CES 2025 proves that AI is everywhere, unstoppable, and perhaps just the way you want it

The ubiquity of artificial intelligence in the CES 2025 landscape is as impressive and impactful as the already iconic Sphere. It’s a clear signal of intent from countless tech companies, all promising to make AI the center of your known digital universe.

Unlike other CES trends – think VR and 3D TV – that are more marketing than useful, there is an inescapable logic here. AI’s inherent power, versatility, and unprecedented exponential growth make it almost unlike any other technology we’ve encountered before.

What companies like Delta, BMW, LG, Hisense, Samsung and others have recognized is that the data their systems collect and move between their once disparate digital systems can be stitched together by AI into an almost organic whole that operates proactively on your premises . Job.

For example, Delta is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, which means that for a century it has had an intimate relationship with our travel needs, which are of course connected to us as people. We travel for work, pleasure, family – the best and worst and most mundane moments of our lives – where we go and what we do doesn’t just start and end during the flight. It starts the moment we start thinking about a trip, planning it, packing, getting there, arriving at a destination and then turning around to return home. Companies like Delta that provide connectivity services also have a huge wealth of data about what we do and that is the lifeblood of powerful AI.

And so a Delta concierge who ultimately brings everything together and proactively guides and assists you throughout the journey makes sense.

Similarly, Samsung has been trying to get consumers interested in its SmartThings smart home platform for years, but this year the effort was turned into Home AI and SmartThings everywhere. The backbone of connection is data, product and cross-category communication, and AI helps bring it all together so that the results are meaningful to the everyday consumer. Even Bixby, a somewhat forgotten digital assistant, seems to be getting an intelligence upgrade that will finally make it a useful part of the whole.

If there’s one thing that’s consistent across most AI-related announcements I’ve seen so far, it’s their boldness. BMW isn’t just polishing its existing iDrive system as an aging “Beamer,” adding a new screen or an app-based assistant. Instead, the company is overhauling the interiors of almost all of its new cars. The dashboard isn’t just a collection of disparate readouts, it’s a system, a window into the heart of your driving experience and needs that extend far beyond the car’s interior.

Again, AI encourages companies to try to connect more broadly with your life experience. Of course, if one company tries to move you into your home while another marches to your door, strange clashes may occur and we’ll soon wonder how much AI we need in our lives.

But the reality is that if all this AI works, it will be transparent. We’ll find apps and screens become hyper-customized, evoking our preferences, schedules, and connections in ways that seem useful, transformative, and not forced.

Certainly, CES keynoter Nvida believes this. The company is almost single-handedly driving the backbone of the AI ​​revolution with increasingly powerful silicon that can run increasingly larger models. Energy costs are a big question, but I’m almost certain that this will be solved along with the growth of AI, or perhaps it will be solved by artificial general intelligence, which may be just around the corner.

There is of course an element of overselling with companies like Hisense that promise to ‘AI your life’. I mean, they’re not necessarily wrong, but there might be a better way to phrase it. Samsung likes to say “AI for All,” which is true but may sound too much like a rallying cry. LG offered ‘Affectionate Intelligence’, which sounds fun but also creepy. AI has no real emotion – and I’d rather it not try to feign affection.

I also saw some companies confusing proactiveness with invasiveness. LG’s in-car AI solution seemed to monitor everything you do and then offer suggestions regarding your smallest emotional or physical cues. No one wants to feel like they are being watched. The good news is that customer aversion will quickly eradicate this kind of AI innovation, and less weird and more helpful AI will take its place.

@lanceulanoff
♬ original sound – LanceUlanoff

Yes, CES is overloaded with AI, but I also think that even the smallest companies that embrace it here do so for long-term profit and not for short-term goals or fame. I saw a sexual health company encouraging customers to sign up for a beta program where they can share intimate but anonymized data so the AI ​​model can learn and ultimately improve the product for all users.

CES has always been about the potential of technology to change our lives. The ubiquity of AI at the massive event doesn’t change that, it just does it at scale.

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