This week, Andrew “Boz” Bosworth, CTO of Meta, has dropped a promising bombshell. Fargo thinks that 2025 is going to be a watershed year for the company’s AR/VR work. In a recent memo to employees, Bosworth outlined his new vision for Reality Labs. He noted that next year will be pivotal to gauging the effectiveness of Meta’s strategic roadmap.
Bosworth, one of Meta’s first 15 engineers, shared optimism during the call over the direction of the company’s products. He noted that by the end of 2025, stakeholders would have a clear understanding of whether Meta has effectively executed its ambitious plans.
“What we’ll know by the end of the year is whether we executed on our plan or not,” he stated during an interview with Bloomberg Technology. Bosworth asserted that the focus must first be on getting the internal execution right. He shared the unconventional wisdom of former chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg.
Sheryl likes to tell the story that most companies don’t get defeated because they were physically overrun by a competitor. The primary reason that most companies fail is because they didn’t implement their own plan effectively, ” he said.
Meta’s latest product progress shows encouraging signs, especially with Ray-Ban AI glasses becoming more widely available. They’ve sold more than 2 million pairs, outselling classic Ray-Ban styles in a number of brick-and-mortar retailers, long before the AI functionality was released. Bosworth characterized this success as a major win that has not just thrilled consumers, but sparked competition as well.
All of a sudden, we go from working under the radar to being on center stage in the marketplace. It has made our product very attractive to consumers, which competitors have noticed,” he said.
Bosworth admitted that there has been great progress—a lot of it. He cautioned that 2025 could become a “legendary misadventure” for Meta if the company fails to achieve its targets. Beyond that, he wanted to emphasize the exceptional value of all the things achieved in 2024. He argued that what happens this year will have a profound influence on both today’s and tomorrow’s work.
“The market is actually, especially when it comes to hardware, a trailing indicator,” Bosworth asserted, highlighting that market performance often lags behind product execution and innovation.
As Meta moves through this new and important inflection point, Bosworth’s musings are indeed indicative of a year brimming with opportunity for innovation and progress. The company’s ability to execute its plans may well determine its legacy in the evolving landscape of augmented and virtual reality technologies.