CES 2025: Robots & AI

I have attended CES in Las Vegas for years now. Before it was CES there was Comdex Las Vegas and PCWorld in New York. This is where the entire consumer electronic industry introduced new products. Things have changed a bit but innovation was alive and well this year.

The forefront of technological advancement.

The Rise of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

The two takeaways from walking the the show was Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robots, both have been prophesized to replace humans. So, was I afraid? No, they cleverly managed to automate jobs that no one really wants to do. We saw window cleaning robots, lawn mowing robots, pool sweeping robots and of course, robots that vacuum. By all means, please replace me! AI had some clever implementations as well. My favorite use case was a bird feeder outfitted with a camera. Sure it captures video and that is cool but it also uses AI to identify over 6000 different species of birds. That's great! Now I can catalog all the different types of birds that we have and even get notification when a new type of bird arrives.

Cars

And of course, cars were there. It seems like every company has figured out that you can buy yourself a sweet sportscar or invest in a racecar as long as you put your company logo on it and bring it to a tradeshow. It is easy to criticize but I must admit, it still works to draw in the crowd.

But it wasn't just eye candy, we saw a lot of new automobile focused innovation as well. From heads up displays from Hyundai to Hybrids from Mercedes, cars of the future look very promising.

Infrastructure Technology

We've all see the all electric delivery vans and school buses but what about a postal vehicle, firetruck, or a garbage truck. If this show was any indication, they are all coming soon. Tractors, excavators, earth movers, dredgers and farm equipment.