actual use case is [00:05:48] Quantum mechanics in plain language — qubits, superposition, neurons as quantum computers [00:09:51] Apple WWDC preview — Siri, folding phone, Rony's secret Apple wearable tease [00:11:38] Google Dream Beans — Ted: "It's an ad play" [00:12:51] Suno $400M raise — Rony: "Musical crack" and the TikTok-for-music thesis [00:14:42] Fox reformats "Farmer Wants a Wife" into 101 vertical episodes — the content inflection point [00:17:00] Ori joins — AWE 2026 as "most consequential year in our history" [00:17:40] Snap and Evan Spiegel's expected consumer announcement at AWE [00:19:38] Cambrian explosion of XR content — Meta talent diaspora, Supernatural spinoff [00:23:07] Vibe coding for XR — Ori's AR prototype built in two days with Gemini [00:25:48] Charlie inducted into the AWE Hall of Fame — joining Ted and Rony [00:28:36] iSpatial theme — Ori's three biggest XR trends: AI glasses, AI content, world models [00:39:31] Defense fastest-growing vertical. Digital twins biggest in enterprise. [00:47:18] Rony's endgame AR glasses vision. Ted teases Gixel's crystal-clear prototype.
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