Top 10 takeaways from CES 2024

CES 2024 ended a few days ago, sparking imagination and leaving us with many questions!

Owned and produced by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)®, CES is an annual trade show that aims to showcase the entire tech landscape and show what major companies are working on this year.

CES 2024 took place in Las Vegas, United States, with exhibitors ranging from Virtual Reality, 5G, and Cloud Computing, to Cyber Security, IoT, Fintech, Gaming, Smart Appliances, and everything in between.

As expected, AI played a major role in most product categories—so much so that Fast Company dubbed it “the new clock radio.” “Sometime in the ‘80s, digital clocks and radios became so ubiquitous that they were baked into every random device imaginable as a point of distinction. (Like that pen? Imagine if it had a clock inside!) Today, we’re seeing that same idea with the latest wave of generative AI technology.”

That being said, CES showcased lots of interesting tech that incorporates AI...and some silly ones.

Here are our top 10 takeaways from CES 2024.

10. Off-the-grid tech

According to CNET, the increased cost of living and energy prices are leading more and more people to take energy management into their own hands through smart tech. Advanced solar panels, home batteries such as Tesla Powerwall 3, and energy-saving smart panels were all presented at CES 2024.

9. Green-tech

Closely connected to off-the-grid tech, green technology has been a strong trend this year, as both the consumers looking to take charge of their energy and the companies producing such gadgets are prioritizing cleaner, smarter ways to reach their goals.

From the portable EcoFlow Delta Pro Ultra power station, pop-up tents with solar panels (Jackery), and smart energy systems that allow you to switch your home from on- to off-grid (Savant) to clean-energy heat pumps designed specifically for cold weather (Bosch IDS Ultra) and even technology that can pull water right from the air (WC-100 WaterCube from Genesis Systems, currently in development), this year's CES left us with a strong feeling of ‘faith in humanity restored.’

8. Invisible tech

According to Amy Carvajal, chief creative officer at Code and Theory, this year there was “a noticeable push towards ‘invisible tech’ that naturally incorporates technology into our lives without others realizing it’s there. Think technology that intuitively works with your body and accessibility plays like audio enhancements for the hearing impaired, embedded in eyeglass frames, that are visibly undetectable.”

Tech on display included discrete home appliances from Samsung such as the Music Frame, a speaker that hides behind art similar to its successful Frame TV, as well as the world's first Transparent MICRO LED display.

7. The screen, reinvented

According to CNET's TV expert, David Katzmaier, “TVs are even bigger and brighter this year” with huge, expensive models such as the 137-inch C Seed N1, ‘the best TV you can’t afford,’ which folds into five sections and costs over £150,000.

Another trend is transparent displays that can elegantly fade into the background when not used. LG is set to launch its latest transparent screen, the OLED T, later this year, the first targeting consumers rather than businesses, and Samsung is developing similar technology.

This concept of reinvented, discrete screens extends to smartphones too, with Samsung and Motorola showing off folding and rollable phones – Samsung Flex In & Out Flip, which folds in both directions, and Motorola's Rollable Phone that expands according to use.

6. Day-to-night gaming

Gaming is always popular at CES, and this year didn’t disappoint!

In line with the ‘Invisible tech’ and ‘Sanctuary home’ trends (see numbers 9 and 4), this year’s gaming laptops are designed to blend into their surroundings much more than in the past. To the untrained eye, HP’s new Omen Transcend 14 looks just like a work laptop…look under the hood, though, and you’ll find a fierce “one-size-fits-all” machine that shifts seamlessly from work tasks to a powerful gaming platform. HP Omen Transcend boasts an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070, and a 14-inch 2.8K OLED display.

Equally innocuous is the MSI Claw, a new PC Handheld device that allows people to enjoy PC games “from the comfort of their couches without having to always fire up a gigantic, LED-strewn gaming rig,” similar to the popular Steam Deck launched two years ago.

5. “Your home is your car; your car is your home.”

If homes are becoming sanctuaries (see number 4), it looks like this year's cars aspire to become homes, boasting increasingly comfortable, entertaining, and interactive interiors.

Building on last year’s partnership with AirConsole, BMW showcased its latest dashboards complete with high-res, full-color gaming, while LG displayed a webOS interface that even lets you shop from your car.

Volkswagen, however, took interactivity to the next level by announcing that, starting later this year, it will add ChatGPT to its vehicles as a standard feature (!) 

And, yes—if you’re wondering whether there is a ChatGPT-Enabled Electric Car, you can see the first one right here.

4. Home is your sanctuary

According to Fast Company, recent studies show “[an] ongoing desire for the home to be a sanctuary...perhaps as a response to the new ubiquity of working from home. Our entire environment shouldn’t feel like the next Zoom meeting waiting to happen."

At the same time, due to the impact of 'living alone' bloggers and influencers (YouTube, TikTok), independent living in a space they curate has become aspirational for young adults.

In this context, it’s easy to see why technology is becoming more discrete, with transparent and folding options for work screens such as the Asus ZenScreen Fold, a foldable 17-inch screen that floats atop your laptop.

3. Kawaii robot helpers

To help people switch gears from work to play at home, Samsung and LG showcased AI robots with a certain dose of cute! Perhaps they’re supposed to remind us of Pixar’s Wall-E or piggyback off the fame of Among Us?

LG’s Smart Home AI Agent, which resembles an Among Us crewmate, can move around the home and alert the owner of any unusual activity; it can also care for pets remotely and engage with users like a mobile version of Alexa, aiming to create a ‘Zero Labor Home’ for its owner.

Similarly, the latest Samsung Ballie can play with your pets, assist with chores, and even help you work out.

Both robots continually learn from interacting with users, so their services become more personalized over time.

2. Rabbit—The new iPhone?

Perhaps this year’s hottest product is the Rabbit R1, launched at CES 2024.

It’s the size of a stack of Post-its with a minimalistic, somewhat retro design, and brands itself as a personal AI assistant.

“We’ve come to a point where we have hundreds of apps on our smartphones with complicated UX designs that don’t talk to each other,” says founder and CEO Jesse Lyu.

Through Rabbit's proprietary AI model, LAM (Large Action Model), the device learns to operate a user's apps on their behalf to create, “in theory, a post-smartphone experience.” (Fast Company)

Will r1 be a game-changer? The £150 gadget sold 20,000 preorders in two days. Let’s see how this plays out.

1. Gen AI

If the children of Generation Y, Generation Alpha, and the younger siblings of Generation Z were “iPad babies,” Mark Cuban believes the next generation will be “Gen AI.”

In his Brand Innovator talk at CES 2024, Cuban put forward the notion that the next generation will grow up with a version of AI as their best friend, which will learn by interacting with them and stay with them for longer than other devices can.

GenZers already have mixed feelings about iPad kids, yet ChatGPT is accessible to everyone above 13—which, at least in a school setting, has raised concerns about its influence on learning.

What will it be like to grow up with AI? How will children learn basic skills when they can learn to make a device complete their tasks for them? How will this impact their social development, communication skills, and motivation? 

At the moment, we can only guess.  

“The next wave of AI is not just about people using interfaces, [but] rather about the collaboration between humans and AI in workflows, where the human element ensures quality and provides feedback for reinforcement learning, and AI assists with tasks like creating content variations and translations.” (Katie Richling, Media.Monks)

*Bonus: Silly AI

According to the BBC, “OpenAI's incredibly successful launch of ChatGPT [may have led many companies] to face pressure from investors and shareholders to have some kind of AI offering, because it attracts attention and investment.”

In turn, this may have led to these 'not-entirely-necessary' AI integrations:

• AI toothbrushes for an extra-efficient clean (Oclean Ultra X)
• AI washing machines (with the minimalistic moniker, AI Wash)
• AI vacuum cleaners
• AI toilet paper robots (Is pooping the next frontier?)
• AI pillows that lift your head to reduce snoring (Motion Sleep, South Korea; DeRucci's Anti-Snore Smart Pillow)
• and even a £3,000 AI-enhanced meat cooker that looks like a vertical toaster (Perfecta Grill)

All this has led some brands, like Tropicana, to spoof the whole topic altogether.

Its latest campaign, titled “Tropcn” (Tropicana spelt without “a” or “i” 😉) rebrands the drink as “AI-free orange juice—100% orange juice. 0% AI”—drawing CES 2024 to its natural, humorous, conclusion.

Are you ready for AI?

Banter aside, whether it does or does not match a product or service, AI is likely to be pushed within your company. What will it impact? How can you integrate it into your workflow, even if just to test if it works? Will it create a massive Cyber Security risk?

To answer all these questions and more, you need to be prepared.

AI training is not just how to use AI, but how to prepare your business for it so you can seamlessly transition to it if you need to. It means having your data and cloud systems in order, secure from hackers and available in such a way as to properly feed Machine Learning. To achieve this, your tech team needs education, technical expertise, and practical skills in all these areas.

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