You’ll be able to’t take the temperature of the tech business earlier than you’ve sifted by means of the press releases and bulletins popping out of CES. The Client Electronics Present in Las Vegas is such a fertile launching floor for innovation, in addition to a deluge of cruft, vapourware and slop each bodily and AI-generated, that it’s essential to research the present earlier than pontificating on what comes subsequent.
Construct your personal: Boston Dynamics sells a block equipment of its Atlas robotic
(Picture credit score: Boston Dynamics)
So what would be the massive tech tales of 2026? There are the standard suspects, to make certain, with upcoming gadgets from Apple, OpenAI, Meta and extra all vying for shopper consideration. Come and gaze into the Wallpaper* crystal ball.
AI in every little thing, all over the place, unexpectedly
Google’s Gemini provides an outline the way it creates photos
(Picture credit score: Google)
At this level, you and everybody you already know can have some variation of an AI-related anecdote – some trivial, weird or terrible hallucination, for instance, or an assistant sticking its digital nostril into the place it’s not wanted. Sadly, 2026 is the yr we will anticipate much more forwards and backwards over the professionals and cons of AI. The putative bubble hasn’t but burst and there are nonetheless billionaires on the market who imagine fervently in its socially transformative powers.
These of us on the skinny finish of the wedge are definitely being remodeled, simply not all the time for the higher. We’ve already had a deluge of slop throughout each conceivable platform, to not point out kids’s toys that dispense doubtful recommendation, chatbots that set off AI-induced psychosis, and numerous horrid hallucinations, to not point out the hollowing out of all artistic industries (with creatives themselves turning on the Quislings of their midst who keep generative AI is simply one other legitimate device).
A nonetheless from a Sora 3-generated movie
(Picture credit score: OpenAI)
So the place subsequent for the tech that guarantees a lot? AI is at risk of changing into a form of Brexit of the mind, a fastidiously engineered departure from time-honoured methods of considering, data and creativity that is being boosted by nefarious events with solely their greatest pursuits at coronary heart. Its supporters proceed to say that the sunlit uplands lie forward, stalked by massive language fashions, untold riches of knowledge and the benevolent steerage of the elusive however good AGI, offered the know-how is free of the cage created by inhumane laws and pesky guardrails.
On the different finish of the dimensions, we’ve got the ‘bodily AI period’ at the moment being frantically manifested by the likes of LG and Nvidia, which owes a lot of its $5 trillion valuation to its monopoly on the chips that energy the algorithms that energy the ‘intelligence’. For Nvidia, AI now not means software program; along with each cellular, desktop, laptop computer, watch and TV having software-driven AI superpowers, CEO Jensen Huan needs to see these talents translate into the bodily realm. For Huan, tomorrow’s self-driving automotive can have a sophistication akin to the place ChatGPT and Gemini are at the moment for conversational, query-based and generative AI.
‘Distribution of genres (inside ring) and cultures (outer ring) throughout MF-Expertise’, a part of Nvidia’s Music Flamingo AI
(Picture credit score: Nvidia)
We’re additionally seeing an increasing number of tech firm apologists attempting to inveigle ‘AI energy’ into the artistic course of. Nvidia not too long ago introduced a partnership with Common Music Group, ostensibly to make use of AI to drive ‘engagement and discovery’, but additionally to encourage artists to ‘take a look at new AI-powered instruments… serving as a direct antidote to generic, ‘AI slop’ outputs, and putting artists on the centre of accountable AI innovation.’ Deal with with excessive warning, particularly after bearing in mind the relative worth of the 2 companions (Nvidia, $5tr, UMG, $50bn) and Nvidia’s ongoing analysis into its Music Flamingo platform.
In the meanwhile, the misses are garnering extra consideration than the hits. The plaintive, overly patronising tone of ChatGPT, CoPilot’s infuriating capability to pop up all over the place, the utter seediness of Grok, Gemini’s probably negligent bedside method, or the mind-chemistry altering love-bombing abilities of Replika all suggests extra pitfalls are on the way in which.
Do not click on: Microsoft’s ubiquitous CoPilot icon
(Picture credit score: Microsoft)
OpenAI.com, CoPilot.com, Grok.com, Gemini.Google.com, Replika.com
io: Sam Altman and Jony Ive’s Collaboration
(Picture credit score: OpenAI)
The outcomes of the OpenAI x LoveFrom love-in are resulting from come to fruition sooner or later this summer season, with rampant hypothesis as to what the AI-enabled gadget from io really is. Variously alleged to take the type of a pair of glasses, necklace, earbuds, pen, nose-ring, band, watch, pendant, ring or brooch, suffice to say no-one actually is aware of what’s coming, or why.
OpenAI’s pivot to {hardware} is in step with the rising world of ‘bodily AI’ espoused by the likes of Meta and Nvidia, however with every passing week, an increasing number of doubt is creeping into the general public notion of AI.
Regardless of the shortage of clear info, the proposed gadget is being positioned as a counterpoint to the creeping ubiquity of tech. Altman himself described the vibe as ‘like, sitting in essentially the most lovely cabin by a lake and within the mountains and kind of simply having fun with the peace and calm.’
Historically, such actions haven’t wanted teraflops of persistent and ever-present computing, listening within the background and sifting by means of billions of situations to find out what we’d wish to occur subsequent. Most of would moderately our computer systems have been out of sight, out of thoughts and positively not eavesdropping, not to mention providing useful interjections.
Nonetheless, genies and bottles and all that. Can io conjure up some type of wearable good gadget that’s as helpful because the smartphone but is intercised from its most horrifically addictive properties?
LoveFrom’s Jony Ive with OpenAI’s Sam Altman
(Picture credit score: OpenAI)
The folding iPhone
The brand new Moto Razr Fold from Motorola
(Picture credit score: Motorola)
Even essentially the most diehard Apple fanboy would most likely concede that Apple doesn’t all the time hit it out of the park. One gadget that’s remained steadfastly below the radar is the iPhone Fold. May 2026 lastly mark the arrival of this near-mythical beast? A part of the issue is that the foldable market is lower than mature, with simply over 20 million foldable handsets bought in 2025 (in comparison with effectively over a billion standard gadgets).
(Picture credit score: Motorola)
That hasn’t stopped the folding display from commanding a premium. Motorola not too long ago joined the pack with the Moto Razr Fold, Samsung have their new Galaxy Z Trifold and Google, Honor, and extra stay dedicated to the shape issue.
(Picture credit score: Samsung)
At this yr’s CES Samsung confirmed off a prototype of a creaseless folding OLED show. Provided that Apple sometimes cherry picks the most recent and biggest componentry for its flagship gadgets, may this be the ultimate barrier between compromise and pure magnificence that can allow an iPhone Fold to realize the right look? It helps that Samsung Show is one among Apple’s key suppliers.
(Picture credit score: Motorola)
Motorola.com, Samsung.com, Honor.com, Apple.com
Rise of the Robots
(Picture credit score: Boston Dynamics)
Maybe the last word embodiment of so-called Bodily AI is a actually autonomous employee. Home robots have been a notable draw at CES 2026, with most supposed to fulfil comparatively easy duties like house safety and leisure.
(Picture credit score: Hexagon)
LG’s CLOiD went a number of steps additional, a part of the South Korean firm’s drive in direction of a ‘Zero Labor Dwelling’ (the place have we heard that one earlier than?), however there was additionally the T800 from Chinese language firm EngineAI, and the AEON robotic from Hexagon. And isn’t it somewhat bizarre that home robots are nonetheless utilizing wheels while it’s the robotic vacuum cleaners which are beginning to sprout legs, like prehistoric ancestral mammals crawling out of the ooze.
(Picture credit score: Boston Dynamics)
Of higher significance was the reveal of Boston Dynamics’s production-ready Atlas industrial robotic. The corporate is now a part of Hyundai, giving loads of impetus to the thought of a non-unionised robotised employee with a broad vary of core abilities and inherent energy. Nonetheless, the inevitable rise of the robots may nonetheless transform one among know-how’s nice cautionary tales.
(Picture credit score: Hexagon)
The fast and lethal weaponisation of the drone business was spurred partly by necessity and partly by affordability – an off-the-shelf metallic humanoid nonetheless prices round $40,000. Nonetheless, you possibly can assure that the navy R&D labs of each authorities on the planet are wanting into deadly purposes.
(Picture credit score: Boston Dynamics)
BostonDynamics.com, Robotics.Hexagon.com
Taking Sight of Sensible Glasses
(Picture credit score: Meta)
Sensible glasses reached a level of maturity in 2025, whether or not it was for watching, working or augmenting info onto your discipline of view. With Meta’s collaboration with Ray-Ban main the sector – and apparently so widespread that the most recent mannequin, the Show, is being delayed in Europe resulting from demand – the sector is vast open for mass adoption.
However. What do you really need Sensible Glasses for? There are a plethora of various fashions on the market, a lot of which do very various things, from those who merely exist to produce and increase audio, with maybe a hotline to an AI assistant, just like the Solos AirGo V2, merchandise from Aether Audio and Nuance Audio, to the layered info method taken by Meta Show, with imagery displayed on the lens itself.
Aether Audio Sun shades, mannequin S1
(Picture credit score: Aether-eyewear)
Then there are these fashions that throw in a bodily display behind the precise lens, just like the Xreal Air 2 Extremely and the Air 3S by RayNeo. Barely clunkier and never precisely designed for strolling round, these are primarily supposed as monitor or TV replacements, bringing an enormous (over 200” equal) display proper in entrance of your eyeballs).
RayNeo Air 3S video sun shades
(Picture credit score: RayNeo)
But it surely’s the Meta-stisation of tech that ought to concern us all most. Not all good glasses include cameras, however the Meta Show emphatically does, together with an on-wrist controller that removes the necessity to fiddle with the frames whenever you wish to activate one of many many options – overlaying translated textual content on a menu, for instance, or taking a brief movie.
(Picture credit score: Meta)
We’re again to the ‘why’ of all of it. Outdoors of office interactions and different areas the place info retention is essential, what does the buyer get out of creating and embracing such a visual assertion of connectivity?
We’ve had bodycams and AR glasses for a few years the place such issues actually matter, and the standard smartphone has confirmed time and time once more to be a trusty counterpoint to tyranny and overreach. As soon as we’re all sporting good glasses, each interplay turns into an informational Mexican standoff, riddled with suspicion and paranoia.
(Picture credit score: Meta)
Meta.com, Solosglasses.com, NuanceAudio.com, UK.RayNeo.com, UK.Store.XREAL.com, Aether-Eyewear.com
Stable-State batteries in vehicles and bikes
Donut Lab’s Stable-State batteries in situ
(Picture credit score: Donut Lab)
On a extra pragmatic observe, the quiet introduction of Stable-State batteries guarantees one other leap ahead for electrical mobility. Up till now, worth and complexity have saved hold them out of shoppers’ arms for the subsequent few years. 2026 ought to see producers exploring bridge applied sciences, like Nio’s ‘semi-solid’ battery, a 150 kWh battery pack designed for China’s many battery-swapping stations as an improve from common 75 kWh or 100 kWh choices.
Though it packs a variety of over 1,000km, the brand new tech continues to be prohibitively costly. At CES, Verge Bikes revealed the primary bike with a real Stable-State battery, courtesy of American start-up Donut Labs.
Donut Lab’s Stable-State Battery
(Picture credit score: Donut Lab)
Put merely, a Stable-State battery has no liquid or gel electrolyte; as an alternative, charged particles transfer by means of the battery courtesy of a stable electrolyte, sometimes a ceramic. This permits for higher vitality density but additionally ramps up prices because of the want for rather more energy-intensive manufacturing. Along with offering extra energy for much less weight, Stable-State tech can be quicker charging and fewer vulnerable to combusting (Donut Lab’s battery might be absolutely charged in 5 minutes).
(Picture credit score: Verge Bikes)
Nonetheless, even standard lithium-ion batteries characterize an enormous chunk of an EV’s worth, however as the brand new tech scales up and prices come down, smaller EVs may develop into extra commonplace and vary nervousness – already waning – might be a factor of the previous.
Donut Lab’s Stable-State Battery
(Picture credit score: Donut Lab)
DonutLab.com, @DonutLabOfficial, VergeMotorcycles.com
eVTOL providers take flight
Archer Aviation’s Midnight plane
(Picture credit score: Archer Aviation)
On this litigation and liability-minded world, any new type of transportation is only one disaster away from cancellation. Security is the paramount consideration for the raft of recent eVTOL suppliers and providers which have variously promised to be airborne by the tip of the last decade.
Inside Archer Aviation’s Midnight plane
(Picture credit score: Archer Aviation)
This yr, eVTOL would possibly lastly take flight as a business prospect. Look to the Center East for the very first business flights; it at the moment seems as if Joby Aviation’s proposed service from Dubai Worldwide Airport to the Palm Jumeirah might be up and working in months. The ten-minute flight will exchange a 45-minute automotive journey.
Vertical Aerospace’s Valo eVTOL plane, with an id by Pentagram
(Picture credit score: Pentagram)
Joby can be seeking to provoke one other airport switch service in New York, working seven-minute flights from a downtown heliport to JFK. Archer Aviation, which counts Stellantis and United Airways amongst its traders, can be seeking to get in on the possibly profitable Manhattan to JFK enterprise.
The Midnight, from Archer Aviation
(Picture credit score: Archer Aviation)
In China, EHang is already working demonstration tour flights in cities like Guangzhou and Shenzhen, whereas in South Korea, Supernal (a part of the Hyundai Motor Group), continues to be aiming for a 2028 service launch regardless of some high-profile personnel and funding setbacks. And whether or not or not eVTOL will even usher in a brand new type of city infrastructure – such because the Foster-designed ‘Vertiport’ idea for Dubai – stays to be seen.
Vertiport Terminal, Dubai, by Foster + Companions
(Picture credit score: Foster + Companions)
The eVTOL business is a dynamic one, with collective a long time of R&D and the present absence of any business routes inflicting many firms to fall by the wayside. Nonetheless in competition are key gamers like Vertical Aerospace, Volocopter and Aridge (the brand new title for the what was initially referred to as the Xpeng Aero HT). Though take-off would possibly lastly be achieved in 2026, the long-term sustainability of electrical flight is on no account secured simply but.
Archer Aviation’s Midnight plane
(Picture credit score: Archer Aviation)
Archer.com, Vertical-Aerospace.com, Supernal.aero, Aridge.com, Volocopter.com, JobyAviation.com, EHang.com
