Goodbye, Human Programming. Smart Home Housekeepers That Learn on Their Own Are Here
SOURCE:CNET|BY:Tyler Lacoma
CES 2026 promises big AI opportunities for the smart home. Here are my top four predictions.
If you think your smart home is often kind of dumb, you're probably right. Clumsy voice assistants misunderstand commands. Between compatibility issues and numerous privacy concerns, every new device is its own kind of adventure, and not always an enjoyable one.
Now, the AI revolution has hit the smart home, bringing bold promises and "fix everything" swagger. Will it? CES 2026 is the place to find out.
I have a few guesses about what smart home tech will be revealed at CES, including new conversational AI, increased presence sensing and the development of more independent AI services. Brands are using new features to address long-standing issues, making smart homes more like personal assistants, at last.
Here are my top four predictions for smart home technology ahead of CES 2026, and what they'll mean for you.
My smart home predictions for CES 2026
Smart home tech brands will often label everything as "AI," but not all of it will actually be.
Conversational voice assistants will usher in better, butler-style home control.
Improved presence-sensing technology will hit the mainstream, offering privacy benefits.
Smart devices will automate home routines without requiring human intervention.
1. Brands will call everything 'AI' (only some of it will be)
Gemini for Home is an example of actual AI working in the home. James Martin/CNET
I discussed this trend after the IFA expo in Berlin. Home brands of all kinds have started using the "AI" label in their marketing. I don't blame them. AI is such a hot topic that there's pressure to include the term in whatever new device or software a company is rolling out.
The problem is that this dilutes the AI label and confuses people, who become disillusioned when "AI" seems to mean everything and nothing at the same time. I expect to see "artificial intelligence" everywhere at CES, but only a fraction of those claims will actually hold up.
Some touted products will, in fact, use modern LLM and generative AI features, which I'll discuss further below. Others will rely on older machine learning techniques that we've never referred to as "AI" before, but will now receive a shiny new label to keep up with the times. Some brands will stretch the term so far that they'll call basic automated algorithms "AI," even when it doesn't make much sense.
One day, tech companies might be held accountable for using AI labeling incorrectly. But it won't be at CES 2026. That means our CNET team will be standing by to let you know what AI features are actually impressive -- and which fall flat.
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2. Conversational voice assistants make talking easy, at last
Alexa Plus feels much better to use than the old Alexa, and it signals a shift coming to more voice assistants.
Joseph Maldonado/CNET
What makes a voice assistant conversational? Think less "giving commands" and more "talking to ChatGPT." Conversational home assistants use the latest AI features to sound more cheerful, relaxed and capable of parsing your meaning more easily. They can understand follow-up commands or sudden changes in direction, answer complex questions and even make suggestions for what to do next.
I've been testing the new conversational features in Gemini for Home and Alexa Plus, and they feel great (albeit with some processing delays). They're finally delivering on the promise that voice assistants made years ago to be "cheerful butlers," who now seem far more aware of their own flaws.
Gemini can search your video history for you, if you don't mind the privacy implications.
Tyler Lacoma/CNET
CES 2026 is an ideal opportunity to showcase how smart home devices respond to friendly, casual commands and how they leverage the latest AI technology to understand your moods and activities. This could mean asking your refrigerator what you can make for dinner, having your TV tell you which actors are popular right now or encouraging a lamp to change itsbulb color for your yoga time.
I also expect to see portable robots and smart displays that engage with you more realistically, security systems that now explain what's going on when a sensor triggers and -- my favorite -- video doorbells that can hold full conversations for you when you can't make it to the door, a neat trick AIs like Alexa Plus will be rolling out just ahead of CES.
3. Noninvasive presence sensing will come out in full force
Philips Hue isn't the only brand working on presence sensing.
Philips Hue
Presence sensing refers to home devices that monitor human activity around a home, but in a nonintrusive way. I've seen presence-sensing technology before on smart thermostats, such as the Nest Learning Thermostat, since it's handy for a thermostat to learn when people are active in the house and adjust temperatures accordingly. Yet these are typically more traditional motion sensors -- sensing direct motion and people near or far away.
At CES, I expect to see a wave of new smart devices that step back from direct sensors and instead use tiny disruptions in Wi-Fi and similar frequencies to gauge activity around the home. They can sense human presence and movement patterns, but that's about it. The approach adds a bit more privacy while allowing lights, security systems and more to respond to human movement.
I've already seen this kind of presence sensing in the newest Philips Hue smart bulbs, as well as less intrusive monitoring for older people. From what I've heard, it's also coming to security systems and more home tech at CES. It's a technology that combines low-cost implementation, privacy benefits and user-friendliness, which means this type of sensing is very easy to adopt for a variety of use cases.
4. Home routines get easier with hands-off automation
Conversational features also help power hands-off home management.
Josh.ai
During Google's key event this fall, when the company demonstrated how the Gemini for Home AI would work, it mentioned something not entirely surprising: No one really builds home routines. These routines are more complex automations in which devices react in unison to triggers, like the time of day or a specific command, adjusting lights, locking doors or disarming the security system when you get home.
The problem is that these routines take time and effort to set up, often requiring lots of tinkering in Google Home or Apple Home to see what's even possible -- or using third-party platforms like IFTTT to manually integrate devices, which adds its own learning curve. The result? Few people with smart devices even bother trying.
At CES, I expect we'll see AI that'll take care of that for you. I've seen smart home companies describe their vision of a command-less home, where devices take the initiative and act on their own based on AI-determined triggers. I expect this idea to become even more prominent in security tech, home energy systems, lighting and various app-based platforms.
Expect home devices to become more agentic -- doing things without being told.
Corin Cesaric/CNET
This self-managing tech is the culmination of the trends I've been discussing. Conversational voice assistants will happily whip up a routine for you from a simple prompt -- something I've tried with Gemini for Home and already prefer to the old approach. New presence-sensing features will take initiative, adjusting lights and settings as people arrive or leave. And algorithms will increasingly focus on how your routines shape device behavior, rather than making you build routines for them.
I'm not sure whether these hands-off home AI systems will end up with a unique name. Some are calling them AI copilots, while others are borrowing the term "agent" from data-analyzing Agentic AI. Whatever term sticks, expect these new home-management features to appear on numerous CES displays. Tech companies want you to know -- very much -- that their products can take care of things for you.
Of course, you may have to give up some control to let these AI managers take the wheel. When it comes to a simple setup, such as a smart thermostat adjusting itself automatically, that's rarely a problem. But a whole house responding on its own? That's a much higher ask -- and it invites another round of privacy questions, so I'm interested in learning the details.