The market for "Edge AI smartwatches," where devices perform artificial intelligence (AI) computations directly on-device, is growing rapidly.
According to global market research firm Counterpoint on the 9th, shipments of Edge AI smartwatches in the first quarter of this year rose 70% from a year earlier. They accounted for 25% of the overall smartwatch market.
About 90% of first-quarter Edge AI smartwatch shipments this year were from Apple.
The biggest driver behind the rapid adoption of Edge AI in smartwatches is health and fitness features. Previously, it was common to send biometric data to the cloud for analysis, but now smartwatches can analyze heart rate, sleep patterns, and body temperature directly on the device in real time. This allows smartwatches to immediately detect abnormalities such as atrial fibrillation, sleep apnea, and hypertension.
In fact, first-quarter shipments this year of smartwatches that support blood pressure monitoring doubled from a year earlier, and products that support sleep apnea detection tripled.
Apple earlier introduced the S9 chip in 2023 with a 4-core neural engine for Machine Learning computation, and Huawei boosted smartwatch AI capabilities by adopting its self-developed Kirin W80 chip and the AI assistant Celia in 2025. This year, Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon Wear Elite equipped with a dedicated Neural Processing Unit (NPU), and Google's next-generation Tensor-based wearable chip is also expected to further enhance AI features.
A new approach that runs AI without a dedicated NPU is also emerging. Ambiq's Apollo platform powers on-device AI inference using Arm Helium vector extensions and heliaCORE software (SW) kernels.