CES 2026: Where AI Meets Reality

Vegas turns into a living blueprint for the future as we sit down with CTA’s Gary Shapiro and best-selling author Jim Harris to unpack why CES 2026 is more than a showcase—it’s where strategy gets decided. We dig into how AI has moved from headline hype to the connective tissue of every sector, shaping robotics, health, mobility, and enterprise workflows. Gary lays out the big picture: a record wave of innovation colliding with real constraints like energy supply, fragmented regulation, and national industrial strategies. The tension is exciting—and actionable.

We walk through what’s truly new this year: a surge in humanoid and wearable robotics, patient-centered health tech powered by continuous sensing, and a startup scene in Eureka Park designed to compress months of business development into days. CES Foundry expands into AI and quantum with live demos, while new categories highlight enterprise tech, filmmaking, logistics, and travel. Keynotes—from Dr. Lisa Su to global brands at the Sphere—frame where compute, platforms, and partnerships are headed next. It’s a global stage, with 40% of attendees from abroad, and a clear signal that innovation is now a team sport.

If you’re an enterprise leader, this isn’t a gadget tour. Nearly half the action is B2B: partner summits, private suites, and tracks that turn tech trends into operating plans. We share practical tips to win your week—map your days by venue, leverage the upgraded AI-driven app, hydrate, and focus on one theme per day to avoid context switching. Looking ahead, we explore how quantum computing, agentic AI, and autonomy could reshape supply chains and healthcare, and why energy and policy choices will determine how fast the future arrives.

Subscribe for more deep dives from the front lines of innovation, share this with a colleague who’s planning their CES agenda, and leave a quick review to tell us which track you’re most excited to explore.

Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Stage For CES 2026
• 2:24 CTA’s Mission And CES At A Glance
• 2:44 AI’s Real-World Impact And Constraints
• 5:01 What’s New And Bigger At CES
• 7:09 Surviving The Scale: Tools And Keynotes
• 9:03 Startups, Eureka Park, And New Tracks
• 11:15 Geopolitics, China, And Global Presence
• 13:40 CES For Enterprise: Strategy Over Gadgets
• 16:44 Looking Ahead: Quantum, Health, Robotics
• 19:29 Pro Tips: Plan, Hydrate, Map Your Days
• 21:21 Closing Thoughts And See You In Vegas

Transcript

SPEAKER_02: 0:01

Hey everybody, super excited for this chat today. Uh CES has always been where the future shows up early, and we're delighted to chat with the head of the CTA, the organization behind CES 2026, to reveal where technology and business and society are headed. Gary, Jim, how are you?

SPEAKER_01: 0:22

Fabulous. Great to see you, Evan. Great to see you, Jim.

SPEAKER_02: 0:27

Great to be here. Woohoo! Great to be here. Gary, uh, of course, everyone in our industry knows you. Jim, uh, perhaps introduce yourself. Who is Jim Harris? And um, what brings you to CES?

SPEAKER_00: 0:40

I've been going to CES for, I don't know, uh since it uh flipped over from Comdex way back in the late 90s. Um I love CES. It's uh the most amazing show, the most uh influential tech show in the world. And I make my pilgrimage to uh Las Vegas every single year in January. So it's fantastic. I'm an international best-selling author and I focus on AI. I'm published in 80 countries.

SPEAKER_02: 1:11

Fantastic. Well, great to have you here as always. And Gary, how do you describe your role these days and the CPA whose mission has evolved so much over the years?

SPEAKER_01: 1:21

So thanks. And I'm I'm really honored to be with both of you, just such legends in your areas. Um, the CTA is a nonprofit trade association based in Washington, D.C. area. And we represent the American tech industry. Uh, we do all sorts of things with legislation and administrations and trade and you name it, HTTV. We created the RS-232 standard and zillion other standards. Uh, but we're best known for producing CES in Las Vegas every January. Uh, CES is where the innovators of the world show up and business is done. Uh, and our focus as a mission as an organization is to basically catalyze innovation and to make sure that it can happen. And we, you know, we work with governments to try to make sure they don't mess it up. And we also try to get the people that are the investors, the retailers, the media like yourself, um, the strategy people and the technology people, marketing people all together in Las Vegas every January at CES.

SPEAKER_00: 2:24

Uh, Gary, AI has been the top trending topic for the last uh few years at CES. But where do you see it moving? And uh can you tease out the hype from the reality and where is it scaling in 2026?

SPEAKER_01: 2:44

Well, I don't know, honestly, but I could speculate. Um, but I will say that AI is not the technology I would consider to be hype. I consider it as important as the internet itself in terms of the next big move which will define our generation, because it brings together developments in so many areas, whether it's self-driving vehicles, robotics, um, healthcare, you name it, there's it's just gonna make everything better in many ways and fundamentally change how we live, how long we live, what we do with our time, and it's incredibly important. And we're, you know, we're just the baby steps, and part of what you'll see at CS is all sorts of different applications of AI. Um, I used to say every company's a tech company, maybe I should start saying every company's an AI company, because that's where we're heading. Uh, and and part of what you'll also see, yes, is what are the stumbling blocks to get there? Uh, clearly, investment money flowing in is not the issue right now. It's definitely uh there's a lot of money going in, but there are constraints. Energy is a constraint. Uh, we'll have a focus on energy. There'll be a lot of energy-producing products, there'll be a conference on energy as we did a year ago. Also, uh, other public policies, you know, many countries in the EU have a strategy, they have a national plan. Uh, the U.S. has 50 states. We had 1,200 bills introduced in 2025, and that's an issue. I mean, President Trump himself is talking about that very issue frequently because he believes, I believe correctly, that AI will be to his presidency what fracking was to President Obama's presidency. It'll be the technology which saves the economy and makes them look good.

SPEAKER_02: 4:30

Fascinating. So CES has evolved so much over the years, over the decades, in your case, and Jim's case. Um, so what feels fundamentally different uh at CES 2026 from even a year, two, three, five years ago?

SPEAKER_01: 4:46

I you know, we always do a pre-show meeting and we do different things, we focus on all sorts of things. But one of the briefings I got was on the new products and what companies are doing. And I don't think I've ever been so wowed as I was this time. The level of innovation being introduced at CES is truly phenomenal. We are um we saw the early indication of that we had a record number of innovations award entries. It was over 1,300. Uh we, I'm sorry, it's over 3,100. I transposed the number. Uh, we also just seeing the winners uh is fabulous. But seeing the products, whether it's in Eureka Park, where the startups or some of what the major companies are doing, companies and other in you know, many, many different categories, whether it's in mobility and healthcare and robotics. Robotics is also uh bigger than it's ever been at CES. Uh, we're seeing a transformation there. Um, you know, obviously industrial robotics has been around for a while, but humanoid robotics, wearable robotics, all sorts of other robotics, it's been very impressive. And that's something that we'll say. So, what makes it different? Um, also, it's uh from an international basis. You know, 40% of the people that come to CES are from outside the U.S. It's a global event, it's dominant. We had 55,000 people come. The airlines have put on an additional 20,000 uh seats uh to fly in from abroad. Uh, every major airline is coming here. We have policymakers from around the world, we have uh leading luminaries, we have the top people in tech. This is you know, we call it a trade show, but it in some ways it's a festival, it's an event, it's the world's fair of technology, and with over 3,000 exhibitors, it's really something and no one could see all of it.

SPEAKER_00: 6:33

Wow. So anybody who's going, remember to bring running shoes or the most comfortable shoes in the world. It's like uh going through 40 football fields or something like that. You can't literally see it all.

SPEAKER_01: 6:48

Don't wear new shoes. Wear comfortable shoes. Things are further up away than they appear in Las Vegas, no question about that. Um, and plan out your your stay. We have this incredible app. Every year we make it a lot better. This year we took a big leap. We've added artificial intelligence to it ourselves. And we're seeing from the searches that people are already doing, that's doing exactly what we wanted. It's helping people with a lot of questions, it's helping them plan the show. Uh, so they could stay in in one facility for a day, then move to another facility for another day. That way they're they get their time is better spent, they're more efficient, and they get to see what they want done. Obviously, we have incredible keynotes. Uh, we have six, seven of them. Um, and that was uh we they include everyone from uh Dr. Lisa Sue of AMD to the CEOs of Caterpillar, Vivendi, Lenovo, Siemens, and even Aura, the what you wear in your hand and measuring your sleep and health.

SPEAKER_00: 7:51

Great to have uh Dr. Lisa Sue keynoting. She was just on the cover of Time magazine. So to have a uh you know, as person of the year, to have her as a keynote is uh a real it's fantastic, a great coup.

SPEAKER_01: 8:08

Wow, I missed that. She's person of the year. That's phenomenal.

SPEAKER_00: 8:11

That's that's that's really I was person of the year, and there were about seven seven people on an I-Beam, like that famous scene of building New York City with uh skyscraper and i-beam and all the workers sitting on it eating their lunch. They recreated it with time.

SPEAKER_01: 8:31

Awesome.

SPEAKER_02: 8:32

That's impressive. And it's not just big tech companies, uh, startups are everywhere. I happen to know because I'm one of the innovation judges, and I spent uh uh time looking at hundreds of amazing startups. What opportunities does CES present to startups that may not have existed in the past?

SPEAKER_01: 8:53

Well, we we've had your Eureka Park. We started that out as an idea about 10 years ago or so, and it's certainly grown to over 1,300 companies. That's subsidized, it's consistent with our philosophy as an association. I first heard when our big companies were debating the whether we increase the cost of space, and the chairman of the board at the time said we have to always make CES available to anyone with an idea. You know, they'll come there and make it inexpensive, they may max out their credit card, but we want them to have access to retailers, uh, media, investors, potential partners, big companies, buyers, and it's been very successful. But we're also what we have is we have a whole range of different programs that we haven't had before. CES Foundry, for example, is a stage at the fountain blue where we have all sorts of companies, big and small, uh, presenting on AI and quantum with demos and content. Um, we do we added new innovation award winners, I don't know if uh categories rather. I don't know if you're involved in ed tech, enterprise tech, filmmaking and distribution. We do with CAN and supply and logistics and travel and tourism to show the breadth of technology. We also have uh programming additions in all sorts of other areas. We have accessibility, which is really huge. We've noticed a lot of uh people with disabilities, leading organizations were coming from basically everywhere and talking to manufacturers about what their products actually can do and how they can help people. And that's been a wonderful synergistic relationship for everyone involved. Um, and we have tracks also on manufacturing with the focus that um President Trump has on where manufacturing should be. We have a whole new thing on manufacturing, also on wearables, because wearables approach too much, and women's health, as well as we have some AI training courses on strategy implementation, agentic AI, uh, and responsible AI, AI-driven marketing, and a whole bunch of policy sessions on a lot of these things that governments are talking about, whether it be trade, AI, privacy, intellectual property, you name it. Uh, we also have something called the creator space in uh Central Hall, open to all badges. We have C Space, where our marketing CMOs from around the world from every business category and they hang out with the tech people and they they see because obviously if you're in marketing, everything changes so quickly. You got to get there first and know what's going on. Fantastic, Jim?

SPEAKER_00: 11:15

Uh Gary, uh the uh Trump administration has uh come to loggerheads with uh China, and I know in past uh there were a thousand Chinese companies at one time, mainly in Eureka Park, uh, but spread throughout the show. What do you think will be the impact this year uh with China? I know you uh mentioned that putting on 20 extra planes, but China in particular, what do you see the uptake and the appetite for uh CES this year?

SPEAKER_01: 11:51

You know, fortunately, uh President Trump and President G have uh come to some sort of at least temporary accommodation. Certainly, though, there's a long-term strategy under the Trump administration that everything, um I I interviewed the deputy USTR recently on stage and was on C-SPAN, and what he said was that I said, what's your big goal here? And he said, Well, everything that we consume in the U.S., we must make in the U.S. Now, obviously that's not gonna happen. Sorry, uh, administration. I know you mean well, but uh we're pushing for something with the allies. But in terms of the CES, Lenovo, big company, they are actually keynoting at the sphere, and it is gonna be incredible the talent they have on stage, including, I might add, uh uh Jensen Wang, the CEO of Nvidia, will be on stage at the sphere. That's a cat-miss thing. Um, but but China itself, there are some major companies like Hisense and Hire and others that are certainly um visible at CES, and that's fine. Um, and there's smaller companies. Uh we welcome everyone around the world. I think we only drew the a map around Russia and said we're not welcoming you. Um, you know, we have uh all sorts of government uh sponsored or country-sponsored pavilions. There's over 20 of them from many countries. Uh China certainly is is throughout the show. They are not the biggest contingent in the show. Obviously, that's Americans. They're not even the second business. I believe uh that will end up being the Koreans in terms of uh their presence, uh measured most ways. That was in 2025. Um but China's uh we welcome them uh to CES. They sell a lot of products. What we don't do is there's an entity list that the U.S. government puts out that says uh you know, we won't do business with these people and they shouldn't be here and things like that. We're very careful to follow the U.S. law and and even go a bit beyond.

SPEAKER_02: 13:42

Fantastic. I love the enterprise uh and IT content that's increasingly present at CES as an enterprise guy. Um, how should enterprise leaders who may not think of going to CES think about it in terms of, you know, they they perceive it as a gadget show, which is sort of old fashioned, maybe it was 10 years ago a gadget show, but it's turned into kind of a strategy uh lab in many ways. What what say you, Gary?

SPEAKER_01: 14:10

Well, you know, Evan, I really appreciate you raising that because I didn't even raise it. It's just such what you said, we just assume that everyone knows, and you're right, they don't. Uh about we estimate the 40 to 45, 50 percent of the show is actually business to business. It's it's more um businesses selling to other businesses, doing business, and the whole point is to make it efficient, and the business environment is part of that. Uh, you know, you talked about Comdex earlier. Uh, we competed with Comdex, and that's a that that could be a book in itself, and what happened with that? But basically, we we uh welcome the business-to-business community. We know that a lot of the exhibitors are doing business with each other, um, and that's one of the reasons a lot of them come. Uh, and we know that the you know, the the business environment did change somewhat in terms of a bring your own device environment, and that helped us uh compete with Comdex. But we also did a lot of other things to compete with Comdex. We certainly, you know, I invited Bill Gates to speak every year, and he was coming every year for years, and we got others as well. And, you know, all these companies are still there. Some of them may not have been as visible, a lot of them have meeting rooms, but they're doing business because it's so efficient. The average person has about 29 meetings while they're there in business, and you can't do that. I remember the CEO of one of the major chip companies thanked me at the end of the show and said, this would have taken me three months of traveling around the world to do what I did in four days here. So it is efficient. And the other thing we do, um, and I know you're at other shows as well, is we actually independently audit the show. Uh we view ourselves as being a platform, like a media platform. And so we want hard, good numbers. And um, and we are we have a duty of honesty. And uh we urge anyone going to any show to demand that or ask that if you're interviewing the people, you know, where do you get your numbers from? Well, we independently audit, and we're a member, I'm gonna sit in the board of a global organization that requires that uh UFI. So I'm pretty proud of that, that what how we do things and how we measure ourselves. But the whole thing is for the customers, for the industry, and it's for the betterment of the world. And that's what uh innovation is about. It's about making our lives better, making our businesses more productive, and raising the standard of living for the world.

SPEAKER_02: 16:14

Wow, that's that's like a mic drop moment, but we're gonna keep you here another minute. Jim, any other uh questions in here?

SPEAKER_00: 16:20

Well, um uh maybe just to reflect, Gary has been uh leading the CTA for decades. And um, you know, way back when the show really was about hardware and then it evolved to hardware and software, and now AI, we've talked about that, but how do you see the continued evolution of CES? Like if you were to cast forward to next year and five years out, how will CES continue to evolve? What trends in the marketplace do you see that will change everything?

SPEAKER_01: 17:02

That's a great question, and we discuss it often. Um one of the things we talk about that COVID made a difference on is especially at the CEO of a major company level, is all of a sudden they they rediscovered the value of face-to-face interaction. So now we get attention because CEOs see CS increasingly what's being focused on is they're bringing their board of directors, they're bringing their key customers, they're having meetings there. They also see, believe it or not, this sounds crazy, but they see it as an opportunity for their staff to team build in the exhibits. So, in terms of how the CEOs that really actually pay us, their companies pay us to exhibit, see it, they're seeing it as more of an opportunity than they used to. And they see it as an efficient opportunity. Obviously, it is costly. Some people don't like to travel still for a lot of reasons. And and and you know, with the with the debates though over remote work and everything else, it's an opportunity for people in their environment to have teamwork and running and manning an exhibit. In terms of the actual product, which is I think what you're really asking about. Uh, we see a shift to quantum computing, to more AI, to robotics, to self-driving vehicles, to uh healthcare, uh more uh specific patient-centered health that focuses on the unique uh aspects of the patient. We see companies like Aura and and obviously uh Fitbit through Google and others measuring and measuring more and more parts of the body. We see healthcare providers taking that data and turning it to something that allows uh us to deal with the fact there's a shortage of healthcare professionals and we're living older and there's no one to take care of us. So all these things are changing in a way where we're we're looking at our at products, devices, um, and and sensing devices, especially with algorithms and healthcare to actually tell us that we're getting sick, to tell us how we could avoid it, whether it's in our seats, in our cars, or in our homes. Obviously, with the the aging population, you know, we're seeing so many different ways of monitoring people, whether they fall or whether they've taken their medicine or what their heartbeat is, whether they need to get to the hospital. CS is going to reflect all these miraculous changes in robotics and healthcare and mobility and so many other aspects. And the and the facilitators will obviously be uh generative AI, quantum. And then the you know, the the the funnels, the restrictions that we're concerned about are government, energy, uh, national policies, electronic borders being put up around countries, uh, you know, the global, the globe, you know, breaking out into those with different views of the world, which are, you know, they are different. And we talk about these things all the time.

SPEAKER_02: 19:35

Wow, that's that's so exciting to hear. Uh final thoughts, uh, Jim. Any besides good shoes, any other advice that you might have for attendees to get maximum value from CES in January?

SPEAKER_00: 19:48

Um, I it's always uh useful to bring uh water bottles so you hydrate. Like if you're gonna be doing 30,000 steps a day, remember to hydrate. And uh, Gary's early. Advice about being really strategic and mapping out where you're going because if you're in the Las Vegas uh Convention Center West Hall and you need to get to the MGM, it can take you an hour and then an hour to get back. So being very strategic in physically mapping out your um strategy about where you're going to. And there are, by the way, some incredible seminars. I'm I'm chairing one, an AI panel. So in the uh LVCC North uh seminar halls is like an incredible whole program uh that you can go to. Uh it's in it really some amazing sessions. So there is so much, so really kind of plotted out.

SPEAKER_01: 20:50

Yeah, glad you raise that, Jim, because we have over a thousand speakers. And if you go to our app and you you say what you're interested in, um the speakers that are relevant will pack up, will pop up if you ask for it. And they all are all over the show, and there's a lot of it will be streamed on the internet afterwards. Um but it is a matter of planning ahead and seeing what you want and and basing it on. And you're right, the conference sessions and the keynotes makes sense. Fantastic.

SPEAKER_02: 21:17

So, Gary, any final words of wisdom, advice for particularly for new attendees? Well, get a lot of stuff.

SPEAKER_01: 21:23

Get us a lot of stuff before you get there. If you're not feeling well, wear a mask uh or don't come. Uh, we do a lot of we have taken a lot of health care precautions that other events do not take. Uh, but you know, get some rest. It's the holiday season. But people love it after the holiday season to get away to Las Vegas and and and see the future. It starts out the year optimistically. So thank you very much for uh taking the time to interview me, and I look forward to seeing you in Las Vegas. Have a great, healthy, and happy season. Woohoo!

SPEAKER_02: 21:53

Wonderful. Thank you, Gary. Thank you, Jim. Thanks everyone for listening, watching, sharing this episode, and see you at CES. Take care, guys. Take care.