I had the opportunity to attend 2026 CES in Las Vegas at the start of the year to work on the Official CES Show Daily. About halfway through my time there, a coworker texted me to ask how the show was going. My answer was quick and honest:
“Full of amazing technology that somehow manages to evoke feelings of both hope and dread.”
The cause for both of those feelings was AI. Last year, when I returned from CES, I wrote an editorial about the overuse of AI throughout the show. This year, even though it seemed impossible, AI was used even more, but in a different way.
Since the last show, AI has grown beyond a buzzword used to make any device seem more important than it is. It has become a movement. Executive chair and CEO Gary Shaprio of CTA, the association that produces CES, went so far as to declare, “If electricity is the last century, AI will illuminate the next. AI is transforming every industry, every home, every life. Fire, the wheel, the internet, every leap forward has reshaped humanity. AI is what’s defining the next generation.”
More than just talk, there were many examples of transformative AI in use in personal, residential, commercial, industrial, medical…pretty much every area. LG drew headlines with its CLOiD robot, which uses AI and vision-based technology to perform household tasks like cooking and laundry. Exhibitors showcased a number of assistive robots that could be gamechangers in home assistance and helping people to age in place.
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On the industrial side, Hyundai held a press conference not to announce a new vehicle, but instead to reveal their plans with Boston Dynamics to create Atlas, a humanoid robot that will work on the company’s factory floors. Atlas offers 56 degrees of freedom, fully rotational joints, and human-scale hands with tactile sensing. It can lift up to 110 pounds, remain operational in washdown environments, and stay on the floor longer thanks to its automatic battery-swapping function.
Hyundai ended its session by saying that the robots would not replace people, insisting that Atlas will handle the riskiest, most exhausting jobs, while its human counterparts moved on to oversight, training, and higher-skill roles. Industrial-machine maker Caterpillar had a similar presentation, showing off all it can do with AI while promising that humans are the key part to making it work.
I hope that is the case, but if Shapiro’s take is right, then it is only natural that some people will get pushed to the side due to advancements in technology.
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The main takeaways from CES 2026, and the most-heard phrases, were “Agentic AI” and “HI.” Agentic means having the ability to act independently and think autonomously without constant input. HI stands for “human intelligence,” which is needed for AI to be successful.
In the custom installation industry, that pairing of independent action and human intelligence is an absolute necessity. Those evolving robot assistants will need to be a part of the whole-home ecosystem to do their jobs properly — and for the clients to get the most out of them.
And there are none better for that job than the humans in this channel.
