CES returned home to Las Vegas with the next wave innovation that will shape the economy of tomorrow

 

CES 2022 returned with innovation that will better the world.

CES 2022 Concludes In Person with Innovation to Better the World

CES 2022 concluded last Friday, following a week filled with thousands of product debuts unveiling innovation that will better the world and solve global challenges. More than 2300 exhibiting companies from around the world, including more than 800 startups, launched products featuring innovation across artificial intelligence, automotive technology, digital health, smart home and more. After nearly two years, CES returned ‘home’ to Las Vegas welcoming well over 40,000 attendees in person, including 1800 global media, across 11 indoor and outdoor venues. The show was truly a global event, with 30% of attendees traveling from outside the US – representing 119 countries.

“Innovation came to life this week at CES 2022 – with technologies that will reshape industries and provide solutions to pressing worldwide issues from healthcare to agriculture, sustainability and beyond,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, Consumer Technology Association (CTA)TM, owner and producer of CES. “The CES show floor buzzed with the joy of human interaction and a five-sense innovation experience with products that will redefine our future and change our world for the better.”

KEY TRENDS AT CES 2022

CES 2022 featured transformative technologies that will spur business and shift markets, with major brands including Bosch, Canon, Hisense, HTC, LG Electronics, Nvidia, Samsung Electronics, Sony, Panasonic and Qualcomm. Key trends included:

Automotive Technology
Vehicle technology was front and center at the show, with more than 190 automotive companies exhibiting, with companies including BMW, Hyundai, Indy Autonomous Challenge, Stellantis and VinFast, Vietnam’s first automaker.

Digital Health
The latest in telemedicine, connected health devices and improved health features on wearables were highlights, allowing consumers to take better control of their own health with exhibitors such as Abbott, Essence and Baracoda Daily Healthtech.

Artificial Intelligence
Prevalent throughout the show was artificial intelligence, making products and technologies smarter, more efficient and customizable, advancing nearly every major industry from agriculture to healthcare, automotive, manufacturing and entertainment. Companies included John Deere, featuring the first fully autonomous tractor, and Beyond Honeycomb, with an AI-enabled robot to prep and cook customizable meals.

Startups
More than 800 startups from 19 countries were featured in Eureka Park, the startup hub for CES 2022, including the SkyDrive air taxi; ScenTronix with its EveryHuman algorithmic perfumery and Orbisk, an AI-powered fully automated food waste monitoring system. The Venetian Expo also featured a first-time European Pavilion highlighting the latest tech advancements from Europe.

The Expansion of Intelligent Automation

Advancements in cloud infrastructure have allowed tech companies to pursue more expansive uses of intelligent automation. This will be critical as limited available hours and a tight labor market will require artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to play a larger role in the post-Covid economy.

A mainstay of past shows, autonomous vehicle (AV) technology were once again on display with the intelligent automation technology’s entire value chain showcased throughout CES 2022. From AV chipmakers like Qualcomm (who recently acquired fellow CES exhibitor Veoneer to bolster their AV portfolio) to leaders in AV perception technologies like LIDAR leader Luminar to autonomous vehicle pioneer and first-time exhibitor Waymo, CES 2022 was an intelligent mobility event.

Critically, the expanding applications for AVs were a centerpiece for the show with the appearance of TuSimple and their focus on the enterprise fleet applications with their self-driving trucks.

While rideshare and passenger vehicle use cases rightfully make plenty of headlines, the promise of AVs for enterprise looks even closer to fruition. As ongoing constraints in the global supply chain persist, automation in portions of the process such TuSimple’s self-driving trucks could be deployed to provide much needed fixes in shipping bottlenecks.

Still, AV technology was not the only area where AI solutions shine. First-time exhibitor Beyond Honeycomb is poised to demonstrate how automation is propelling innovation forward in the rapidly growing FoodTech sector. Beyond Honeycomb will showcase their technology that allows sensors to study a recipe, AI to learn a dish, and then allow a robotic kitchen to prepare the meal.

The Nascent Metaverse

The pandemic has also accelerated the evolution of interactive, online and on-demand consumer products and services across a collection of industries to shape an emerging metaverse. CES 2022 will feature the technologies that will form the foundations of this next generation iteration of the internet.

The transformation of gaming into a dominant social media platform amid the pandemic sits at the core of the rise in the metaverse. Games like Roblox and Fortnite have allowed users to easily program their own games and build virtual worlds to construct shared experiences such as concerts and even graduation ceremonies in digital universes. As such, exhibitors like Razer will assuredly showcase their latest in gaming technology, while also highlighting its connection to the metaverse.

Relatedly, XR technology at CES underscores the elevation of these technologies to their role as vital gateways to the metaverse. MAD Gaze showcased their augmented reality (AR) smart glasses, an example of hardware that will power the metaverse.

The metaverse implications on the future of commerce extends further as cryptocurrency and NFTs are poised to power this new segment of the digital economy. The debut of the first publicly traded crypto trading platform on a U.S. exchange via Coinbase represented an inflection point for the mainstream appeal of cryptocurrency and blockchain-based digital asset technologies.

As such, the arrival of CES 2022’s new Non-Fungible Token (NFT) and Digital Assets Program is timely as it features NFTs, initial coin offerings (ICOs) and other blockchain technologies. Notably, Atomic Form showcased their technology designed to aggregate and display NFTs art as part of the C Space exhibitions.

Keynotes
The CES keynote stage featured leaders across global industries. Top executives delivered addresses including J.H. Han, Vice Chairman, CEO and Head of DX (Device eXperience) division at Samsung Electronics; Mary Barra, chair and CEO of General Motors and Robert B. Ford, president and CEO of Abbott, the first healthcare keynote in CES history. Emmy-award winning FOX Business anchor Liz Claman and owners of Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), Erin and Faith Ozmen, spoke during the CES Leaders in Technology Dinner.

Those in the industry unable to attend CES in person can access the show digitally through January 31. Web Summit was selected as the digital platform provider for CES 2022. The technology benefits both in-person and digital attendees.

CES will be returning to Las Vegas January 5-8, 2023.