CES 2026: Quick Takes From the Floor

Las Vegas once again became the global proving ground for what is coming next. At CES 2026, we met with founders, operators, and platform builders across the technology ecosystem and here are a few quick takeaways.

Robotics Took Over the Show Floor

• General purpose and humanoid robotic platforms were everywhere and no longer positioned as futuristic concepts, but instead as deployable systems ready for the real world.
• Dexterity and mobility stood out as robots become increasingly capable of both navigating complex environments and manipulating objects with precision. (We even tried our hand against Sharpa’s blackjack-dealing humanoid.)
• The big constraint remains reliability as higher task speed leads to more errors and slower real-world cycles, ultimately limiting deployment.

AV and Mobility Are Shifting Toward Software

• The narrative in mobility is all around autonomy and software-defined vehicles.
• Over the air updates, richer sensor stacks, and fleet learning are turning vehicles in to upgradable compute platforms over their lifecycle.
• Autonomy was in full display as attendees used Zoox’s steering wheel free vehicle and the tunnels of the Tesla Boring Company’s Vegas Loop.

Physical AI is Becoming Core Infrastructure

• A consistent theme in the conversations with founders and attendees was the importance of simulation, digital twins, and evaluation stacks.
• These tools are becoming increasingly reliable and allow for the training, testing, and deployment of robots in real environments.
• Foundation models trained on large and diverse robotic datasets, such as NVIDIA’s Isaac GROOT and Physical Intelligence’s PI 0.5, are already demonstrating emergent generalization capabilities and this curve will steepen rapidly over the coming years.

XR Had More Momentum Than Expected

• The prevalence of smart glasses reinforced the view that this form factor has a credible future and can become a more competitive arena, particularly for companies like Meta.
• Gaming continues to produce spillover benefits for AI with immersive interface technologies increasingly positioned to support teleoperation and real-time control feedback in robotics.

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