Comparison
Why XAIRO — and not the others?
The market for industrial AR software is confusing. We explain who solves what, and where XAIRO offers a different answer.
XAIRO live at CWIEME 2026
XAIRO in real trade show conditions, not in a demo environment.
Availability is what decides it.
Until now
Remote visual assist
An expert in the office joins a technician on site over video. They see what the technician sees and can draw AR arrows or markers into the image. The problem: the expert has to be available.
With XAIRO
Autonomous AI knowledge transfer
The expert’s knowledge is already stored in XAIRO. The employee asks, the AI answers. No expert has to be available. No call, no waiting, no time-zone problem. 24/7, in 70+ languages.
Head to head
| Criterion | XAIRO | Microsoft D365 Remote AssistEOL: 12/31/2026 | Help LightningRemote Visual Guidance | Scope AR WorkLink | PTC Vuforia Expert Capture | TeamViewer Frontline |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conversational AI Employee asks open questions, AI answers | ✓ Free-flowing conversation, no menus | ✗ Video collaboration, no AI dialogue | ◑ AI assistance in the background, no free dialogue | ✗ Overlay-based, no dialogue | ✗ Step by step, no dialogue | ✗ Guided workflow, no dialogue |
Live remote video Expert joins over video | ✓ Escalates to a human expert when needed | ✓ Core feature via HoloLens + Teams | ✓ Core feature: merged reality | ✓ Remote collaboration available | ✓ Vuforia Chalk, a separate remote AR product | ✓ Frontline Assist with live video |
24/7 without a human expert Works even when nobody is available | ✓ Always available, no on-call duty | ✗ Expert must be online and reachable | ✗ Expert must be available | ◑ Only rigid, pre-authored instructions | ◑ Only rigid, pre-authored instructions | ◑ Workflows only, no live AI |
Multilingual (automatic) 70+ languages with no manual effort | ✓ 70+ languages automatically | ◑ Teams translation, limited | ◑ Limited language support | ◑ Content must be translated manually | ◑ Content must be translated manually | ◑ Partial, no real-time AI |
Setup without an IT project Ready in hours, not months | ✓ App + account, done | ✗ Azure AD, Dynamics 365, HoloLens fleet | ◑ Enterprise onboarding, but not a months-long project | ✗ Enterprise implementation | ✗ PTC infrastructure required | ✗ Integration project required |
Effortless knowledge capture Text documentation usable directly, no authoring | ✓ Manuals and guides can be added as plain text | ✗ No knowledge management, live video only | ◑ Quick knowledge cards, limited | ◑ Authoring effort for every step | ◑ Video-capture based, labor-intensive | ◑ Workflow authoring required |
Pure voice control possible Full navigation by voice, no gestures | ✓ Primary control is by voice | ◑ HoloLens hands-free, but gestures for navigation | ✗ Smartphone/tablet: hands are needed | ◑ AR glasses, but workflow navigation by gesture | ◑ AR glasses, but workflow navigation by gesture | ◑ AR glasses, but workflow navigation by gesture |
Scales without extra cost 500 requests don’t cost more than 50 | ✓ More usage needs no extra expert hours | ✗ 50 requests = 50 expert hours | ✗ 50 requests = 50 expert hours | ◑ Instructions scale, no AI dialogue | ◑ Instructions scale, no AI dialogue | ◑ Workflows scale, no AI dialogue |
Hardware flexibility Available for common AR glasses, no special solution | ✓ Built primarily for Xreal Aura, also available for Meta Quest* | ✗ HoloLens 2 only (one device, very expensive) | ✓ Smartphone, tablet, various glasses | ✓ HoloLens, RealWear and more | ✓ HoloLens, Vuzix, mobile devices | ✓ RealWear, various glasses and smartphones |
✓ = available · ◑ = limited · ✗ = not available. Based on publicly available product information (as of August 2026).
* On Meta Quest, only a limited feature set is currently available; some features differ depending on the platform. See roadmap.
The difference
Remote visual assist (Microsoft, Help Lightning)
- →Expert and technician are online at the same time, real-time collaboration
- →Strong for complex individual cases nobody has solved before
- ✗Expert has to be available: on-call duty, time-zone problem
- ✗Knowledge doesn’t leave the conversation, no learning effect for others
- ✗Doesn’t scale: 50 requests = 50 expert hours
- ✗Help Lightning runs mainly on smartphone/tablet, hands aren’t free
XAIRO: autonomous knowledge transfer
- ✓Store expert knowledge once, then retrieve it indefinitely
- ✓Available 24/7, no on-call duty, no waiting time
- ✓Scales without expert hours: 500 requests cost no extra work time
- ✓Every escalation makes the stored knowledge base more valuable
- ✓Pure voice control, no swiping, no typing, no gesture navigation
- ✓The AI conversation runs automatically in 70+ languages, no interpreter, no extra effort
- ✓When the AI reaches its limit: escalation to a human expert over video, also translated live
When is remote visual assist still the right choice? When a problem is genuinely new and complex, for example a one-off machine fault nobody has seen before. Microsoft Remote Assist and Help Lightning are good for such exceptions. XAIRO is the right choice for everything that repeats: inductions, training, standard faults, trade show consultations. And honestly, most service requests do repeat.
In detail
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Remote Assist EOL 12/31/2026+
Microsoft Remote Assist is being discontinued on December 31, 2026, along with Dynamics 365 Guides. Existing customers have to migrate, whether they want to or not.
The underlying problem was structural: the approach assumes a human expert is reachable live, on the phone, in a Teams call, wearing a HoloLens. If the expert is unavailable, the system fails. That doesn’t solve the problem, it just postpones it.
XAIRO works without that bottleneck: the knowledge is already stored and available around the clock. No on-call duty, no hold-queue problem. On top of that, XAIRO runs on lightweight, everyday hardware instead of a HoloLens, and is ready to use within days instead of after an implementation project.
Help Lightning+
Help Lightning is a remote video tool: an expert joins over video and sees what the technician sees. That sounds practical, but it means the expert always has to be available. 50 service requests a month mean reaching someone 50 times.
On top of that, Help Lightning runs mainly on smartphone and tablet, with the technician holding the device in their hand. At a machine, during an induction, in a warehouse: those are exactly the situations where you need both hands free.
XAIRO doesn’t need an expert to pick up. The knowledge is already there, as AI, on the glasses, hands-free. What repeats once doesn’t need to be explained by a human a second time.
Scope AR WorkLink+
Scope AR is built on predefined, step-by-step instructions. Someone has to author every work step in advance, with AR overlays, markers, and text. That takes time, and if a process changes, everything has to be recreated.
No dialogue: the employee can’t ask a question. They click through step 1, 2, 3, and if step 4 doesn’t fit because the situation differs from the standard case, they’re on their own.
XAIRO doesn’t follow a rigid script. The employee describes their situation, the AI responds appropriately. Multilingual support is built in, no authoring needed per language. And getting started takes days, not months.
PTC Vuforia Expert Capture+
Vuforia Expert Capture relies on video recording: an expert films a procedure, and the platform structures it into a guide. Clever in theory, but it means every process first has to be recorded before it’s available. If the process changes, it has to be re-recorded.
Free-form questions aren’t possible. The user follows the recorded path. Anyone who deviates from the route, because the machine behaves differently than in the video, gets no answer.
XAIRO needs no recording. Add existing manuals and guides as text, done. And the employee asks what they need to know, not what someone considered relevant months ago.
TeamViewer Frontline+
TeamViewer Frontline is a suite: vision picking, assembly, inspection, remote support. Many modules, many integrations, many options. But that also means: implementation projects, IT resources, license negotiations.
None of the modules is an AI assistant that holds a free-form conversation. Employees navigate through workflows, structured but rigid. No memory, no multilingual support without extra effort, no dialogue.
XAIRO isn’t a suite product and doesn’t try to be. It solves a clearly defined problem: transferring knowledge, autonomously, at scale, in any language. No IT project, no consultant, no months-long rollout.
Still unsure what fits you?
We compare honestly, even if XAIRO isn’t the right first choice for your case. Talk to us.
All information about competitor products is based on publicly available information from the respective manufacturers (as of August 2026). XAIRO makes no claim to completeness. Product features may change.