User privacy VS technological innovation? Navigating AR smart glasses adoption

Background: Artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled augmented reality (AR) smart glasses represent an emerging form of wearable technology that combines immersive interaction, hands-free functionality, and continuous access to digital information. However, their adoption may involve a trade-off between perceived benefits and privacy-related risks.Objectives: This study investigates how hedonic, utilitarian, and symbolic benefits influence trust in AI-AR smart glasses and examines whether personal privacy concerns, perceived surveillance, and ethical fear negatively affect trust.It further examines the role of trust in explaining adoption behaviour.Methods/Approach: Drawing on Privacy Calculus Theory, the study employed a quantitative research design.Data were collected from 850 respondents following a standardised five-minute demonstration of selected AI-AR smart-glasses features, resulting in 810 valid responses.Participants had prior experience with AR-enabled applications but had not previously used AR smart glasses.The data were analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) with 5,000 bootstrap resamples, supplemented by predictive assessment using CVPAT and PLSpredict.Results: The findings show that hedonic, utilitarian, and symbolic benefits positively influence trust, whereas personal privacy concerns, perceived surveillance, and ethical fear negatively influence trust.Trust, in turn, positively influences adoption behaviour.The findings also indicate that the proposed model provides meaningful explanatory and predictive value for understanding adoption behaviour.Conclusions: The study demonstrates that trust serves as the central mechanism connecting perceived benefits and privacy risks with adoption behaviour.It extends Privacy Calculus Theory to AI-AR wearable technology by incorporating symbolic benefits alongside device-specific privacy risks and provides implications for technology developers and marketers seeking to strengthen adoption while addressing privacy concerns.