The most exciting AI tech I've tried at CES 2026 so far (including a cleaning robot)
AI is meeting hardware more than ever at this year's show, with some new and exciting applications emerging.
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AI is meeting hardware more than ever at this year's show, with some new and exciting applications emerging.
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CES officially kicked off on Tuesday, and all week, companies have been using the event to unveil their latest and greatest announcements. This approach is crystal-clear in the AI category, which has become increasingly ubiquitous, with launches including everything from standard AI models to AI-enhanced products such as pins, glasses, smart rings, mirrors, and even pet food bowls.
Also: CES 2026: Live updates on the biggest TV, smart glasses, and robot news (and more)
Since CES has a firehouse of announcements happening every day, I am gathering the most exciting AI finds for you from the conference, using ZDNET's coverage from both on and beyond the show floor. The "exciting" category umbrella includes products that you can purchase tomorrow to make your life easier, as well as developments that are moving the needle and advancing the AI space further.
Without further ado, here are some of the top AI announcements so far at this year's show.
It wouldn't be a rundown of the biggest AI announcements at CES without mention of AI mega-giant Nvidia. The company kicked off the year with a slew of announcements made during its keynote in Vegas on Monday, all focused on accelerating AI developments through new chips, models, simulations, and more.
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While there is too much news to highlight in this roundup, you can learn more about Nvidia's advancements in physical AI models (including some new robots) by reading my piece HERE. You can also learn about what was perhaps the biggest announcement, the new Rubin chipset series, in ZDNET's Cesar Cadenas deep dive HERE.
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Lenovo Qira is an AI assistant that works across the vast ecosystem of Lenovo and Motorola devices, including smartphones, wearables, PCs, tablets, and more. Because it is a personal ambient intelligence system, it goes a step beyond traditional chatbots, such as ChatGPT, by performing actual tasks across devices and apps, including transferring files between devices, both online and offline.
Also: Lenovo's new AI assistant may give Copilot and Gemini some serious competition
The tech is also context-aware, which creates a more intuitive experience by building what Lenovo calls a fused knowledge base. This approach combines user-selected interactions, documents, and memories from across devices to create a personalized experience and develop a "living model of the user's world." The assistant even earned the Best of CES award in the AI category.
A bonus: Motorola also unveiled an AI wearable that will incorporate Qira. Although it is a proof of concept, I got a demo, and it looks really promising.
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I created an AI clone of myself, and saw the results for the first time on the ShowStoppers show floor. The results were eerily good. While I can't say I will be using it ever again for any use case, I can say that I was impressed by what my digital clones' mannerisms and facial expressions were. It was so good that when they first played it, I thought it was a playback of my initial submission.
MyPersonas is an experience powered by IgniteTech, enabling individuals to create AI clones of themselves. The company's vision is to help organizations clone their subject matter experts, providing information to the rest of the organization 24/7 while freeing up their time.
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Every year, CES proves that robovacs don't have to be boring, as they can leverage the latest technologies to do more for you. While the Narwal Flow 2 may not include a robot arm, it does utilize AI for unlimited object recognition, so it can adjust to different scenarios in your home.
Also: This robot vacuum at CES 2026 can find lost items on your floor and alert you
As ZDNET smart home expert Maria Diaz wrote: "Using AI, the Narwal Flow 2 can automatically adapt to clean quietly near a baby's crib, and even send reminders for misplaced toys. With Pet Care Mode, the robot boosts cleaning power in pet zones, can find your pet, and features companion video calling."
Diaz continued: "An AI Floor Tag feature recognizes and tags valuable items on your floors, sending you a notification and logging them with priority levels for highest avoidance."
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On the topic of fun robovacs, I must mention the talk of the conference: the Roborock Saros Rover, the first two-legged robot vacuum coming to the market. The major difference from other devices is the two-foldable legs, which have wheels attached to them, allowing the robot to perform tasks such as climbing stairs, as Diaz watched live in a demo.
While it is objectively a really cool device, the Roborock Saros Rover doesn't yet have an estimated date for when it'll arrive on the market or a price.
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One of the best parts of being a CES attendee is walking the floor and finding an interesting demo or technology. LG's CLOiD is exactly that. The humanoid robot assists with domestic tasks, such as cooking and laundry. While this robot is unlikely to be in your home anytime soon, it highlights a big theme of this year's CES -- physical AI.
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While the Pebble Index 01 smart ring was launched ahead of CES, it was showcased at the CES Unveiled event. The ring is on this list as it represents a unique application of AI. Essentially, you can click on the smart ring and tell it something you want to jot down.
The ring will then send that information to the Pebble app on your phone and convert it to text, allowing the device to take an action, such as setting a reminder. Now you never have to forget any fleeting thoughts, even if you are away from your phone -- at a $75 price.
Also: I wore four smart rings to find one worth buying
A competitor, the Vocci AI smart ring, was also on display at Unveiled and aims to fill a similar gap, targeting working professionals who need to record meetings for extended periods. After seeing both demos, I'd feel more inclined to use Pebble's tech because of its simple, everyday application and its slimmer design.
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AI-enabled wearables are not a new concept, but what makes Project LUCI stand out from the competition is its underlying proprietary AI model.
Project LUCI is a research prototype that consists of the actual pin and models working in conjunction to give users actionable insights about their day, as well as video content they can access later for reference or content creation purposes. If you were familiar with the tech from last year's CES, it retains the same form factor, featuring a sleek square design and a magnetic clasp.
Also: The most exciting AI wearable at CES 2026 might not be smart glasses after all
Memories.ai's Large Visual Memory Model (LVMM) seeks to address the pitfalls other AI wearables have had in the past by converting the continuous video captured by the pin into structured on-device encoding frames, which can be used to index and reference them in what the company's blog post refers to as a "sub-second search and recall."
The product is not yet available for purchase, but developers can build on it. The company is also working with leading AI wearable companies, including Rokid, Sharge, and RayNeo, to integrate Memories.ai's technology into their devices.
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Flowtica Scribe works similarly to the AI wearables featured above, except it's in the form factor of a pen. With Flowtica Scribe, you can write notes as per usual, but when you click on the button on the side of the pen, it functions as an AI-powered voice recorder. Those insights are then sent to the app, where you can ask questions, get smart summaries, and even get speaker recognition.
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The device boasts 100 hours of battery life and retails for $149 in Satin Gunmetal and Silver Gray colorways. The tech was also awarded a CES Innovation Award.
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Similar to the AI wearables mentioned above, which can take the information you feed them and generate actionable insights, Thine does the same thing, but without the addition of yet another device. Instead, Thine uses your smartphone to record all your interactions in the background, which the company suggests is "the first iOS app since Siri to stay awake 24/7."
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If you are concerned about privacy challenges, there are options for on-device processing. Even when data is sent to the cloud, the company says it has protections in place to ensure your data remains private.
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SleepQ 2.0 was recognized as a CES Innovation 2026 Honoree in Artificial Intelligence, and after a brief demo, it's easy to understand why. While the company's slogan is "Where Pills meet AI," the tech is much less intimidating or invasive than it sounds.
The app works with your wearables, diaries, and other external APIs to determine when taking your sleep medication would be most effective. To be clear, the app is not prescribing medicine; rather, it uses your information to suggest when taking the pill could be most effective. The app can also predict insomnia episodes using all of the data you input. There's an AgentZ AI agent within the app that can help guide you through the entire process.
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