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CES 2026 : The year of Robots
What if Robots were going to replace humans... And sooner than expected! This question seems unavoidable when walking through the aisles of CES 2026 in Las Vegas. Domestic Robots, warrior robots, worker robots, nanny robots... Even more so than last year, robots have reached such a level of maturity and sophistication that they make us wonder whether we should stop worrying about future generations and instead wstart worrying about our own which will be the first to be directly affected.
Another phenomenon also everywhere at CES 2026 is connected eyewear, smart glasses, which were promised to us a few years ago as the holy grail that would revolutionize content consumption and relegate even the most advanced smartphones to the sidelines. And although this is still not the case today, display quality is improving considerably, and use cases are starting to take shape. Many brands are now present in this promising market; product ranges are expanding, and these glasses will, without a doubt, revolutionize the way we use technology over the next ten years.
AI is of course everywhere, in all connected products, in objects, in cars, in industry, in healthcare... And above all in everyday use, with the connected home! The integration of AI into these products is no longer seen as an exception: it has become the norm.
AI was therefore THE main topic addressed by the speakers during the Media Days conferences.
Smart Glasses: from the era of prototypes to (finally) that of a finished product, marking a turning point
For several years, the Innovation Department of France Télévisions has been exploring the challenges of mixed reality, new display technologies, and smart glasses through its experiments, notably showcased at the RGLab.
Whether it involves new formats for sports broadcasting, immersive use cases, virtual production workflows, or new interfaces, such as the demonstration of tournament broadcasting on Xreal One Pro glasses in 2025, or the automatic conversion of 2D content into 3D, this work is part of a broader reflection on the evolution of screens and the ways we interact with content. This 2026 edition of CES now confirms that these intuitions are becoming reality.
At CES 2026, the smart glasses ecosystem has clearly shifted toward concrete, wearable, and directly useful use cases: gone is the purely conceptual ambition, making way for products that are finally seeking their place in everyday personal and professional life. We are seeing a wave of lighter models, increasingly close to the form factor of traditional glasses, integrating embedded or assisted AI features for real-time translation, automatic note-taking, contextual summaries, and teleprompter functions, often on just one lens, but for some models on both lenses, which makes the experience far more comfortable. For example, Lenovo announced AI glasses weighing around 45 grams (a classic pair weighs between 25 and 40 grams), connected to a smartphone and capable of instant translation and intelligent notification summaries, a sign that the promise of a hands-free personal assistant is beginning to materialize.
In the world of AR glasses designed as personal displays, several announcements were made this year. ASUS, in partnership with Xreal, unveiled the ROG Xreal R1, AR gaming glasses featuring 240 Hz Full HD micro-OLED displays with a 57° field of view, designed for consoles, PCs, and mobile devices.
Xreal also introduced the Xreal 1S, a more affordable version compared to its previous models, aimed at reaching a wider audience, which improves on the existing formula with a 1200p display, increased brightness, a wider field of view, and real-time 2D-to-3D conversion, while remaining at a more accessible price point. Meanwhile, RayNeo presented the Air 4 Pro, the world’s first HDR10-compatible AR glasses, promising richer colors, deeper contrasts, and a “personal cinema” experience connected to smartphones, PCs, or consoles via USB-C.
Among the hybrid approaches combining smart glasses and contextual interfaces, the Meta Ray-Ban Display continues to intrigue. Their distinctive feature: the use of the Meta Neural Band, a wristband based on reading electromyographic (EMG) signals from the wrist, allowing users to control the interface, navigate, select, or even write using subtle gestures, without touching the glasses. It is a rather original and intuitive interaction approach, even if the choice of displaying content on only one of the lenses may feel frustrating. Metatook advantage of CES to unveil a set of new features: gesture-based writing, teleprompter mode, and an extension of pedestrian navigation. As Meta is currently focused on the U.S. market, no date has yet been announced for the arrival of these glasses in Europe.
Google, for its part, has begun to showcase various AI glasses prototypes, with displays integrated into one or both lenses depending on the models. They will embed Gemini and, thanks to the new Android XR platform, will be compatible with most Google applications such as YouTube or Maps, as well as a number of third-party apps from the Play Store. Commercial versions could arrive later in 2026.
The move toward greater usage independence was also illustrated by initiatives such as the RayNeo X3 Pro, which features integrated eSIM support to offer standalone connectivity and reduce reliance on smartphones, a further step toward truly standalone glasses.
At the same time, players such as MemoMindand Even Realities are pushing lightweight smart glasses with a very discreet design, capable of offering translation, note-taking, and teleprompter functions via multi-LLM assistants.
On the professional side, the growing number of “enterprise” solutions and the demonstrations of AR field guides confirm that AR + AI is now being deployed in very concrete use cases, particularly in logistics and maintenance, with a company like Vuzix also offering a full range of glasses designed for large-scale deployment in professional environments.
Very little new information emerged about Xreal’s highly anticipated Project Aura, developed in collaboration with Google and Android XR: CES was mainly an opportunity to confirm a release planned for 2026. However, after hands-on testing, the 70° field of view combined with six degrees of freedom and hand tracking significantly improves the experience.
Within the same ecosystem, the Samsung Galaxy XR headset, also based on Android XR, was surprisingly discreet on Samsung’s massive booth, not very prominently showcased and difficult to try in a demo. Here again, few concrete details were shared, but a European launch in 2026 is being mentioned, confirming that Google, Samsung, and their partners are moving cautiously but steadily toward a unified XR platform.
CES 2026 marks a true turning point for smart glasses: they are no longer futuristic prototypes, but real tools designed to deliver value today, whether through hands-free productivity, instant translation, or turning any video source into a personal giant screen.
AI, Hardware, Chips, Computing
Nvidiaunveiled the Vera Rubinplatform, a new generation of AI supercomputers combining CPUs, Rubin GPUs, NVLink 6, and networking solutions to follow up on Blackwell and significantly boost training and inference performance for large models. The company also announced Alpamayo, a reasoning-oriented AI model for autonomous vehicles, designed to be deployed on this platform. Qualcomm expanded its PC lineup with the Snapdragon X2 Plus, ARM chips for Windows laptops featuring up to 10 CPU cores and an NPU rated at around 80 TOPS, with announced gains in both performance and energy efficiency compared to the previous generation. AMDintroduced new Instinct GPUs, as well as the Ryzen AI 400 and Ryzen AI Max+ series for PCs, featuring more powerful NPUs, and Ryzen AI Embedded chips aimed at robotics use cases, in order to cover a wide spectrum ranging from the cloud to embedded systems.
Robots, the Stars of this year
Robotics is indeed one of the stars of this edition of CES, with major trends including companion robots and robotic pets, domestic and logistics service robots, humanoid robots with an impressive range of movements, and an increasingly powerful layer of AI being integrated across various industries, particularly in mobility, from exoskeletons to autonomous cars.
In the field of domestic robots, LGhighlighted its LG CLOiD concept, a robot designed to assist with household tasks as part of its “Zero Labor Home” vision, capable of physically interacting with appliances and performing actions such as loading a washing machine or bringing objects, illustrating the push toward the concrete robotization of the home environment.
In the humanoid robot segment, several exhibitors showcased promising platforms. In particular, robots from Unitree Roboticsdemonstrated their manipulation capabilities, suited for inspection and interaction tasks, danced, or even challenged visitors to boxing matches. The Chinese company’s robots and mobile platforms are equipped with proprietary AI and feature fast-swappable batteries.
At the same time,ENGINEAI Robotics Technology unveiled the T800, a full-size, general-purpose humanoid robot, as well as the PM01, a general-purpose mobile agent. Both feature advanced motor coordination and fine control capabilities, allowing them to move and interact in close proximity to humans — capabilities that were demonstrated on site through dance and martial arts choreographies, where in the opposite booth another humanoid robot from Sharpa that was playing table tennis against a human.
Other players, such as the well-known company Boston Dynamics with its Atlas robot, integrating advanced AI technologies and announced as production-ready, illustrate the growing interest in humanoids capable of performing complex movements in industrial environments.
On the TV side
Television is celebrating its 100th anniversary this January… So what’s new in the aisles of CES? Ever larger screens, ever brighter, and increasingly immersive…
This year, Samsungis showcasing a 130-inch Micro RGB display of stunning quality! Driven by the AI Engine Pro, it delivers ultra-precise color control and offers exceptional image quality and brightness. Its technology is based on a microscopic RGB light source, where each red, green, and blue diode operates independently to reproduce pure, natural colors. An AI entertainment assistant called “Vision AI Companion” helps users choose content, music, and even meals.
New customizable modes such as “AI Soccer Pro” make it possible to automatically adjust image and sound to recreate the atmosphere of a football stadium — for instance by boosting the volume of the crowd, the commentary, or the music… Full immersion in the stadium!
Also at Samsung, a new range of B2B displays makes it possible to showcase objects or mannequins with a 3D effect and a simulated depth of one meter. A rather spectacular new promotional tool for the retail sector.
TCLunveiled its X11LSQD Mini TV. It is the world’s first television to feature SQD-Mini LED technology, making it possible to reach extreme brightness levels of up to 10,000 nits in HDR and to expand the color gamut by nearly 33%. It is equipped with Bang & Olufsen audio and high-end speakers, delivering powerful sound and outstanding audio quality.
LGpresented its latest G6 Micro RGB, powered by the Alpha 11 AI processor capable of controlling 8.3 million pixels. It runs on a Micro RGB Engine, allowing Micro RGB technology and Micro Dimming Ultra to fully leverage pixel-level precision and deliver a higher level of vibrancy and accuracy.
Also at LG, the return of the LG OLED evo W6 Wallpaper TV, with a thickness of only 9 mm, whose promise is to deliver perfect blacks and perfectly accurate colors, both in bright environments and in darkness.
It is worth noting that Sony did not unveil any new TV this year.
La French Tech
French Tech was once again present at CES this year, and in force, with close to a hundred companies. The French Pavilion at Eureka Park notably brought together 80 tech players across a wide range of fields (health, cybersecurity, consumer tech, etc.), as well as around a dozen automotive companies at the LV Convention Center.
French startups won three awards this year.
By Vincent Nalpas, R&D Innovation Director, and Yves-Marie Poirier, Innovation Engineer
