Taiwan’s acoustic supply chain gears up for wearable AI

台灣聲學廠為穿戴式人工智慧做好準備

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s acoustic and speech-processing industry is entering a pivotal phase as voice artificial intelligence and front-end audio technologies increasingly define product experiences, CTEE reported Tuesday.

Momentum in AI smart glasses continues to build. Product lines from Rokid and Ray-Ban Meta continue to introduce new models, while reports suggest Google and Apple are restarting related projects. As competition intensifies, the ability of a device to listen, see, and speak is becoming central to product differentiation, placing new demands on the acoustic and speech-processing supply chain.

For AI-powered smart glasses to move beyond early adoption, experts say three challenges must be addressed. First, microphones need to capture sound clearly while reducing wind and background noise.

Second, devices must “understand” speech, performing tasks like noise reduction, speaker recognition, and meaning comprehension, either on the device or via cloud computing. Third, they must respond quickly and naturally to support features such as real-time translation, meeting transcription, and in-car voice assistants.

Two Taiwanese companies, ZillTek Technology Corp. and Intelligo Technology Inc., are emerging as key suppliers in this growing ecosystem.

ZillTek, a long-time producer of micro-electro-mechanical systems microphones, saw steady performance in the third quarter as it shifted more of its business toward digital microphones, which now make up 78% of its shipments. The company is also benefiting from the AI PC upgrade cycle, where demand is rising for higher-quality microphones that can capture clearer sound.

ZillTek is expanding beyond laptops into automotive, hearing aid, and AR/VR smart glasses markets. Its compact microphones are already used by Xreal and have entered product ecosystems from Meta and Xiaomi.

Analysts note that AI glasses require several very small, high-performance microphones within a limited frame, increasing the number of components needed per device. This is expected to create steady growth opportunities for ZillTek.

Intelligo, meanwhile, focuses on the overall voice interaction experience. The company develops technologies for AI voice input and output, operating through licensing its intellectual property and selling chips.

Its third-quarter revenue rose 92.5% from a year earlier. Intelligo says Voice AI is becoming a new interface for human-machine interaction, supported by existing demand and new product launches.

The global Voice AI market is expanding quickly. It is projected to rise from NT$98.7 billion (US$3.14 billion) to NT$149.4 billion in 2034, a compound annual growth rate of 34.8%. The growth is attributed to improvements in speech recognition, natural language processing, and broader adoption of voice-driven applications across sectors, according to VoiceAIWrapper.