CES 2026: AI Shifts from "Model Arms Race" to "Product Implementation"
The recently concluded CES 2026 (Consumer Electronics Show) almost turned into an "AI Realization Expo": humanoid robots roamed the halls, smart glasses were everywhere, AI toys began to possess complex emotional interaction capabilities, and Samsung even packed Edge AI into refrigerators and ovens. This resembled a major industrial migration—AI is moving from data centers into living rooms, kitchens, offices, and children's toy boxes.
At last year's CES, several AI infrastructure companies showcased AI computing systems, emphasizing "specs and computing power." In contrast, the dominant theme of this year's CES is:
"AI is no longer a technical concept, but an integral part of consumer electronics."
The Rise of Humanoid Robots: From Labs to Households
Without a doubt, the most bustling area at CES 2026 belonged to—Humanoid Robots.
In past years, most humanoid robot booths featured demonstrative prototypes: robots often required neck tethers to prevent accidental falls. Companies like Unitree's robotic dogs could greet people, but if the operator was slightly inattentive, they might bump into someone. This year, however, what you could see were robots that help tidy rooms and cook, robots that play table tennis and box with people, and robots that climb stairs with agile ease and perform factory tasks with meticulous precision. A clear trend is emerging: humanoid robots are shifting from being "hardware-engineering-driven" to "AI software-driven." The competition used to be about mechanical structure and motor precision; now, it's about whose AI is smarter and whose motion planning is more natural.
Samsung's released "Smart Home" robot was one of the major highlights at this year's CES. It demonstrated the company's vision for an AI kitchen: AI Kitchen = Robot + Smart Appliances + Edge Computing.
In Samsung's vision, the AI kitchen includes robots that can cook and handle chores, along with refrigerators and ovens that can automatically communicate with the robot. When the robot approaches these appliances, it transmits its needs, and the appliances respond by automatically opening the refrigerator door, setting the oven temperature, and so on. To ensure real-time performance and privacy, both the robots and appliances are equipped with localized AI systems, like Gemini 3 Nano, handling communication and inference at the edge. This points to a significant underlying trend: AI is becoming part of the "operating system" for home appliances.
Smart Glasses: AI's "Next Mobile-Level Terminal"
Another super-hot topic at CES was—AI Smart Glasses.
Starting with the success of Meta Ray-Ban, almost all manufacturers have realized that smart glasses could very well be the "new gateway" for the AI era. At this year's CES, several Chinese manufacturers, including Rokid, launched various AI glasses with diverse functionalities, with prices dropping to the range of around a thousand RMB. These products are no longer just simple "camera + Bluetooth headset" devices; they now boast features like real-time visual understanding, multimodal conversation, AR information overlay, simultaneous translation, and meeting transcription.
A typical scenario: you look at a menu, and the glasses directly help with translation, recommendations, calorie calculation, and placing the order. It feels like hardware manufacturers are "stuffing large models into the frames."
Unlike the AR/VR hype of 2023–2024, this wave of smart glasses is no longer focused on building the metaverse, but rather on making the "AI assistant portable."
Apple Chooses Google Gemini to Power Siri
In a major strategic shift, Apple Inc. has officially confirmed that its next-generation Siri and Apple Intelligence platform will adopt Google's Gemini AI model as the core technical engine. This marks another landmark collaboration between the two long-time rivals, following their search partnership. According to statements from both companies, Apple, after a "rigorous evaluation," determined that Gemini provides the most powerful and reliable technological foundation to support highly personalized and context-aware intelligent services across iPhone, iPad, and macOS. This Gemini-powered new version of Siri is expected to officially launch later this year.
According to Apple, in strict adherence to its long-standing privacy commitments, Gemini-related functionalities will operate on-device or within Apple's own Private Cloud Compute infrastructure wherever possible, ensuring user data is not misused or leaked.
This deal is undoubtedly a significant victory for Google. Google's AI technology will directly serve over 2 billion active Apple devices worldwide; Gemini will become the default core AI capability within the Apple ecosystem. This is a key milestone in Google's AI commercialization journey and further solidifies Gemini's leadership position in the high-end large model arena. Following the announcement, Alphabet's stock price rose, pushing the company's market capitalization above the $4 trillion mark for the first time.
In recent years, Apple has been actively exploring paths for generative AI application. In 2024, Apple integrated OpenAI's ChatGPT (GPT-4o) into some Apple Intelligence features, allowing Siri to hand off complex queries to ChatGPT with user permission. At that time, Apple still hoped its internal team would develop the core AI functionalities. However, the progress of Apple's in-house large model development did not meet the company's expectations, particularly in areas like natural language understanding, complex reasoning, and multimodal processing, where gaps remained compared to leading models like Google Gemini and OpenAI.
After multiple internal delays and product adjustments, Apple ultimately chose a pragmatic route—adopting the more mature and controllable external Gemini system.
Of course, choosing Gemini to provide core AI services does not mean ChatGPT will completely exit the Apple ecosystem. ChatGPT is expected to remain as an "optional tool," continuing to play a supporting role in specific task scenarios.
To summarize: The main theme of the AI industry over the past three years has been: whose model is bigger, stronger, and faster. Now, the theme is shifting to: who can integrate AI into products. Beyond new product categories like humanoid robots, smart glasses, and AI toys, AI is also beginning to be deeply integrated into the highest-volume electronic product—the smartphone. These implementation scenarios will be the true main battleground of 2026. The competition among companies will no longer be about technical specs, but about user experience, price, and ecosystem.
