CES photo credit: Consumer Technology Association. All images are of set-up at CES 2023.
CES 2024 and the Enterprise: AI everywhere all at once
AI will indeed be everywhere all at once. I will probably be hard-pressed to avoid the term unless I’m looking at a backpack or an iPhone case. Anything with electronics in it will be touted as smart, intelligent, AI-powered, or some combination of those phrases. Every CES has its thing, and this CES, the thing is AI. AI will be found in cars, appliances, lamps, cameras, televisions, light bulbs, and, of course, PCs.
With the AI hype, it will be interesting to see how 2024 plays out. AI will not drive huge installments like Samsung’s VR roller coaster experience or demos of driverless cars (well, they are AI), but it will be pervasive from the major manufacturers of anything electronic. Keep in mind, though, that at its core, CES is about technology companies selling products to distributors and retailers. A lot of cases, cables, stands, headphones, and other non-AI gear will be hawked and ordered on the floor.
CES 2024: AI in PCs
Enterprise implications: The use of emergent AI features on the PC will require hardware-based components like the Intel Meteor Lake neural VPU or Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Series NPU. To leverage the next generation of software, organizations will need to replace existing hardware. This could lead to a PC buying boom in Q4 of 2024 as new devices become available. AI-driven OSs will likely involve a transition to new ways of working, which will slow the immediate productivity impact of deployment. While some people will require re-training, most will require acclimation in order to leverage the power of the new features.
Most of the PC maker announcements are embargoed until next week. The one thing I can say without giving anything away is they all include AI components. Of course, much of that comes in the form of Windows enhancements, but look for some innovation to expand on what Microsoft is doing. “AI” has been around for years in many PCs.
Features like AI for voice enhancements, noise reduction, image enhancement, lighting and background adjustments, facial recognition and tracking, power management and security will all get an AI wash at minimum or an AI bump if they are already “AI” branded. On-chip processing and faster, dedicated ICs will make them more efficient. They are AI at the sub-cerebral level of AI.
The more cognitively pleasing (or annoying, depending on your mood) comes from generative AI. With the latest versions of Windows, generative AI is making inroads into operating systems. Microsoft even launched a Co-Pilot app for iOS and Android. CES 2024 “All On” campaign used AI technology for its art generation. That was a whole lot easier than turning CES into a VR experience. Perhaps one way to determine the eventual ubiquity of new technology should be to gauge how easily CES adopts it into its marketing program.
Perhaps one way to determine the eventual ubiquity of new technology should be to gauge how easily CES adopts it into its marketing program.
Although generative AI mostly lives in the cloud, the shrinking of models and the advent of edge AI will bring AI to desktops, laptops and mobile devices. The on-device use of generative AI may point to some solutions to data privacy, with interactions controlled by the device’s security parameters by default.
AI can’t run without hardware. The first glimpse of many of the new PCs and laptops that will grace the portfolios and fingertips of information workers will reveal themselves at CES.
CES is the home to PC ideas that you may never see at work, at home, or on display at Best Buy.
CES 2024: Smart Things or AI in Everything
Enterprise implications: From a marketing standpoint, figure out how to build something “smart” into whatever you are building. This does not imply just generative AI, but any of the range of “smart things” listed below. From a business standpoint, “smart” could become a distraction from core execution. If you don’t need “smart,” then say so and avoid the cost of chasing unneeded features. However, if a “smart” feature is obvious and you don’t pursue it, that will cast a negative light on the business.
Continuing with the theme of AI everywhere all at once, CES will be the focal point for smart cities, smart cars, smart appliances, smart materials, smart grids and smart televisions—to name just a few smart things. (Samsung owns the branding for Smart Things, which was a good branding move that today might have been hard to wrangle given that it has become a generic term in the way I use it here; Samsung, of course, will be showing off Smart Things in its pavilion).
Most of the AI in consumer hardware has little to do with the generative AI boom, save the general approach of training a neural network with data. Most “smart things” focus on optimization and coordination rather than anything that looks like human intelligence. I would not be shocked, however, if I saw a television with a generative AI connection (of course, any “smart TV” with a web browser already has access—an unlikely use case for most).
While backup batteries are not necessarily “smart things,” they are smart things to own, and CES is likely to offer a variety of power backup solutions, including whole-home systems that will make working from home viable even during a power outage.
CES 2024: AI in Wearables and health-tech
Enterprise implications: The first-order implication comes from the market opportunity. Existing firms will see a wide range of new entrants, likely very specialized to start. 2024 may see a number of acquisitions to create portfolios of smart, wearable health tech. Secondarily, organizations will increasingly encourage the adoption of wearables in wellness programs. The cost to the individual may be sharing health data in return for employment perks. The new wealth of data will create a third wave of innovation in health data analytics as providers and employers figure out what to do with the onslaught of data.
CES has turned to health tech over the last several years. Health tech devices are a subclass of smart things. Think Evie rings from Movano, watches from Apple, Samsung, and Google–smart beds, smart scales, smart mirrors, and smart personal pleasure devices like the Lioness.
OrCam will be showing off the MyEye wearable, which can recognize people, summarize text, and even describe the contents of a refrigerator. This vision wearable may prove a valuable assistant at work as well.
CES 2024: AR and VR still kicking, now with AI
Enterprise implications: If you are a video game company, you already know that VR is one of your targets. For most, AR and VR won’t find their way into your life in 2024 unless you play the aforementioned video games. AI’s likely going to suck up the marketing budget, the training budget and many other budgets, so AR and VR will have a hard time moving very far beyond where they are now. Apple’s entry will not change much except to create a new platform for gaming and personal experiences, which, again, will provide opportunities for video game makers and perhaps a few peripheral experience companies, but I doubt Apple’s ability to offer much for enterprises in 2024, though they may well try.
AR and VR have come a long way since 2016 and 2017, when they were supposed to rule the world. Oculus dominates the popular dialog, along with Sony. HTC now focuses mostly on the enterprise. For business, it’s mostly the same apps: training and simulation. At least for now, Microsoft is out, but Apple will soon be in. Apple will not show its headset at CES 2024, though a launch will probably happen on the heels of the tech show.
Look for AR and VR technology from the likes of Meta Platforms (META), Vuzix (VUZI), Xreal, Nimo Planet, DigiLens and Solos Technology. Solos is going all in for the theme with the Solos AirGo3,™ Wearable, which includes ChatGPT chat and translation features, on the glasses. AI everywhere all at once.
Other immersive tech will remain a feature of CES with bHaptics vests, the Palmplug hand feedback wearable, the Fectar XR (Extended Reality) creation space and photorealistic 3D avatars from Copresence, to name just a few of the offerings.
CES 2024: Other practical tech
On the mundane level, perhaps, but important to many, will be the influx of Qi2 charging solutions, which bring 15W charging and magnets to most future smartphones (yep, I had to say “smart” here too).
Also, listen for 6G discussions, which will set the stage for the next generation of mobile wireless solutions. In the meantime, I still live in an area that has half a bar during a power outage, mere minutes from T-Mobile headquarters. AT&T and Verizon don’t service this area either, where many Microsoft employees live. 6G will be a discussion, but for some of us, 4G would be nice during a power outage so we don’t have to walk almost a mile to get a signal to report our power outage.
For more information on CES, see our CES 2024 page. It will be updated regularly throughout the event.
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