AI Industry Updates: CES Recap, January 2024

• Precision Wellbeing: As we note in MedTech’s Next Era, AI has the potential to make medical devices more customisable. Take South Korean brand Motion Pillow, whose flagship product is a pillow that deploys AI to detect when an individual is snoring, then adjusts the pillow’s size and height to alleviate it. And focusing on emotion detection, the Bmind smart mirror from French health tech company Baracoda can identify an individual’s mood, then provide tips, alter the lighting and start guided meditations to improve it. For more on AI and digital health, see CES 2024: Personal Electronics.
  
  
• Adjustable Furniture & Appliances: Smart brands are leveraging AI to enable in-the-moment adjustments for everything from furniture to appliances. Desk chairs are the focus of Canada’s Elluströs and China’s Backrobo, both of which implement AI to automatically reposition their seats based on the user’s posture.
  
  Meanwhile, Samsung showcased how AI can be used to improve a television’s image and sound quality. The AI notices the environmental conditions, then brightens the colour and adjusts the sound for an optimal viewing experience. For more on AI in the home, see CES 2024: Home Electronics.

• Onboard Assistants: Multiple mobility brands announced partnerships with OpenAI that provide direct-from-vehicle access to ChatGPT. In automotive, Volkswagen is integrating ChatGPT in its Tiguan, Passat, Golf and electric ID models, while Hong Kong-based bike brand Urtopia incorporates ChatGPT in its CarbonOne e-bike. Brand-recommended uses include asking the chatbot to create a tour of a new city, or route the rider to the nearest café.
  
  Other automotive brands debuted proprietary AI assistants to help drivers with route questions, as well as provide an entertaining and personable companion during long trips. For details, see CES 2024: Automotive.
  
  
• Real-Time Translation: New devices give consumers access to real-time translation anywhere. Both Hong Kong company Timekettle and Poland’s Vasco showcased handheld and earbud devices for simultaneous translation. When using the handheld devices, users speak into an embedded microphone, then a screen displays the translation. The earbuds allow multiple people to speak different languages, and for each language to be translated into the wearer’s native tongue. Timekettle’s earbuds support 40 languages, while Vasco’s handheld devices cover 50.

• AI-Ready Laptops: Laptops running Windows are being prepped for onboard AI thanks to high-powered RTX graphics cards and graphic processing units (GPUs) from American chip maker Nvidia, and Intel’s 2023-launched Core Ultra processor, which combines general computing, graphics processing and neural processing. This has given brands like Taiwan’s MSI and US brands Razer and HP the ability to showcase laptops that utilise onboard AI – enabling everything from hyper-realistic gaming environments (MSI, Razer) to developing a personalised writing bot (HP).
  
  
• The Business Angle: Beyond product launches, many brands used CES as a springboard to bolster their reputation as AI leaders. Amazon and Siemens announced a partnership that will see Amazon’s Bedrock service (which offers a variety of AI models) merge with Siemens’ Mendix platform (which allows people to create software with little coding). Companies will be able to use these two platforms to quickly choose and deploy the AI integration that suits their needs.
  
  Meanwhile, L’Oreal and Walmart held keynotes where they discussed how their companies were centring technology. For L’Oreal, this means developing apps like Beauty Genius, which uses AI to provide tailored answers to skincare and make-up questions. For Walmart, it entails a partnership with Microsoft, whose tech will power conversational website searches and auto-refills. For more on beauty, see CES 2024: Beauty. For more on retail, see CES 2024: Retail & Media Tech.

Read our comprehensive seven-report series on CES 2024 for further updates.