Editor's note: Este artículo está traducido al español.
AI is everywhere at CES.
From a local “AI-powered” hotel to improved translation services, the technology was inescapable on the floor at the Las Vegas Convention Center during last year’s trade show, the largest of its kind in the world.
And show director John Kelley says this January’s showcase will push even further into artificial intelligence territory.
The shift is so significant that CES is opening a dedicated space for AI and quantum computing at the Fontainebleau called the “CES Foundry.” The show, which reportedly brought more than 140,000 people last year, will run Jan. 6-9.
Kelley said the show has previously brought in $380 million annually to Las Vegas’ local economy, along with 1,600 jobs. He could not share projections yet but said attendance and exhibitor numbers are “strong” heading into the new year.
Kelley said the event — for the first time — will host trainings on AI, which will help business executives grasp the basics of the tech and how to properly implement it. The technology was also the most popular category under CES’s Innovation Awards program, he said.
Last year, private investment in the technology surpassed $100 billion, according to a Stanford University institute. The boom in spending was spurred by the development of generative AI, which has led to large language models from companies such as OpenAI, Microsoft and Anthropic.
“We’re expecting AI to be prevalent throughout the show,” Kelley said. “It’ll show up in mobility, show up in health care, they’ll show up in the enterprise space, it’ll show up in many different areas.”
But concern that artificial intelligence is a bubble, one that makes up much of the American stock market’s growth, has come with the rapid investment going into the technology. Business outlet CNBC dubbed whether or not a bubble exists “tech’s biggest question.”
Kelley dismissed those concerns, saying he doesn’t give credence to the idea. People initially dismissed the internet and email, he said, despite eventually becoming mainstays of American life.
“There’s so much opportunity, and we’re just starting to scratch the surface,” he told the Sun. “We’re really in its infancy stage right now. It’s really hard to predict what the future will look like exactly, but we’re definitely not in a bubble.”
Caterpillar, a massive construction equipment company, for instance, will use its keynote at CES to discuss the company’s AI developments and interest in “autonomous functionality,” according to a news release from the show.
“We are building on our strong legacy of innovation, rapidly expanding our tech capabilities in new ways that help solve our customers’ toughest challenges,” Caterpillar CEO Joe Creed said in the release.
The CEO of AMD, which is creating chips to be used by OpenAI, will also give a keynote tackling the technology.
“At AMD, our mission is clear: deliver the computing power and AI innovation the world needs to tackle its most complex problems,” CEO Dr. Lisa Su said in a news release announcing the talk.
Kelley also expects that robotics and accessibility technology will prove to be popular at the upcoming CES.
The show is also operating a heavily international event under President Donald Trump’s second administration, which has been raising fees on visas to enter the country.
Some international researchers have also been spooked by multiple news stories of scientists getting detained by federal immigration officers while attempting to enter the United States, according to the science journal Nature.
Previously, CES gave attendees who required a visa a letter of invitation that they could provide while going through customs, explaining their trip. This year, all international attendees, regardless of visa requirements, will have access to the letter upon registration.
“When you have over 58,000 people come from outside the United States,” Kelley said, “visa concerns have always been an issue for CES.”