You’ll be able to’t shake a stick with out hitting an AI gadget at CES this yr, with synthetic smarts now embedded in nearly each wearable, display, and equipment throughout the present flooring, to not point out the armies of AI companions, toys, and robots.
However these are only the start. We’ve seen AI pop up in a lot stranger locations too, from hair clippers to stay vacs, and no less than one case the place even the producer itself appeared not sure what made its merchandise “AI.”
Listed below are the devices we’ve seen at CES 2026 to this point that actually take the “intelligence” out of “synthetic intelligence.”
Glyde good hair clippers
It is a product that might be foolish sufficient with out the AI add-on. These smart hair clippers assist beginner hairdressers ship the right fade by dynamically altering the closeness of the minimize, helped alongside by an ominous face masks that appears prefer it belongs in an optician’s workplace.
But it surely’s taken to the subsequent degree by the real-time AI coach, which provides you suggestions as you chop. Glyde advised me it’s engaged on voice controls for the AI too, and that finally it is going to be in a position to suggest particular hairstyles, as long as you’re keen to belief its model recommendation. Are you?
“The place Drugs meet AI.”
That was the message emblazoned throughout the SleepQ sales space, the place firm reps have been handing out boxes of pills — a multivitamin with ashwagandha extract based on the field, supposedly good for sleep, although I wasn’t courageous sufficient to check that declare on my jetlag.
Producer Welt, initially spun out of a Samsung incubator, calls its product “AI-upgraded pharmacotherapy.” It’s actually simply utilizing biometric information out of your smartwatch or sleep tracker to let you know the optimum time to take a sleeping capsule every day, with plans to finally cowl anxiousness meds, weight-management medicine, ache reduction, and extra.
There could be an argument that fine-tuning the time individuals pop their drugs may make them simpler, however I really feel protected in saying we don’t want to start out throwing across the time period “AI-enhanced medicine.”
Startup Deglace claims that its virtually unnecessarily sleek-looking Fraction vacuum cleaner makes use of AI in two other ways: first to “optimize suction,” after which to handle repairs and replacements for the modular design.
It says its Neural Predictive AI screens vacuum efficiency “to detect points earlier than they occur,” providing you with well being scores for every of the vacuum’s elements, which could be conveniently changed with a fast elements order from throughout the accompanying app. A cynic may fear that is all within the identify of promoting customers costly and proprietary alternative elements, however I can no less than get behind the promise of modular upgrades — assuming Deglace is ready to ship on that promise.
Most digital image frames allow you to show pictures of family members, outdated vacation snaps, or your favourite items of artwork. Fraimic enables you to show AI slop.
It’s an E Ink image body with a microphone and voice controls, so you may describe no matter image you’d like, which the body will then generate utilizing OpenAI’s GPT Picture 1.5 mannequin. The body itself begins at $399, which will get you 100 picture generations every year, with the choice to purchase extra should you run out.
What makes the AI in Fraimic so doubtful is that it may be a reasonably nice product with out it. The E Ink panel appears to be like nice, you should utilize it to point out off your personal footage and pictures too, and it makes use of so little energy that it could actually run for years with out being plugged in. We’d simply adore it much more with out the added slop.
Infinix, a smaller cellphone producer that’s had success throughout Asia for its reasonably priced telephones, didn’t launch any precise new merchandise at CES this yr, nevertheless it did deliver 5 ideas that would match into future telephones. Some are intelligent, like numerous color-changing rear finishes and a few liquid-cooling designs. After which there’s the AI ModuVerse.
Modular cellphone ideas are nothing new, so the AI hook is what makes ModuVerse distinctive — in principle. One of many “Modus” is smart: a gathering attachment that connects magnetically, producing AI transcripts and stay translation onto a mini show on the again.
However once I requested what made all the pieces else AI, Infinix didn’t actually have any good solutions. The gimbal digital camera has AI stabilization, the vlogging lens makes use of AI to detect faces, and the microphone has AI voice isolation — all technically AI-based, however not in any approach that’s fascinating. As for the magnetic, stackable energy banks, Infinix’s reps finally admitted they don’t actually have any AI in any respect. Colour me shocked.
There’s a rising development for AI and robotic cooking {hardware} — The Verge’s Jen Tuohy reviewed a $1,500 robot chef simply final month — however Wan AIChef is one thing altogether much less spectacular: an AI-enabled microwave.
It runs on what appears to be like suspiciously like Android, with recipe solutions, cooking directions, and a digital camera inside so you may see the progress of what you’re making. However… it’s only a microwave. So it could actually’t truly do any cooking for you, apart from heat up your meals to only the appropriate temperature (effectively, good plus or minus 3 levels Celsius, to be correct).
It’ll do meal plans and meals monitoring and calorie counting too, which all sounds nice as long as you’re keen to decide to consuming all your meals out of the AI microwave. Please, I encourage you, don’t eat all your meals out of the AI microwave.
The tech business completely loves reinventing the merchandising machine and branding it both robotics or AI, and AI Barmen is not any totally different.
This setup — apparently already in use for personal events and company occasions — is basically simply an computerized cocktail machine with just a few AI smarts slapped on prime.
The AI makes use of the linked webcam to estimate your age — it was off by eight years in my case — and ensure you’re sober sufficient to get one other drink. It could additionally create customized drinks, with combined success: When requested for one thing to “fuck me up,” it got here up with the Funky Tequila Fizz, aka tequila, triple sec, and soda. What, no absinthe?
Picture: Dominic Preston / The Verge
Must you purchase your child an AI toy that provides it a whole LLM-powered chatbot to talk to? Most likely not. However what if that AI chatbot appeared like chibi Elon Musk?
He’s simply one of many many avatars provided by the Luka AI Dice, together with Hayao Miyazaki, Steve from Minecraft, and Harry Potter. Children can chat to them about their day, ask for recommendation, and even share the AI Dice’s digital camera feed to point out the AI avatars the place they’re and what they’re as much as. Luka says it’s a device for enjoyable, but additionally studying, with numerous instructional actions and language choices.
The elephant within the room is whether or not you must belief any firm’s guardrails sufficient to provide a younger child entry to an LLM. Main with an AI tackle Elon Musk — whose own AI, Grok, is busy undressing children as we speak — doesn’t precisely encourage confidence.
