CES officially kicks off January 6 in Las Vegas, but the real show starts earlier, as companies begin rolling out press previews, early demos, and carefully timed leaks ahead of the tech industry’s biggest week of the year.

As always, artificial intelligence will be everywhere, but CES 2026 looks less focused on flashy “AI for AI’s sake” demos and more on how that tech shows up in everyday devices. Expect AI baked into laptops, TVs, home gadgets, cars, and even robots that claim to understand you better than last year’s versions did.

The biggest names in chips are once again setting the tone. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and AMD CEO Lisa Su are both slated to keynote, likely framing the next year of AI hardware, gaming performance, and power-efficient computing. Intel is also expected to spotlight its Panther Lake processors, which could quietly shape the next wave of laptops even if they don’t steal headlines.

Beyond chips, CES remains a playground for ambitious concepts, some practical, many not. Robotics is already shaping up as a major theme, with companies like LG teasing home robots and Samsung continuing to hint at long-promised helpers that may or may not ever ship.

TVs are getting bigger, brighter, and more experimental too, with RGB lighting tech and massive display sizes dominating early buzz.

What makes CES different from other tech events isn’t just the product launches, it’s the chaos. For every polished announcement from a tech giant, there’s a startup demoing something strange, brilliant, or confusing just a few booths away. Some of it will define the year ahead. A lot of it won’t. But taken together, CES 2026 offers a snapshot of where the tech industry thinks it’s going, and what it hopes people will want next.

Over the next few days, the real story will emerge not just from the keynotes, but from the show floor, the side rooms, and the unexpected moments that always seem to happen between official announcements.