Las Vegas is witnessing the future of home life unfold as tech giants showcase robots that fold laundry, serve meals and handle household chores at CES 2026.
Ahead of the CES show floor officially opening on January 6, the annual pilgrimage to Las Vegas for technology’s biggest showcase has revealed something different this year.
Whilst previous events featured flashy concepts and distant promises, CES 2026 presents a more pragmatic vision of how artificial intelligence and robotics might actually integrate into everyday life.
Household help arrives
LG unveiled its CLOiD robot, an AI-powered assistant that can fold laundry, unload the dishwasher, serve food and help with other household tasks. The machine features a display-equipped head unit with cameras and sensors, alongside two robotic arms complete with independently moving fingers.
“Collectively, these elements allow the robot to communicate with humans through spoken language and ‘facial expressions,’ learn the living environments and lifestyle patterns of its users and control connected home appliances based on its learnings,” LG stated in its announcement.
The company demonstrated the CLOiD completing common chores in various scenarios, including starting laundry cycles and folding freshly washed clothes. Images showed the robot taking items from an oven, unloading plates from a dishwasher and serving plates of food.
However, LG intends this to be more of a concept rather than a product it plans to actually sell. The company says it will continue developing home robots with practical functions whilst bringing robotics technology to more of its home appliances.
Samsung similarly leaned into AI-powered home solutions. The electronics giant highlighted features for its fridges, including recipe selection and AI Vision technology designed to recognise items and help manage inventory. Its FoodNote feature provides weekly summaries tracking what enters and exits the refrigerator.
SwitchBot introduced its onero H1 robot, built on core embodied-AI capabilities with 22 degrees of freedom and an on-device OmniSense VLA model. The system learns, adapts and works alongside SwitchBot’s existing ecosystem of task-specific robots.
“By combining visual perception, depth awareness, and tactile feedback, the system enables a more comprehensive understanding of an object’s position, shape, and interaction states, critical for handling contact-intensive household tasks,” according to SwitchBot’s announcement.
Screens get supersized
Display technology took centre stage with the emergence of Micro RGB screens. Samsung brought a mammoth 130-inch concept model to Las Vegas, building on the 115-inch, $29,999 model it unveiled in August.
Micro RGB technology uses red, green and blue LEDs instead of white backlights, similar to Mini LED. Whilst contrast ratios don’t match Micro LED and OLED displays because pixels cannot be turned on and off individually, these screens deliver brighter and more colour-accurate images through smaller, more customisable dimming zones.
Samsung plans to offer Micro RGB TVs in 55-inch, 65-inch and 75-inch sizes, alongside larger 85-inch, 100-inch and 115-inch models. LG revealed its first Micro RGB set at CES as well, with the largest variant measuring 100 inches alongside 86-inch and 75-inch models.
Amazon entered the art-focused television market with the Ember Artline TV, competing directly with Samsung’s Frame model. The 4K OLED display integrates with Amazon Photos and can showcase a choice of 2,000 pieces of free art, switching on or off automatically when someone enters or leaves the room. Starting at $899 for the 55-inch model, it’s expected to ship this spring.
Artline TV
Processing power competition
The chip manufacturers turned CES into a battleground for next-generation processors. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivered a 90-minute keynote on 5 January, with the company promising hands-on demos showcasing robotics, simulation, gaming and content creation. Wedbush analysts expect Huang to focus heavily on data centres, physical AI, robotics and autonomous technology, calling 2026 a critical year for Nvidia’s AI strategy.
Intel used the event to spotlight its Core Ultra Series 3 processors, codenamed Panther Lake. These chips represent the first to use the company’s 18A chip technology and form a key part of its broader turnaround effort.
Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon participated in discussions about the company’s plans following its Snapdragon X-series processor launch at CES 2025. Each chipmaker provided insights into powering physical AI systems, the technical term for robots.
Beyond consumer electronics
The exhibition extended into speciality areas. L’Oreal brought beauty technology innovations including an LED Eye Mask using red light and near-infrared light to address puffiness and discoloration. The company also introduced the Light Straight + Multi-styler, which uses infrared light to dry and style hair whilst maintaining lower temperatures than traditional straighteners.
L’Oreal claims that whilst traditional straighteners can operate at 400°F or higher, its latest innovation “effectively straightens hair while never exceeding 320°F”.
Mobile technology made appearances as well. Clicks unveiled the Clicks Communicator, an Android 16-based phone featuring a physical keyboard with a fingerprint sensor in the spacebar, a 4-inch OLED display, a 3.5mm headphone jack and expandable microSD storage up to 2TB. Available for reservation at $399, the price increases to $499 on 27 February.
For those preferring minimal mobile technology, Punkt introduced the MC03, a touchscreen model running on privacy-focused AphyOS based on the Android Open Source Project. Launching in European markets this month for €699, it includes a mandatory subscription of €10 monthly after the first free year.
Nvidia’s valuation of $4.6 trillion reflects how closely the health of the US and global economy seems linked to infrastructure spending on AI data centres, largely powered by chips from Nvidia and its competitors.
The technology on display represents not just innovation for its own sake but responses to genuine demands for practical solutions. Whether household AI adoption reaches mainstream markets depends on factors beyond the show floor, including pricing, reliability and consumer acceptance of robots performing intimate household tasks.
What emerges from CES 2026 is a picture of technology companies attempting to bridge the gap between ambitious visions and tangible products that people might actually use. Whether these innovations deliver on their promises will become clear in the months ahead as products move from exhibition halls to homes and offices worldwide.
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