What We’re Anticipating at CES 2026

CES 2026 doesn’t formally begin till Jan. 6, however when you’re a daily Gizmodo reader, you already know that it has unofficially began. Like yearly, firms begin dripping out teasers and partial product bulletins on the finish of December, weeks earlier than the most important tech present even opens its doorways in Las Vegas. You should definitely follow our CES 2026 live blog to see all of the stuff our shopper tech workforce will probably be having a look at in particular person.

I’ve a robust feeling CES 2026 will probably be much more packed than everyone seems to be anticipating. Six years after the pandemic, it appears to me—primarily based on early bulletins—that the present is lastly roaring again to life. Revitalized by the promise of AI—whether or not automation, generative, agentic, or another form—firms are daring to shoot for the moon once more. So what main traits are we anticipating from the 12 months’s greatest present for know-how innovation? I could finally be mistaken, however let me peer into my crystal ball and see if I can join some dots.

AI will probably be inescapable

Greater than any CES present in previous years, we’ll see AI shoved into each gadget possible. Samsung, LG, Lenovo, Razer—all the greatest attendees and even the small unknown startups will probably be boasting about why some type of AI will supposedly make their merchandise higher. Among the AI functions may legitimately transfer the needle; the overwhelming majority will probably be AI options for AI options’ sake, overpromising and underdelivering.

As reporters, we’re gonna spend our days at CES 2026 wading by means of the AI minefield of intelligence sprinkled into laptops, cell units, dwelling home equipment, transportation, and extra. The identical means Wi-Fi was added to just about each gadget, AI will wiggle its means in even when you don’t need it.

Do you actually need AI in a washer or fridge? What number of instances is an enormous electronics firm going to attempt to persuade us at a packed press convention that we’d like some new dwelling equipment to determine the best way to cook dinner a meal from leftover components? Probably the most helpful AI features would be the ones that don’t even seem like AI, LLMs, or chatbots working invisibly within the background to make our lives extra handy.

A sea of good glasses

If reviewing a bunch of good glasses, together with Meta’s Ray-Ban Display, final 12 months signaled something for what to anticipate in 2026, it’s that there will probably be an avalanche of good glasses coming.

As a attainable Subsequent Huge Factor after smartphones, each firm appears to be making an attempt to determine the best way to commercialize good glasses. How do you steadiness fashion and utility whereas making it well worth the expensive early adopter value and likewise squeeze in AI into them to maintain up with the newest pattern? Meta may need you pondering it’s discovered some magic recipe, however in actuality it hasn’t. A single pair of good glasses with strong screens, cameras, battery life, audio system, AI, and apps remains to be the holy grail gadget everyone seems to be chasing.

At present, good glasses nonetheless have too many tradeoffs. It’s additionally not clear that customers even need good glasses that do all of it. That’s why we’ve seen so many flavors of good glasses—ones with mono and dual-lens waveguide screens, ones with no cameras (for privateness, naturally) in any respect, or easy “AI glasses” that excel finest at taking images and movies and taking part in music like a pair of open-ear headphones. Then, there are video glasses from the likes of Xreal that are bolting on XR functions to permit them to supply extra computing-like options that you just’d discover in bulkier XR or VR headsets.

I don’t count on any good glasses blueprint to emerge by the tip of CES 2026, solely that the number of designs and choices will widen past what we’ve already seen shipped. There will probably be way more good glasses than XR and VR headsets. The metaverse is dead; AI is now the brand new hotness.

TV tech issues once more

Okay, perhaps customers gained’t care in any respect what micro RGB or WOLED means, however TV makers will probably be pushing exhausting to make their newest show applied sciences appear to be must-haves once they finally ship in precise flat screens.

By no means thoughts that you could be not perceive how backlighting applied sciences work or that your worsening eyesight can’t see the broader dynamic vary, expanded HDR, larger distinction, or elevated brightness. CES 2026 will tout TV tech prefer it has for greater than 50 years. The present merely wouldn’t be the identical when you didn’t fly in to ogle pixels.

I’ll be paying shut consideration to how a lot AI is compelled into new TVs and the way firms select to combine AI in there. Google’s Gemini will little doubt change the previous Google Assistant, however I actually wish to see how a lot AI slop there will probably be. My guess is that there will probably be an uncomfortable quantity of AI slop masquerading as utility. Extra AI screensavers—sorry, canvas artwork. Extra AI to create faux frames to make watching sports activities and gaming smoother, however visibly uglier when watching motion pictures and TV reveals due to the movement smoothening.

Talking of upper body charges, I’ve to surprise how excessive TV makers will go together with the refresh charges? 120Hz, 165Hz, and 240Hz already push the envelope for gaming, however don’t be shocked if there are a bunch of TVs with even larger native (and artificially boosted) refresh charges simply to outgun the competitors on a spec sheet battle.

EVs and mobility take over

Everybody is aware of that CES isn’t a automobile present, however it’s additionally inconceivable to disregard all the corridor of EVs, automotive, and mobility tech on the Las Vegas Conference Middle. Like a sluggish burn, there will probably be extra of all of it. Extra EVs with absurd high speeds, longer ranges, and shows plastered inside their interiors; extra e-bikes and e-scooters that blur the road with bikes; and extra wacky prototype flying vehicles and private quadcopters that can promise to hit the skies (however most likely by no means will).

Zooming in additional particularly, my remark is that there will probably be a pattern of returning again to bodily and tactile in-car controls. A decade in the past, Tesla made touchscreen dashboards and controls ubiquitous, however carmakers and customers at the moment are realizing that good ol’ buttons by no means wanted to be—and maybe by no means ought to have been—ditched.

Personally, I welcome this return to sensibility. Apart from giving vehicles extra differentiation and character, bodily buttons, dials, and knobs are literally extra user-friendly whereas driving. Who may have imagined that turning a dial to regulate quantity or the air conditioner is quicker than tapping a number of layers right into a touchscreen layer?

And naturally, like each different linked gadget at CES 2026, I’m certain we’ll see AI crammed into the dashboard in addition to extra guarantees for self-driving tech.

Right here come the house droids

It’s not that the good dwelling gained’t have an enormous presence on the present—it’s going to—however it’s at the moment being retrofitted with AI, so it gained’t sound groundbreaking. Google Assistant is being replaced by Gemini and Alexa with Alexa+. These “upgrades” are totally on the backend, however as we’ve seen testing the early batch of merchandise powered by these extra clever voice assistants, the intelligence half isn’t fairly there but. Whenever you want customers to make use of two separate modes—one for good dwelling controls and one other for extra conversational AI—as you do with Gemini, it’s a sobering reminder that the retrofitting remains to be very a lot a piece in progress.

What ought to be much more fascinating on the good dwelling entrance is seeing intelligence merge with robotics inside the dwelling. I’m, after all, speaking about humanoid robots that may carry issues and do chores, and even beefed-up robotic vacuums that may climb stairs. At CES 2026, we must always be capable of get a better take a look at a few of these private robots. They gained’t be commercially out there at any reasonably priced pricing anytime quickly, however on the very least they need to give us an concept of whether or not we’re actually nearer to the sci-fi dream of getting a real-life C-3PO to do our bidding.

Extra of the standard shopper tech

These are the larger traits I count on to see at CES 2026. On a pure {hardware} stage, the present will probably be crammed with the standard new laptops and PCs, dwelling leisure programs (TVs and audio system), wearables, audio (wi-fi headphones and wi-fi earbuds), cameras, transportation (EVs, e-bikes, e-scooters), and cell equipment and laptop peripherals. A heaven of devices, if you’ll.

By the tip of the present, the Gizmodo shopper tech workforce will probably be exhausted and hungry, however we’ll have taken in the entire spectacle of all of it. CES is one of the best place to preview the long run. Or quite, concepts of what the long run seems to be like.