CES 2026 has been dominated by a shift from "Chatbot AI" to "Physical AI"—technology that doesn't just talk to you, but moves, works, and interacts with the real world.
Here are the biggest highlights and news from the floor in Las Vegas:
1. The Era of the "Zero-Labor Home."
The most talked-about reveal was LG’s CLOiD, a humanoid home robot.
Handle complex chores: It was demoed folding laundry, emptying dishwashers, and even retrieving milk from the fridge to help with cooking.
3 Intelligent Collaboration: It can communicate with other smart appliances (e.g., opening the oven for you or clearing a path for a robot vacuum).
4 SwitchBot also debuted its onero H1, a robot specialized in organizing shoes, washing dishes, and doing laundry, signaling that humanoid helpers are finally moving toward mass-market reality.
5
2. High-Performance "Physical AI" Computing
The "brains" behind these new machines were a major focus for the big chipmakers:
NVIDIA: CEO Jensen Huang introduced Alpamayo, an open-source AI model family designed for autonomous vehicles to "reason" rather than just detect objects.
6 He also unveiled the Vera Rubin chip, which reduces AI inference costs to one-tenth of previous generations.7 Intel: Launched the Core Ultra Series 3 (Panther Lake).
8 These are the first chips built on the advanced 18A process (sub-2nm), promising "AI PCs" with massive local processing power and 30-hour battery lives in laptops like the new Samsung Galaxy Book6.9 AMD: Unveiled the Ryzen AI 400 series and the enthusiast-grade Ryzen 7 9850X3D, focusing on immediate availability for high-end gaming and creator laptops.
10
3. Next-Gen Mobility & AFEELA
The Sony Honda Mobility (AFEELA) project reached a major milestone:
Pre-production Model: Sony showed the AFEELA Prototype 2026, which is set for U.S. deliveries later this year.
11 The "Mobile Office": In partnership with Microsoft and Bosch, they demoed an "AI Cockpit" that lets you attend Microsoft Teams calls with adaptive cruise control and use a "Personal Agent" powered by Azure OpenAI.
Lucid Motors: Integrated a new "isoline routing" system that factors in real-time terrain and weather to show your exact driving range, virtually eliminating "range anxiety."
12
4. Wild & Unexpected Gadgets
Samsung’s 130-inch Micro RGB TV: A massive, "timeless frame" display that looks like a gallery window.
13 It uses RGB LEDs (clusters of red, green, and blue lights) for much higher color vividness than standard OLEDs.Lego Smart Bricks: Lego made its CES debut with bricks containing sensors and wireless tech that interact with each other without needing a phone app.
14 The Pebble Index 01: A minimalist AI ring with a physical button—no wake words required.
15 You just press and talk to your AI assistant.Whisper Aero T1: A "silent" leaf blower that is 80% quieter than gas models, operating at only 52 decibels (about the volume of a quiet conversation).
16
Key Trends to Watch
| Trend | What it means |
| Physical AI | AI is moving into robot bodies and cars to do manual labor. |
| Wi-Fi 8 | First prototypes (like the ASUS ROG NeoCore) appeared, focusing on ultra-low latency. |
| "Aeronium" Laptops | LG used a new magnesium-aluminum alloy to make a 17-inch laptop (Gram Pro) that weighs just 1.37kg. |