CES 2026 brought a world of ideas
CES 2026 brought more than 140,000 attendees to Las Vegas. From Jan. 6–9, these attendees attended keynotes, exhibition booths, and education sessions at the newly renovated Las Vegas Convention Center, Aria Las Vegas, and The Venetian Las Vegas.
More than 4,500 companies attended the convention, showcasing developments in AI, healthcare, mobility, computing and more. AI has been a topic of discussion over the past couple of years. Deloitte hosted a keynote on the latest trends to come.
Tech Trends 2026
I think if you walk the floor, the one word you’ll see across almost every exhibitor in every industry is going to be AI,” said Bill Briggs, chief technology officer for Deloitte. “I’d argue that in a few years, we’ll see less of the emphasis where it’s a part of the billboard, the headline, the booth display, it’s just embedded in how we’re thinking about new features, capabilities, how we unlock new value.”
Just as 100 years ago, Briggs said, there were probably many booths emphasizing that they were electrically powered; we’re still in that exciting moment regarding AI.
Briggs discussed Deloitte’s latest annual trends reports, highlighting five themes centered on upcoming technological advancements.
1. AI’s Physical Transformation
Briggs suspects the physical structure of AI will become another trillion-dollar industry. Using applications like digital twinning and world modeling, soon AI will be able to act physically in the world around it.
Robotics will play a significant role in AI’s physical capabilities. According to the report, AI-enabled robots are likely to transition from a niche to mainstream adoption, and the next iteration will eventually be humanoid robots that can navigate with capabilities beyond what we currently see.
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2. Agentic AI
Agentic AI refers to an AI system that can operate autonomously and with minimal human direction. “The hard work is beyond just the agentic models and platforms; you have to have the underlying data. You got the underlying systems ready,” Briggs says.
Another concern Briggs brought up is the impact the introduction of autonomous AI agents will have on the workforce. “What does it mean to the workforce as we have more machines and humans working together? What does that mean for collaboration and culture? We’re just getting to the point where we’re thinking about the HR equivalent processes for agents and bots.
He said companies aren’t talking enough about what it means for people to have to interact increasingly with their “technical coworkers.” Deloitte’s study found that 93% of AI investments are being allocated to the tech and 7% to work culture, training, learning, and development. “This is a huge piece we need to close the gap on if we want to see its full potential,” he said.
3. AI Infrastructure
Briggs says the question of what to do with AI is becoming an increasingly Important discussion for CEOs. “Where compute and infrastructure were line items on the infrastructure IT budget, now it’s becoming elevated, because the decisions we make, the partners we choose, have real implications to broader business strategy,” he says.
4. The Great Rebuild
In this year’s report, only 1% stated that they weren’t in the midst of a technological transition. Briggs said we’re at a time when the initial perception of IT and tech as a back-office function has been completely turned on its head.
“Sixty-five percent of enterprises said they expect their technology organizations to be revenue-generating, not just back-office efficiency,” he says. “We’re seeing this convergence between information technology, operational technology and product technology; the investments we need to make and the things that have to be true to make all that potential real are converging, which is exciting, but we don’t have the skill set, we don’t have the infrastructure, we don’t have the budget to make that real.”
He said we’re in the midst of creating what the next generation of this technology looks like.
5. The AI Dilemma
Briggs said the AI dilemma is mostly the cybersecurity aspect of it. He mentioned that there are two sides to this.
“The good news, the ‘hero’s journey,’ we’re using AI to have a completely different approach and tactics for cyber and security and regulatory and plunge is amazing,” he said. “The upside is we’re embedding cyber into our embedding AI or cyber response. The flip side is we’re seeing new and new vectors of threat and new and new avenues of attack because of AI, especially as we move into physical form and critical infrastructure.”
Read More: CES 2025: Engaging Activations
Activations
While walking around the exhibition floor, I noticed several eye-catching booths that caught my attention and that of many other attendees.
While many companies used activations that highlighted the capabilities of their products, others employed engagement tools that had no direct connection to their products. Either way, attention was garnered.
Ohsnap!
Ohsnap started as a phone grip company in 2010 and has since gone on to create other phone-based products, such as grip wallets, car mounts, chargers, and cases. The booth displayed its Mcon gaming controller, allowing visitors to play various games with it.
Aront
Aront is a company that specializes in massage chairs.
While their chairs were inside the booth, just outside, they placed foot stepper machines that received a lot of attention.
Rolling Square
Rolling Square is the producer of charging cables, wireless chargers, power banks and phone tracking devices. It’s a tool of engagement: a button timer. Attendees were asked to press a button at exactly 10 seconds against a timer.
Hisense
Hisense had one of the largest booths at CES, showcasing its new RGB Mini-LED TVs and gigantic Micro-LED models.
The booth featured several engaging activations that showcased the brightness and color of their TVs while providing entertainment. There was simulation golf, video games on its TriChroma Laser TV and simulated soccer.
RCA
RCA aimed to trigger attendees’ sense of nostalgia with its throwback to its early model color TVs.
LG
LG was also another brand with a large booth. There were tons of people in this booth, surrounding a room encased in glass.
They weren’t crowding around to look at new tech—they were watching singer will.i.am and actress Natasha Lyonne live podcast. Another eye-catcher in the booth was the brand-new transparent OLED T Smart TV.
