AI Everywhere: Insights from CES 2025
Author: Andy Freed, CEO
People mark the New Year in different ways.
For some, it begins when the ball drops in Times Square. For others, it starts when they return to work or school. But for me – and many in the tech industry – the New Year begins with the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
CES is now the largest trade show in the United States. It’s without a doubt the greatest gathering of tech nerds on the planet, and more than anything, it’s where tech innovation is debuted. The first personal computer – the Altair – was unveiled at CES in 1975. The VCR, DVD and HDTV all debuted at CES.
But in walking the miles between the 15,000 exhibit booths at this year’s show, it wasn’t the variety of products that was striking, nor was it any single product. The striking element was the ubiquity of one thing - Artificial Intelligence.
For me, the true epiphany came in the most unlikely of places. Tucked within the Venetian Expo, in between the smart home and fitness sections was the booth for Lovense. The booth was buzzing (in more ways than one), with a crowd of people there to see the exhibit of AI-enabled adult toys. I’ll spare the details, but this was certainly a surprising but memorable demonstration of AI’s reach. The sign at the Samsung booth said it best: “AI Everywhere.”
And this was the lesson from CES 2025. AI is everywhere, and it’s maturing faster than we could have ever imagined. AI’s presence in adult toys is the ultimate metaphor for its coming of age.
The first shots were fired in the AI revolution with ChatGPT just over two years ago. Last year at CES, AI was more of a concept than a core feature in many products. But 2025 is different. More products are truly leveraging AI to improve user experience and better process data. And with the ubiquity of cell phones, watches and other personal devices, more and more data and sensors are readily available.
Choosing to sit on the sideline of the AI revolution is not an option for any company — just as not using the internet wasn’t an option in the late 1990s. CES 2025 showed that AI today is driving the future of automobiles, televisions, and devices for, shall we say, every room in the home. There’s no reason to think it won’t change the future of your organization too.