CES will bring an avalanche of AI wearables that will seek to be better than your phone

The start of a new year is a time for reflection, renewal and unbridled speculation about the wonders, or new hell, that the future may hold. Nowhere does this mix of anxiety and technological evangelism emerge so brightly as at CES. Starting tomorrow, January 7, the gigantic showcase tech Consumer spending rushes to Las Vegasbringing with it a whirlwind of hubbub over the latest gadgets and gadgets. And yes, all of them will surely be packed with AI features. You’ll likely be asked to wear a lot of them, so be prepared.

Artificial intelligence dominated CES, as it did every other facet of our culture over the past two years. A tsunami of AI technology washed ashore last year, and while the dust has calmed somewhat since then, the storm of anticipation around the promises of artificial intelligence will only continue to rise. “There is no doubt that we will see wearables or wearable devices with AI among the multitude of vendors coming to CES, but I don’t think it will be anything like what we saw last year, where there were a ton of hardware dedicated to AI,” says Jitesh Ubrani, research director at analytics firm IDC. He suggests that rather it will be It is AI that is built into existing devices or is an additional feature rather than the only thing it is good for.

A tour of fashion (from AI)

With most of the spoils from the current AI boom going to industry predators: OpenAI, Google, Meta and their mature, well-trained language models, startups Those who want to compete are focusing more on the physical layer of the user experience. “You’re not going to add any value by creating your own AI model, so the next step is to implement AI. The easiest way to do this is with some kind of hardware“comments Anshel Sag, principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy.

We saw a lot of these AI-powered devices in 2024. They all showed a variety of use cases, but they were mostly still just “molds” for using AI in devices that weren’t a smartphone or computer. Some of them had licenses for models like ChatGPT, while others used software tailored to enhance your interactions; Both paths were equally complicated. Devices like the Humane AI Pin and Rabbit R1 started the trend, although they were ultimately disappointing. The Friend necklace, with which you interact through a mobile application, ended up involved in controversy for being a device with a microphone that is always listening. Others have hinted at bigger ambitions, like the Plaud.AI pin, which for now summarizes your meetings, but could eventually be instructed to attend them for you.

There are still many more AI-dedicated devices to come. Some could be useful, and others rely on AI interactions just to seem progressive or spark interest. Whatever the type of device, CES will be the place to put them on, tie them, slide them and clip them, we will see the debut of new necklaces, glasses, pins and, of course, headphones. I lost count of all the companies that have offered us a demo of their AI headphones designed especially to interact with chatbots similar to Her. There are even sex toys, but I’ll spare you the content of those emails.