What We’re Anticipating at CES 2026

CES 2026 doesn’t formally begin till Jan. 6, however in case you’re an everyday 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 largest tech present even opens its doorways in Las Vegas. Remember to follow our CES 2026 live blog to see all of the stuff our shopper tech crew will likely be looking at in particular person.

I’ve a robust feeling CES 2026 will likely be much more packed than everyone seems to be anticipating. Six years after the pandemic, it appears to me—based mostly 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 sort—firms are daring to shoot for the moon once more. So what main tendencies are we anticipating from the yr’s largest present for know-how innovation? I could finally be improper, however let me peer into my crystal ball and see if I can join some dots.

AI will likely be inescapable

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

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

Do you really want AI in a washer or fridge? What number of instances is a giant electronics firm going to attempt to persuade us at a packed press convention that we’d like some new residence equipment to determine the way to cook dinner a meal from leftover substances? 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 sensible glasses

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

As a doable Subsequent Large Factor after smartphones, each firm appears to be attempting to determine the way to commercialize sensible glasses. How do you stability fashion and utility whereas making it well worth the expensive early adopter value and in addition squeeze in AI into them to maintain up with the most recent development? Meta may need you considering it’s found out some magic recipe, however in actuality it hasn’t. A single pair of sensible glasses with strong screens, cameras, battery life, audio system, AI, and apps remains to be the holy grail machine everyone seems to be chasing.

At present, sensible glasses nonetheless have too many tradeoffs. It’s additionally not clear that customers even need sensible glasses that do all of it. That’s why we’ve seen so many flavors of sensible 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 greatest 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 sensible glasses blueprint to emerge by the top of CES 2026, solely that the number of designs and choices will widen past what we’ve already seen shipped. There will likely be much more sensible 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 received’t care in any respect what micro RGB or WOLED means, however TV makers will likely be pushing arduous to make their newest show applied sciences look like must-haves after they ultimately 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, greater 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 in case you didn’t fly in to ogle pixels.

I’ll be paying shut consideration to how a lot AI is pressured into new TVs and the way firms select to combine AI in there. Google’s Gemini will little question exchange the outdated Google Assistant, however I actually need to see how a lot AI slop there will likely be. My guess is that there will likely be an uncomfortable quantity of AI slop masquerading as utility. Extra AI screensavers—sorry, canvas artwork. Extra AI to create pretend frames to make watching sports activities and gaming smoother, however visibly uglier when watching films and TV exhibits 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 stunned if there are a bunch of TVs with even greater 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 automotive present, but it surely’s additionally inconceivable to disregard the whole corridor of EVs, automotive, and mobility tech on the Las Vegas Conference Middle. Like a gradual burn, there will likely 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 may promise to hit the skies (however most likely by no means will).

Zooming in additional particularly, my remark is that there will likely be a development 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. Moreover 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 machine at CES 2026, I’m positive 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 sensible residence received’t have an enormous presence on the present—it can—but it surely’s at present being retrofitted with AI, so it received’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 sensible residence 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 needs to be much more fascinating on the sensible residence entrance is seeing intelligence merge with robotics throughout the residence. I’m, after all, speaking about humanoid robots that may elevate issues and do chores, and even beefed-up robotic vacuums that may climb stairs. At CES 2026, we must always have the ability to get a better take a look at a few of these private robots. They received’t be commercially obtainable at any inexpensive 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 tendencies I count on to see at CES 2026. On a pure {hardware} degree, the present will likely be stuffed with the standard new laptops and PCs, residence leisure techniques (TVs and audio system), wearables, audio (wi-fi headphones and wi-fi earbuds), cameras, transportation (EVs, e-bikes, e-scooters), and cellular equipment and laptop peripherals. A heaven of devices, if you’ll.

By the top of the present, the Gizmodo shopper tech crew will likely be exhausted and hungry, however we’ll have taken in the entire spectacle of all of it. CES is the perfect place to preview the long run. Or relatively, concepts of what the long run seems to be like.