General expectations around CES 2024, the flagship global event announcing and sometimes promoting consumer products, are that artificial intelligence (AI) or should we say GenAI would be the flavor this time round. However, there’s another school of thought that hardware would take center stage. Maybe, we could see the best of both these worlds.
And why do we believe so? Two of the world’s largest tech giants from South Korea – Samsung and LG – have already announced that they’d be showcasing AI-powered home appliances. Samsung’s two showpieces include cleaning gadgets that can differentiate dry and wet cleaning via precise AI floor detection techniques.
Samsung is aiming for the kitchen
And that’s not all, the South Korean giant will bring its newest range of kitchen products, applications and features that delivers better food and smarter kitchens. These include the Bespoke range of refrigerators, the Anyplace Induction Cooktop as well as enhancements to the Samsung Food service range.
In case you haven’t yet read about it, Samsung’s Bespoke refrigerators come with AI-led cameras inside that can assess available ingredients and suggest personalized recipes. Samsung says it can recognize up to 33 distinct fresh food items based on a million food pictures. The fridge also monitors the water filter and alerts when a replacement is needed.
LG is shooting for smarter homes
If Samsung is in the race, can LG be far behind? The other South Korean giant is featuring its AI agent-led Smart Home. The two legged robot acts as an interactive assistant via voice and visual interface, to manage a full range of smart home appliances and IoT devices. Additionally, it monitors temperature and air quality in real time and is envisaged as a robotic companion.
Reports say the company is also introducing a 98-inch QNED TV featuring AI-led picture enhancements that enables deep learning for faces, objects and backgrounds within a scene that allows for enhanced texture and finer details. LG says the TV offers a visual experience that is enhanced via HDR optimization to deliver 3D picture quality.
The fun may lie with the auto majors
Another area to look forward to is the automobile segment of consumer tech. In the past, we have seen several concepts make an appearance at CES, only to fade away into memory after a few years. Last year, we were quite dazzled by the color-changing concept car that BMW came up with. Twelve months down the line, the chase runs cold!
Auto experts believe that this time round, the focus could be mostly on technology and electric vehicles with fully autonomous tech taking a back seat. The reasons are obvious as auto giants led by Ford and GM took a beating on this front in 2023, while the EV market grew from 3 million in 2020 to ten million last year.
One report that’s made the headlines relates to Honda dropping its new EVs. The Japanese car major announced that it would be debuting its global EV series models and several key technologies that would illustrate the significant transformation that Honda is undergoing. Of course, only time will tell whether the transformation arrives with a bang or not.
Another area where experts are united is the focus on AI in the automotive industry. Most experts believe that auto majors would stay away from a tech that is unreliable – at least at this point in time. However, some companies might just keep our interest alive by bringing some AI applications that allow for vehicle personalization.
By the looks of it, the CES2024 starting on January 9, 2024, could just become a window to the future where the best of AI gives an edge to the entire range of daily use consumer products.
