Expectations for CES 2026

The annual pilgrimage to Las Vegas has begun, and FDM | CCS Insight is closely tracking the news from CES 2026, providing daily updates on the most significant developments emerging.

To kick off our coverage, we share our thoughts on the event’s main themes below.

AI Everywhere

The infusion of AI into an ever-growing range of consumer devices has been a consistent theme at CES for several years. There has been no shortage of companies jumping on the AI bandwagon, showcasing products such as AI toothbrushes, AI stick vacuums and AI hairbrushes. Additionally, every product category of prominence at CES, including TVs, domestic appliances, PCs and smart home products, now all include an AI element.

We’ve long predicted that consumers are tiring of the constant barrage of products labelled with AI capabilities, something we’ve labelled as “AI fatigue”, and we expect this to worsen at CES.

This isn’t to under-estimate the impressive progress that has been made with AI over the past few years — and the phenomenal advances with platforms such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. AI is here to stay, and it’ll play a crucial role in the future of all technology products and be omnipresent at CES.

One area we’re watching with particular interest is robotics (see below), where AI is playing a significant role. Increasingly powerful implementations of edge AI, agentic AI and on-device AI are also hot topics we expect to be widely discussed at the show.

On this basis, it’s little surprise that the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), which organizes CES, has defined Adaptive Intelligence as one of its three “megatrends” at the show, alongside Longevity and Engineering Tomorrow.

Robotics

Robotics is another ascendant trend we have noted at CES over the past few years. We expect a proliferation of humanoid robots to feature in numerous press conferences and keynote sessions at CES 2026.

Notable examples already showcased in 2025 include the 1X Neo robot, designed to perform household chores, and the Tesla Optimus, now in its third generation and primarily designed for industrial tasks, with potential for household use in the future.

We’re also starting to see the fruits of Chinese government-sponsored investments in humanoid robotics made over the last two years. However, it’s unclear how significant the presence of Chinese companies will be at CES, given ongoing geopolitical tensions between the US and China.

We caution that humanoid robots are far from being a commercial reality, and the hype will continue for many years. To be successful, general-purpose humanoid robots need significant progress in general-purpose AI models that can learn from and interact with the world. For example, advances are being made in areas such as imitation learning with the introduction of vision-language-action models that watch a human perform a task and learn from it, and these will be widely discussed. Furthermore, on-device processing and local inference will be vital to future developments.

However, most robots on the show floor at CES will continue to focus on specific tasks, such as robot vacuum cleaners and mopping cleaners, lawn mowers, window cleaners and pool cleaners.

Another robotics-related initiative we expect to see at CES is LG’s CLOiD dual-arm home assistant, which is designed for household tasks such as folding laundry. We also await an update to Samsung’s Ballie robot to bring deeper integration with Google’s Gemini.

Health

As noted above, the CTA has designated Longevity as a megatrend for 2026, and this aligns well with our view that technology focused on health and well-being will be a major topic at CES. We expect areas such as predictive and preventive care, medical hubs for the home and overall well-being to be heavily featured.

Addressing the challenges of an ageing population and enabling them to live independently for longer is a growing and potentially lucrative area. Expect to see solutions for monitoring nutrition, muscle mass and biological markers in real time. This will also make it easier to triangulate data points from chemistry, haematology and microbiology.

We also predict that companies will showcase a range of robotic solutions designed to care for the elderly. These will use emotional AI to assess the well-being of the person they’re looking after. Assessments will be offered based on characteristics such as tone of voice, facial expression and gait. We also note that there will be a dedicated Accessibility Stage sponsored by Verizon, focused entirely on tech for people with disabilities.

Hardware

We expect to see numerous hardware-related developments this year in major areas such as computing, display technology, audio, wearables and smartphones.

In display tech, the big emerging trend since 2025 has been the adoption of Micro RGB technology for consumer-centric gaming monitors and TVs. This offers sharper text, a better viewing angle and broader colour coverage than traditional OLED-powered displays.

Dolby Vision 2, announced in 2025, is also expected to debut in several new products, as well as Dolby Atmos FlexConnect, an intelligent wireless sound positioning format which adapts to its environment.

Wireless speakers, headphones and home-theatre products often use CES as a launchpad, and this year we will see several products demonstrating bigger, bolder and more-intelligent sound. Samsung unveiled four new products last week, including two minimalist-style Music Studio wireless speakers and two new premium Dolby Atmos soundbars, looking to position itself as a competitor to Sonos.

In computing, we expect to see the first Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite laptops and Intel Panther Lake PCs to be showcased, with a focus on multiday battery life and AI agent support. In 2026, we expect increasing competition between x86 and Arm-based computing devices, with other suppliers announcing Arm-based products.

AI will be a central theme for wearable devices, from AI-enabled earbuds to AI voice recorders offered by companies such as Plaud and SwitchBot.

As outlined above, we also expect to see many health-related wearables at CES 2026. In this sector, we’re optimistic that there will be a continued focus on women’s health tech, including specialized wearables and diagnostic tools for reproductive health and the menopause.

An avalanche of smart glasses with integrated AI capabilities, lighter designs and lower pricing will be offered, following the growing success of the Ray-Ban Meta glasses. We also expect some brands to launch eSIM-enabled glasses, eliminating the need for pairing with a smartphone for connectivity.

Historically, CES has been a relatively quiet show for smartphone updates, but Samsung’s Galaxy Z TriFold smartphone, which was recently announced in South Korea, will undoubtedly get widespread coverage. We understand that more trifold devices will be on show from companies such as TCL. Honor is also expected to continue teasing its Robot Phone, which we predict will be launched later in 2026.

Smart Home

CES has seen a vast array of smart home devices over the years, and this trend will continue in 2026. Major stakeholders such as Amazon (Ring), Eufy, Google, Philips Hue, Samsung (SmartThings), TP-Link and Vivint will have an extensive presence at the show.

An area we’re watching with interest is the recent inclusion of smart cameras in the Matter standard. This is a further breakthrough for interoperability as Matter continues to gain momentum since its introduction three years ago.

Adding value to smart home devices and their subscriptions, such as by implementing AI in smart cameras, is another trend we highlighted in 2025 that we expect to proliferate in 2026.

The interdependence of devices will also be a hot topic. This is linked to exploiting whole-home connectivity over security, lighting, speakers and more, which can further enhance the smart home experience. Furthermore, a growing number of router-makers are adding capabilities such as motion detection based on fluctuations in radio propagation.

FDM | CCS Insight will be publishing daily updates from CES 2026, covering significant announcements as they emerge. Subscribe to our blog and follow us on LinkedIn to make sure you don’t miss the top stories.