AI Lens
AI news, hot topics, advancements, and discussions about how AI is reshaping business and society.
Your focused view on the emerging hot topics in the Age of A.I.
AI Lens
Season 1 Episode 9: Our Top Picks for Exciting Technology at CES 2026
AI Lens brings your focused view on the emerging hot topics in the Age of AI!! We provide AI news, hot topics, advancements and discussions about how AI is reshaping business and society.
In Episode 9, we summarize the exciting new technology we saw while attending CES 2026: Robots for home and business, Autonomous Vehicles, Home Appliances, Toys, AI glasses and wearables, AI for health and fertility, AI Accessibility and more!!! Be sure to listen to what's coming in 2026 that is reshaping business and society. AI Lens is the focus on your future
This is AI Lens. We are your focus on the emerging hot topics in the age of AI. We provide AI news, hot topics, advancements, and discussions about how AI is reshaping business and society. This is episode nine. We have been at CES this entire week. We were at the Las Vegas Convention Center, the Venetian, the Wynn. We went to Fountain Bleu, all these different displays on and sessions concerning AI at CES 2026. And today's episode, we're going to bring you some of the things that really stood out to us, some of the products, some of the technology that we saw while we were here, and what we think it means for the future. So, John, let's get started. Let's unpack for the people listening what are some of the top products or technology that you saw?
SPEAKER_00:Well, one that we saw inside the CS at the convention center, but we also saw it outside, and that's these robotaxis that were all over Las Vegas, right? Oh yeah. So those are pretty impressive. They seem to work really well. We didn't actually ride in one, but we saw them everywhere. They maneuvered really well. They they're interesting in that it's basically an EV with a giant middle section almost like a uh mini bus. Mini bus, yeah. Yeah. And it has bench seating facing each other. So that's kind of the inside. Don't know what all it had inside, but it was well lit, it looked comfortable, it seemed to ride real smoothly, navigated turns easily. So it was that was really interesting.
SPEAKER_01:And it was interesting when you saw them on the streets, you usually saw them in packs of like two or three of them together.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I wonder why.
SPEAKER_01:It was really, really interesting to see that. And they not only they had they did have one on display that we were looking at. This is like the next phase. You know, we've had Waymo for a while now, and this is the next stage, and they were in action, and I will tell you, Las Vegas during CES is jam-packed traffic, very difficult to get around, and I only heard positive things about using the robotic buses.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, we did talk to a few people that were in those, and they they said they were they were very comfortable, had uh wonderful experiences, so that that was nice to hear.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. So what's another one that you saw that you thought was remarkable?
SPEAKER_00:This uh Samsung's Galaxy Z Trifold. It's a cell phone that actually has a very small form factor, and when you open it up, it opens it up into it's like basically packaged into three, think of like a pamphlet that's got three compartments and you fold it together. When you unfold it, it becomes a giant display. And the form factor is very small. It looks like a self-regular looking cell phone, but when you open it up, it's this beautiful display. Can't really see lines in it. It's it looked fantastic.
SPEAKER_01:So it's like having a cell phone and and if you're going with Apple, a cell phone having an iPhone and an iPod or iPad, sorry, iPad all together.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it converts into one or the other. It's fascinating. So that was a really cool piece of technology. Now, what's something that stood out for you, Liz?
SPEAKER_01:You know, well, because I hate chores around the house. I have two dogs and a cat, and my house gets a ton of fur. And we have, you know, the uh the little robotic vacuums right now. Well, CES, we saw the robotic vacuums that actually go upstairs and clean your stairs, and they can do sweeping, they can do vacuum. I I think it can do mopping too. And it's like it it has like little legs, and when it gets to a stair, the AI make you know will censor that and it goes the legs stand it up, move the body forward, and it's on the step, and it just keeps going and it cleans. That's amazing because I know that we in two-story homes, you usually have one on the first story, one on the second. This is one that can hit all of the stairs. I was very impressed, already looking for it in the stores.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, for those of you that own an IRO robot, one of the challenges is it gets stuck in places, it doesn't maneuver very well. This handles all of those. So in addition to the stairs, it handles other obstacles extremely well. Okay. Well, here By the way, if you're talking about robotics, hold on. We got to talk about that Atlas robot that Hyundai unveiled. That's the Boston Dynamics robot.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, unbelievable. Now, this is more for businesses in a warehouse where it would handle different products, shelving, things like it was amazing.
SPEAKER_00:Its capabilities are incredible. It's actually driven by Google's deep minds, Google DeepMinds AI. So it handles things like the whole side of a car. It can lift it up uh out of out of wherever it's it's stationed in terms of where it's in stock. It can sit there and like put it on the other side of itself because it has joints that aren't limited. So it almost like reverses its body.
SPEAKER_01:Well, like going, it picks it up over its head and then it comes down on the other side.
SPEAKER_00:Unbelievable. And then it attaches it to the car for it to be welded. So I mean it's strong, it's nimble, it's relatively fast. It's not a very slow moving process. So that was pretty impressive, too.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and it's much smaller than having a forklift.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so that would that was pretty amazing. I'll I'll tell you, let me talk about something on the health field.
SPEAKER_00:All right, actually, before you do that, one quick thing about robotics, real fast. That's where I'm talking about robotics. Okay. I was blown away by the dexterity of the and the agility of these robots. They were doing things like handling small, intricate things. It almost looked more natural than your own fingers. Other ones were doing examples of a robot that was doing spinal surgery. Other examples included, they could do flips, they could run, keep their balance, you could push them and they could actually stay stable and adjust, mimicking dance moves. It was it was all over the robots were everywhere, a lot of it driven by AI as well. And and home home robots that would actually do cooking and cleaning, folding laundry.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah, they had the one that folded laundry. I love that one. Yes.
SPEAKER_00:So if robots over the next two to five years are gonna absolutely explode the the how far they've come the last two years has been pretty impressive.
SPEAKER_01:And what you know, I think I read an article, I think it was this morning, that in San Francisco they're putting 300 robots just out in the public to see how people react to them. Absolutely. It's coming and it's coming fast. And we saw everything from R2D2 looking robots to the C3 POs to the giant warehouse robots. It was unbelievable. And they're trying with a lot of them to make them look as human as possible. We saw quite a few that were we saw the women and the men and them interacting. Now, the eye contact and the speech with the face isn't you can tell it's a robot, but I'm sure next year at CES it's gonna be even more precise so it looks more real.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, there are even robots that would put like some sort of a screen in essence, and so they would have facial expressions, so it actually felt more personable, so you're actually interacting with what you thought was more of maybe an actually living object as opposed to something that was robotic. So that was pretty cool too.
SPEAKER_01:Right. And then I posted on our Facebook the holograms. Oh, those were they these were like life-size people or smaller or creatures or animation in holograms. And I did a very short interview. If you go to our Facebook page for AI Research Technologies Inc., on there I put the interview with the company, they're already putting these holograms in airports. It's at, I think she said Gatwick Airport. And they talk to people and do customer service. So instead of going to the kiosk, you'll actually be talking to a hologram. It was really cool.
SPEAKER_00:It was like that Tom Cruise movie where he was in the future and everything was animated, like through holograms and three D's. Vanilla Sky, maybe, or I'm not sure what the title was. It was that one where you could go arrest people today based on what they did in the future. Oh but that they had like all those holograms. It was incredible. That was that was pretty cutting edge. Uh one one I know that you liked, maybe I wasn't as big a fan of, but but it certainly makes sense. The Lego Smart Brick.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah. Now the Legos have been around forever. Kids, I grew up with Legos, but they're static. They're building blocks, which are fun, and it teaches kids all different kinds of wonderful lessons about physics and the way mechanically to create and to use their imagination. Well, Lego now has these interactive Lego bricks. They detect different light and they have AI effects. They'll interact with you, they have sound, they will be a character. It was, I thought, for kids, super cool and probably gonna be on their 2026 holiday gift list.
SPEAKER_00:It wouldn't surprise me. Yeah, it even knows what type of what you're creating in terms of like your what your build-out is, it'll sense what it is and somehow add, you know, additional commentary based on that, too. Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. Now going back to health, which I started to talk about on the. You can tell John's really excited.
SPEAKER_00:We spent two hours talking about robots in more detail. Okay. Go ahead, sorry.
SPEAKER_01:So on health, there were all kinds of things. There was like a mirror that you look at that could scan and tell you different aspects of your health, different ways to do blood pressure using AI. There were optics, like for your for prescriptions for eyes, there was hearing, there was the autofocus glasses. Oh, and of course, the meta glasses. The meta display was unbelievable where you are wearing glasses and you can see, like you could put in it, it could act just like you could put in a script and it'll be your teleprompter. We're not wearing them right now, I promise. But there were so many things. But I'll tell you a couple of key ones that I really liked. There was a South Korean company there, and we all have friends who have had issues with fertility. And a lot of times, if they need to do a sperm like men need to do a sperm count, that's you have to go into the doctor, you have to wait a while to get it. They have it where you can do it on your phone.
SPEAKER_00:It's an at-home self-testing kit using AI to detect your actual sperm count. So, number one, you have to go someplace and you know do things that you might not want to do out there, right? So this enables you to do it in the privacy of your house. It uses AI. It's very uh well documented and researched, and you can actually do this in the privacy of your home.
SPEAKER_01:It it basically magnifies the sample and counts the sperm and then gives you a reading on it. Now, with that, the legal in me is gonna say always double check with your doctor, but it at least you'll know if this is detecting a problem and it should go further. I thought that was fantastic. What did you see in health that you liked?
SPEAKER_00:Oh, so many things. I think those biomarkers, the longevity mirrors were two items that really stood out. They could that could like you covered it already. They could read blood pressure, they can do all sorts of other things. Yeah, those are pretty impressive. Health scores, you know, other vitals they can take. Those are those are pretty impressive items. I I think the things that really impressed me as well were these consumer goods. So I mean it ranged everything from automated everything with entertainment and your home and everything's being inner, you know, integrated now. I mean, they even had something there, AI guided smart hair clippers. So you sit there and do your own DIY cuts or AI shoe cleaners that would automatically clean, dry, and disinfect your shoes. So using the AI to detect dirt levels. I mean, they had everything you could ever imagine and then some in terms of consumer products.
SPEAKER_01:You know, going back to vehicles, something that I I tried, it was so much fun. They now have the technology where in the actual windshield, there's AI. And you know how, like, if you go on maps and it'll show you, you know, oh, there's a supercharger nearby or there's a restaurant, things like that. This will now be on the windshield. So as you're looking, you can see, oh, over there, that is a gas station. And it there are different ways where you can click on it and it will show you, you know, information about it. Just like if you click on it and it, you know, on your iPhone and it shows you hours of day. The point on this is your iPhone isn't going to be the only AI that's providing you information. In fact, it may really phase out with these glasses and other wearables. Already, though, in the windshield, it's it's coming our way, and it looks fantastic. Now they're gonna have to make it so it's not gonna distract you while you drive. And while we were there, there was one for the driver and a different one for the passenger. Correct. And like, for example, with the music, the passenger got to control everything through the windshield, which I totally appreciate because John does most of our driving. Right?
SPEAKER_00:I might not appreciate that feature as much. So another one that came to mind sitting here, and this is kind of like going broader, at the enterprise level, Nvidia had tr tremendous number of different products that they're rolling out. Everything from more advanced, smarter, faster, less power consumption servers that'll process AI, these big data centers, to next-gen video upscaling. So, especially for those gamers out there, it'll boost frames per second, the sharpness, make the multi-frame in games kind of look more smooth and realistic. They also had a healthcare app or uh our software that provides tools for atom-level protein design. So that's good for like, say, for drug development, and it's gonna provide a massive like protein data set for researchers to use going forward. I mean, just NVIDIA alone was doing so many things. And by the way, it was amazing. Yeah. I mean, and they also had a lot of vendors there too that they're they're showcasing that were leveraging their technology too.
SPEAKER_01:So Okay, now the TVs, we we've already seen it. If you've updated your smart TV, you'll you'll see it'll make suggestions on your history and what they it thinks you will like. That's getting better and better, and they're adding more AI in these smart TVs. It's really unbelievable. But in addition to this, just to go off AI for a second, wallpaper TV. LG had that. It was unbelievable. The screen was so thin.
SPEAKER_00:It was like the image was remarkable too. So it was stunning how thin that that form factor was. So, so thin. And it was sitting on top of glass. And we thought it was embedded into the glass to add a little thickness. And we asked about it, and they said no, it's sitting on top of the glass.
SPEAKER_01:So that's you couldn't even tell. You I mean, it was really cool. The glass was much thicker than the TV.
SPEAKER_00:And speaking of cool TVs, not quite as thin, but still surprisingly thin, was that Samsung TV that had the 3D effect. Oh, yeah. That was shocking. Like, that was that's like really, really clean 3D that you use with just your naked eye. You don't have to wear 3D glasses. And I don't know how to get that technology. It's such a small form factor again. So thin, but it looks so crazy. Like even as you walk to the side, it still carried a 3D effect. It was impressive.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And I will tell you, one it seemed like there were massage chairs everywhere. Right? What they're doing with massage chairs is crazy. Now, I don't know how cost effective they are right now, but just going through there, I we tested a few, of course, just for work, of course, right? But they had all different kinds of things. It in it had infrared included, it would sit you up, it like did whole body. It was I could have spent the entire time with the massage chairs. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00:Yep, those are pretty impressive, too. Wow, there was just so much there. I'm just trying to think of what else to cover. And we talked about enterprise, healthcare, consumer goods, a lot of AI-related stuff. You know, is there anything else that really comes to mind for you?
SPEAKER_01:Well, there was a lot in terms of programming, quantum computers, quantum computing. Which we covered in the last podcast. Yeah, there was a lot on that. And really what the message was is that it's just going to get faster, more efficient, in ways that are gonna blow our minds. And what John was saying earlier about energy, I mean, it will probably come a time where we don't need these, you know, giant warehouses filled with servers and the energy consumption because they're doing a ton of research. On this. And I saw several booths on energy, several booths on renewable energy. That was day one. You remember we were walking through there? There was a ton. And it was really fascinating. The technology that people are developing. I mean, it's probably going to come a day where the actual energy source for the AI will be in your phone or be in your glasses. Unbelievable stuff is happening.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. It's reminding me of some other products. They had like immersive gaming chairs. So you feel like they're actually, you know, multi-sensory kind of stuff. You feel like you're in the game itself.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, like those movie theaters they have now, the 4D movie theaters. Very similar. Right.
SPEAKER_00:So that that's that's another one that came to mind. Oh, the color-changing press on nails.
SPEAKER_01:He of course pulls me aside and says, you have to see this, because I if anybody has met me, they will know that my nails are very signature. Not gaudy, not tacky, just they're usually Yes. And I I on point. Yes. But one downfall for women or men who like to get their nails done. One downfall is you go usually once every couple of weeks, and like if you have acrylic or gel, you have that color the whole time. I don't know very many people who keep nail polish at home anymore. But this was actually, it was so interesting. This box, and it based on the material they put on the fingernails, you put your fingernails in the box, and it will change the color. And you can do this several times a day if you want.
SPEAKER_00:And you can choose from hundreds upon hundreds of colors of like different shades of colors. I mean, pretty robust uh selection of different colors. So that was that was pretty interesting, too. I've never seen before. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:The technology was out the door. And I know our podcast is meant for business owners and people implementing AI. And you may be saying, Okay, Liz, John, why are you talking about fingernails? To get you thinking, to get you focused on the future. I think in a prior episode, I discussed how I had that conversation with my nail guy where he said, Oh, there are already machines in China where they'll polish your nails. Instead, I said to him, Maybe you should come up with a machine that will actually do gel nails. And it in a few seconds, just by doing different prompts, I pretty much showed him a business plan where he could do this. And you know, you can put inputs, you know, as the top chemical engineer, mechanical engineer, quality engineer, give me initial plans for a machine that will do this, and then you just you verify, you do the research, but it's a starting point. So the reason we're telling you about all the different ways technology is moving is to help you think. Think where your business could go, think of the different things that could make you unique, where you could add value, and then how you can use AI to get that started and get moving and be a really powerful tool to make your business at a much higher level.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. You know, and also for those businesses that are looking to partner with different indiv different types of companies. If you want if you're interested in partnering with maybe the consumer good company out of, say, Asia, for instance, on some of this technology, it's also another reason for us to share this kind of information with you, too, for those that are interested in that.
SPEAKER_01:Right. CES was an amazing place to network.
SPEAKER_00:I'll tell you one area we didn't cover, it just came to mind. Accessibility.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, right. Oh, that's true.
SPEAKER_00:There was a tech product. Go ahead, sorry.
SPEAKER_01:No, there were so many products for the hearing impaired, the vision impaired, mobility. I mean, the new the old wheelchairs have nothing on what's coming out. It was unbelievable what they're doing.
SPEAKER_00:They even have, and you might have seen this in um, I think 60 Minutes might have done a piece on this, but they have these braces, like almost like a how do you even say it, like a like robotic type bodysuit, sort of, and you can actually put these on and it can have somebody who maybe is paralyzed and they're able to walk, because these will actually walk for you. So that was really impressive too. I loved it. Things that would not only boost the sound, like an earpiece that you can wear that'll boost the sound, actually translate on the fly for you, too. Another thing that was pretty fascinating. So it just goes on and on and on, right? If we could sit here and talk about accessibility by itself for another 30, 40 minutes.
SPEAKER_01:Well, and John and I are both turning 58 this month. This month. And I will tell you, my hearing, it might be selective hearing. I may lose that excuse now. But my hearing is not what it used to be, especially if there's a lot of background noise, or I'm in a crowded room, or there's music playing in the background, it's much harder. And you know, even the meta glasses can focus you on what the people what the person you're talking to is saying. It's really interesting.
SPEAKER_00:They have a feature where if you are looking at a person, they're talking, you turn this on, and the way the way you control the so Meta's got different versions of glasses. This is the newest version called the display. It projects basically the display onto one of the glasses, one of the lenses of the glasses, and you cannot see it from the other side, by the way. So it doesn't it doesn't appear to be that you're looking at anything. But you have this wristband and you control the glasses through finger movements that are picked up by the wristband. And you can turn on, say, for instance, captions, and the person can be talking to you, and it'll sit there and transcribe the conversation as long as you're looking at that person, despite any other background noise that exists. And if that person's speaking one of, I think, six different languages, you can have it translate the language that you select. So let's say somebody's speaking to you in Spanish or French. Now it'll translate, and if they switch to English, it'll pick up the English and still give you the English words. Closed caption, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Stunning stuff. It it was yeah, unbelievable. John and I both ordered a pair. So we'll let you know the pluses and the minuses. They were so hot that the Vegas Meta store sold out of our the ones we wanted. So they're gonna have them shipped to us. So we should have them this week and we'll let you know how we like them. But just so that you're aware, at least here at the Vegas stores, if you wanted a pair of the display glasses, you had to do a demo with them. Just because they want to make sure you understand what you're buying and that you've practiced it and you know how to use it. And we both did the demo. It was really fun, it was really cool.
SPEAKER_00:Very excited about those. Absolutely. You know. Now, one caveat to all of this is there were two of us, and CES is a beast. We did a lot of sessions and events, so you know, there's only so much you can cover at this type of event. So keep in mind, there's probably other products that are out there that are fantastic and phenomenal. And we thought that we covered pretty much the most important ones that we could that we were that we were aware of and that we could find. We did do our research ahead of time to try and you know narrow it down a tiny bit, but there's still so much out there. I'm sure there are things that we missed. So with that caveat though, the stuff we saw just blew us away.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah. And what he means by a beast is that there are so many exhibition halls and so many different products, even the sessions. I mean, we paid to go to sessions on AI, and we couldn't go to all the ones we wanted to, even when we split up. It it was a lot. Now, luckily, some of them are recorded, and so we'll be able to watch them. But I'm just telling you, if you're in the tech world, uh go to CES 2027 because I really enjoyed it. I really did so it it really helps you see what's out there and helps you think about what you can do with your business in the future. Unbelievable.
SPEAKER_00:In fact, uh to build on that, AI itself was what, hardly mentioned a few years ago. This year they had a whole hotel dedicated in what they called the foundry, dedicated strictly to AI.
SPEAKER_01:So But that wasn't the only place.
SPEAKER_00:And it wasn't the only place that had AI. AI was everywhere, it permeated everything. All consumer tech to enterprise level tech to sperm count tests. Sperm counts for all things, right? I mean, it was everywhere, it really was. So, and it and the sessions, it cut across all different sessions for all different industries.
SPEAKER_01:But you know what I loved? Everyone was using AI for good to advance you know, health, mobility, technology. It was all really fascinating, and it just shows you what an important tool that it can help so many people.
SPEAKER_00:And and to see the growth from what from what we understand from two years ago to today, right? Imagine what's gonna be from today to the next year. I mean, I just can't even imagine what it's gonna look like next year and how the incredible advancements that we're gonna see happen over this next 12 months.
SPEAKER_01:Go to our Facebook page, go to our podcasts, you're gonna see a lot of what we saw, a lot of the robotics we're talking about. I put on the Facebook page for you guys to take a look at. But go ahead, John. Sorry.
SPEAKER_00:And even though uh yesterday's podcast covered some of the sessions we went to, we're not even done getting through all the different sessions that we saw and all the takeaways and benefits and lessons learned. So those will all be in future podcasts as well.
SPEAKER_01:Right. And also the interviews, there are a lot of interviews we still have to post. Correct. Yeah, it it it was fantastic, and we're bringing it all to you. So if you are in the business or are looking to implement AI in your business, I want you to really think where is your business going to be in the future and what kind of tools you need. You can even use AI, just a general LLM like Chat GPT, co-pilot, perplexity, grok, Gemini, any of them, and just start brainstorming about the future of your company. Okay, we provide your AI news, hot topics, advancements, and discussions about how AI is reshaping business and society. If you enjoyed this, you want a deeper dive, please like, please follow, please subscribe. We are here to help you get a focus on your future. All right. Till next time, keep listening. Thanks, everybody.