Three Trends to Watch at CES 2024

The busy days of tech are upon us, kicking off with CES on Tuesday, January 9.

We all know CES produces an abundance of content, but here are three ways to find value from the show:

1. The democratization of AI.

In many ways, this is all we've been talking about for the last year: ChatGPT already democratized AI by putting an intelligent chatbot in consumers' hands. The question for CES 2024 is how to take it further.

Samsung's press conference at CES is titled "AI for All." Pat Gelsinger's keynote promises to expand on themes from Intel's recent "AI Everywhere" event, discussing "the critical roles that silicon and software play in making AI more accessible." If late 2022 through 2023 was about AI's explosion onto the marketplace, 2024 is about connecting AI to consumers: in more devices, powering more experiences, shaping society and culture. Not just in the keynotes, you can see the impact of AI among many of the CES 2024 Innovation Award honorees. Among them, one that's getting some early buzz is Panmnesia's CXL-enabled AI accelerator, which promises to make LLMs like ChatGPT 6 or 7 times faster. From hardware (like Intel's Core Ultra, Qualcomm's on-device AI) to software (like Microsoft's Copilot) AI is quickly moving from the cloud to the edge, from the back end to the tip of one's fingertips.

2. Auto electrification kicks into high gear.

That was a joke. EVs don't have different gears.

CES, always a stage for automakers' most daring concept vehicles, is a little quieter than usual in automotive news. This is due in part to Stellantis dropping out of the show, blaming the autoworker strike (or scapegoating it, as some reporting suggests) for why they don't have spare funds lying around. Sensing an opportunity, Honda is capitalizing on the relative quiet to unveil a "new global EV series" including 30 new vehicles by 2030. Teasers for the rollout earned some of the broadest news media coverage in the run-up to CES. They're not alone in auto news. In fact, Kia has its own EV. The manufacturer will unveil a midsize "purpose-built vehicle" for rideshare and last-mile delivery. Despite reports of EV sales in the US slowing, the future according to CES is all electric.

3. What the pros are watching for: extended reality, personalized medicine, and more.

Forbes asked 20 business leaders what they're most looking for at CES 2024 and a few common themes emerged (in addition to AI; many of them talked about AI).

The first is personalized medicine. There are many solutions in integrated digital health, remote patient monitoring, wearables and personalized nutrition showcasing among the 3,500 exhibitors on the show floor. There is great promise in consumer technology to realize the vision of true "whole-health" care. The second is extended reality, the umbrella that encompasses AR, VR and mixed reality. With Apple's entrant to wearable computing expected early this year, experts are ready to realize the promise of a digital "third place" enabled by spatial computing. AI is a big factor of both of these, as part of remote patient monitoring and as AI chips and processors work their way into more computing platforms. Also as a topic of interest, the experts are keeping an eye on the intersections between AI and cybersecurity, blockchain, smart cities, individualized education and unique, consumer-focused applications.

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Interested in hearing more from WE about what we’re taking away from CES, or how to best compete with communications in today’s complex Tech marketplace? Reach out and let us know at [email protected]. We’d love to connect with you at the show and beyond.