A CES to remember

By Eileen Tanghal  

The start of CES 2026 marked the beginning of my 25^th year in venture capital and my almost 20^th CES. I had the pleasure of walking the floor with our executive advisor, Simon Segars, with whom I was with at CES nearly 10 years ago when I started working for him at Arm during the dawn of the IOT era. 

Simon and I had a walk down memory lane, seeing all the things we had seen through the years and what panned out, and what did not -- the belt that adjusted to your waist and the rollable flexible OLED display that we were all supposed to have. This time around, at the risk of once again being wrong, I would like to highlight major trends that I believe are here to stay and that will have a fundamental impact on innovation and technology. 

First, the Silver Tsunami is coming and so are the solutions that will ensure people can healthily and comfortably age at home. 

A tidal wave is coming in demographics.  “By 2040, 80 million Americans will be over 65. The rapidly growing subgroup of elders age 85 and older (geriatricians and gerontologists call them "very old," "old-old," or the "oldest old") will have nearly quadrupled from 2000 to 2040.” As a result, agetech was a central focus at CES. From health monitoring to disability tech, tools to improve people’s lives as they age and help them age at home were undoubtedly a major theme. Exoskeletons drew attention as tools for rehabilitation, elder mobility, and workforce injury prevention. Equally notable was the focus on unconventional data sources. Withings is shipping the previously seen in-bowl pee monitor and stethoscope we had seen in previous years. Smart rings showed continued dominance, showing their evolution from sleep trackers into biometric tools capable of monitoring cardiovascular and metabolic health.  Finally, all around monitoring devices (mirrors, synchs, digital pets, a wearable digital stone - think mood ring that talks to you) are here to stay as are empathetic robotic companions aimed at reducing loneliness or increasing medication adherence among older adults 

Next, a further note on AI Companions – not just for elderly monitoring – security anyone?

Perhaps the most emotionally resonant theme at CES was the rise of AI companions. These ranged from interactive toys for children to empathetic robotic companions. There were booths where one could enter and begin a situationship with a digital customizable being. There were other booths where one could take his or her friendly Labubu and turn it into an interactive pet. And finally, there were dumb devices – which I might add, certain foreign companies were all too ready to hand out to everyone – that were just text-able devices fitted with LLMs that were personalized chat GPTs. Given my background, my thought of course – boy, we are in a new era of IOT security. Most cyber solutions rely on signals intelligence from something connected to the network. What if the device that is problematic is an employee’s Labubu key chain directly connected to an outside cloud via 5G? 

Finally....Move over LLMs... we are in the age of Physical AI.   

When we refer to AI agents, we are mostly referring to digital agents automating digital tasks, but at CES there were more physical AI agents than AI ever before. Yes, there were your AI lawnmowers still around and RIP iRobot, but there were more robots on display which had better dexterity including one that could fold clothes (finally) and prepare bench-top experiments in a laboratory environment.  A winner that is yet to emerge is robustly trained models on physical data. At CES, Jensen Huang announced Alpamayo, a family of open-source models and simulation tools for robots and vehicles, touting we are at a “ChatGPT moment for physical AI”. Furthermore, Arm announced a reorganization, including a new Physical AI unit.  

CES was a great beginning to my 25^th year as a venture capitalist and an inspiration to me of the next wave of AI that will improve health and security for all.