2026 CES: From innovation showcase to execution reality - Berylls

ES has clearly moved beyond consumer gadgets. It is now a technology and strategy forum where AI, robotics, and autonomy are reshaping how companies design products, run operations, and compete.

The overarching message this year was straightforward: Intelligence is becoming embedded everywhere, autonomy is moving into real deployments, and the line between digital and physical systems is disappearing. The winners will be those that can translate rapid technology progress into scalable, economic outcomes.

1. AI: From Agentic to Physical AI

AI at CES shifted from experimentation to integration. It is no longer a set of features—it is becoming the core operating layer across vehicles, appliances, factories, and healthcare systems. The conversation moved from “agentic AI” toward physical AI—AI that not only reasons, but also acts in the real world.

What this signals

AI is moving from copilots to decision-makers

Edge and on-device AI are critical to manage cost, latency, and data sovereignty

Compute, power, and infrastructure are now strategic constraints—not back-office issues

What leadership teams need to address

Clear architectural choices (cloud vs. edge vs. hybrid) with long-term cost visibility

Ownership and governance of data as AI becomes product-critical

How AI actually drives revenue, margin, or productivity—not just demos

Readiness of the broader value chain (compute, energy, suppliers) to support AI scale

Where AlixPartners can help

Translating AI ambition into business-led roadmaps

Pressure-testing ROI and investment trade-offs

Designing AI-ready organizations, governance, and partner ecosystems

2. Robotics: From Novelty to Workforce Strategy

Robotics crossed an important threshold at CES. Humanoid, service, and industrial robots are increasingly positioned as workforce solutions, not experiments—particularly in logistics, healthcare, hospitality, and manufacturing.

What this signals

Foundation models are dramatically improving perception and manipulation

Robots are being designed for human environments, including companions to helpers, not just controlled factories

Economics and deployment feasibility are now front and center

What leadership teams need to address

Clear unit economics vs. labor substitution or productivity gains

Integration into existing processes, IT systems, and safety frameworks

Workforce impact: reskilling, acceptance, and regulatory scrutiny

Cybersecurity, data ownership, and compliance in human-facing environments

Where AlixPartners can help

Identifying where robotics delivers value today vs. later

Redesigning processes to unlock automation benefits
Supporting pilots, scaling decisions, and workforce transitions

3. Autonomous Driving: Pragmatism Over Promises

Autonomous driving messaging became notably more grounded, from bold L4/L5 timelines to scalable ADAS, software-defined vehicles, and incremental autonomy that can deliver near-term value.

What this signals

L2+/L3 systems are the primary commercial value drivers

AI, simulation, and end-to-end stacks are replacing modular approaches

Consumer and commercial autonomy paths are increasingly converging

What leadership teams need to address

Trade-offs between speed-to-market and differentiation

Fragmented regulatory regimes slowing global scale

Increasing ecosystem complexity across OEMs, suppliers, software, and chips

Where AlixPartners can help

Aligning autonomy strategies with regulatory and consumer realities

Make-vs.-buy decisions across hardware, software, and data

Designing partnerships and organizations for long-term autonomy execution

Additional Highlights from CES

Software-defined everything: Continuous updates are now expected, shifting value toward software, services, and lifecycle monetization—not just hardware excellence.

Compute, power, and energy constraints: Innovation is increasingly limited by infrastructure, energy efficiency, and thermal management. Sustainability is now an economic and resilience issue.

Regulation and trust: Safety, data privacy, and AI governance are becoming gating factors for deployment, not afterthoughts.

Bottom Line for Leadership

CES made one point unmistakable: Winning companies won’t just be the best technologists—they’ll be the ones that translate intelligence and autonomy into scalable business models. Competitive advantage will go to companies that:

Break down silos across technology, operations, and business

Make disciplined, focused bets rather than broad experimentation

Convert innovation into repeatable, scalable economics

CES was not about the future arriving—it was about navigating the messy middle between breakthrough and scale. That is where AlixPartners play a critical role: bridging vision and execution, pressure-testing economics, and helping leadership teams move decisively from experimentation to impact.

Author

Yvette Zhang

Partner

yvzhang@alixpartners.com