CES 2025 is an AI inflection point and I can't wait to see what comes next

The ubiquity of artificial intelligence across the CES 2025 landscape is just as impressive and commanding as the already iconic Sphere. It's a clarion call of intention from innumerable 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 utility, there is some inescapable logic here. AI's inherent power, versatility, and unprecedented exponential growth make it almost unlike any technology we've encountered before.

What companies like Delta, BMW, LG, Hisense, Samsung, and others have recognized is that the data their systems have been collecting and moving among their once disparate digital systems can be pulled together by AI into an almost organic whole that proactively operates at your behest.

Delta, for instance, turns 100 this year, which means it's had a century-long intimate relationship with our travel needs, which naturally tie to us as people. We travel for work, fun, family connection – the best and worst and most mundane moments of our lives – where we go and what we do doesn't just start and end on the flight. It begins the minute we start thinking about a trip, planning it, packing for it, getting there, arriving at a destination, and then turning around to come back home. Companies like Delta that provide services of connection also have a vast treasure trove of data about what we do and that's the life's blood of powerful AI.

And so, a Delta concierge that eventually ties that all together and proactively guides and assists you through the journey makes sense.

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Similarly, Samsung's been trying for years to interest consumers in its SmartThings smart home platform but this year the effort was transformed into Home AI and SmartThings everywhere. The backbone of connection is data, cross-product, and cross-category communication, and AI helps stitch it all together so that the results make sense for everyday consumers. Even Bixby, a somewhat forgotten digital assistant, appears to be getting an intelligence upgrade that finally makes it a useful part of the whole.

If there's one thing that's consistent across most of the AI-related announcements I've seen thus far it's their boldness. BMW isn't just polishing its existing iDrive system like an aging "Beamer", adding one new screen, or an app-based assistant. Instead, it's reimagining the interior of almost all its new cars. The dash is not just a bunch of disparate readouts, it's a system, a window into the heart of your driving experience and needs that extend far beyond the car interior.

Again, AI is emboldening companies to try and connect more broadly to your life experience. Naturally, as one company tries to engage you in the home while another is marching to your doorstep, there may be odd collisions, and we may soon question just how much AI we need in our lives.

But the reality is if all this AI works, it'll be transparent. We'll notice that apps and screens are becoming hyper-customized, recalling our preferences, schedules, and connections in a way that seems useful, transformative, and not forced.

Certainly, CES keynoter Nvida believes this. The company is almost singlehandedly driving the backbone of the AI revolution with ever more powerful silicon that can run ever larger models. The energy costs are a big question, but I'm almost certain that will be solved in tandem with AI's growth, or perhaps it will be solved by Artificial General Intelligence which may be right around the corner.

There is, of course, an element of oversell with companies like Hisense promising 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 maybe too much like a rallying cry. LG offered "Affectionate Intelligence," which sounds nice but also creepy. AI has no real emotion – and I'd rather it didn't try to fake affection.

I also saw some companies confusing proactivity with invasiveness. LG's in-car AI solution seemed to be watching everything you do and would then offer suggestions related to your most minute emotional or physical prompts. No one wants to feel like they're being watched. The good news is that customer distaste will quickly stamp out that kind of AI "innovation" and less weird and more helpful AI will take its place.

@lanceulanoff

♬ original sound - LanceUlanoff

Yes, CES is overstuffed with AI but I also think that even the smallest companies that are embracing it here are doing so for long-term gains and not short-term goals or notoriety. I saw one sexual health company that is encouraging customers to opt into 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 technology's potential to change our lives. AI ubiquity at the massive event doesn't change that, it just does it at scale.

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