The Future is Now: CES 2025 Unveils 6 Transformative Tech Trends

Though it sometimes feels like everyone’s following the same trend (AI), the technology we saw at CES 2025 was remarkably diverse, from practical devices for your home to mind-bogglingly powerful laptops to the next revolutions in health tech.

Some of the concepts at CES might come years in the future (or never), while many other products are available for sale right now. Here are the six biggest trends from CES that we think will make the largest impact in 2025.

If you’re looking for the very top products from the trade show, be sure to check out the official 2025 Best of CES Awards, selected by the CNET Group.

Robots keep getting better, smarter, cuter, smaller and creepier

Most of the non-novelty robots shown at CES bear a functional resemblance to the robots used commercially — by that I mean you can tell they’re the product of the same research in movement and AI as they pick things up, fold, clean and so on. Expensive models like Mi-Mo, Beatbot, R2D3 and more. 

More consumer-friendly models were less functional, like the tiny, fuzzy bots that you hang on your handbag as a fashion statement or the adorable model with huge anime eyes that follows you around on wheels but seems like a surveillance nightmare (the TCL AI Me). There were also the concepts of yesteryear that finally edged toward saleability, such as Samsung’s Ballie — a spherical bot with a projector in its belly, like a baby Teletubbie.

Watch this: Sorry, There Are No ‘Best Robots’ at CES This Year

03:22

On the “whut?” front perches a tiny robot whose function is simply to blow on hot beverages. 

But the models that resonated the most with us were home helpers that don’t cost tens of thousands of dollars, like Roborock’s Saros Z70 robot vacuum cleaner — it sports an arm that can pick up your socks — or Eureka’s J15 Max Ultra, which detects spills and untangles its own brushes. And one of the most innovative was the Lymow One, a robot mower that cuts the grass and feeds mulched matter back to your lawn. There’s always a ton of laundry robots — unsurprising given how much everyone hates laundry — like Tenet’s AI Laundry Robot, which washes and folds. 

And we can’t forget the token “most human-looking” robot, Realbotix’s $175K Aria robot, which is designed for “companionship and intimacy” — and looks it, given she’s built along the lines of an old-school Barbie. 

Ultimately, we chose not to pick a best robot because of how removed they were from interaction. In fact, many of the expensive models were in more of a zoo environment: Look at the magical creature in its habitat, repeatedly picking things up and moving them elsewhere. That’s the kind of thing we’ve been seeing for years.

Nvidia doesn’t make robots, but it’s been working on its robot LLMs and operating systems for years. And every time Nvidia trots out this visual at its events, I can’t help but think that Nvidia is building a robot army. Well, that and Metropolis.

AI inside, again, but more powerful

There seemed to be less hype about AI in devices (though it’s possible I have successfully learned to tune it out), but about the same in mobile apps like Delta’s AI concierge. However, it was everywhere in laptops thanks to the annual chip updates from Intel and AMD — which of course brought the usual faster, better and improved battery life — plus bundles of “try it!” software for your out-of-the-box AI experience. 

Watch this: Everything Announced at Nvidia’s CES Event in 12 Minutes

11:47

But in this respect, Nvidia stole the show for its Cosmos AI model (Nvidia has been working on and licensing its various models for autonomous cars, robots and more for years, but this seemed to be its biggest “moment”), as well as its unveiling of the newest generation of consumer graphics. 

Read more: Nvidia Hands-Down Won AI at CES 2025, and Also the Show Itself. Here’s Why That Matters

The GeForce RTX 50 series not only promises the typical performance bump PC gamers expect, but thanks to the new Blackwell generation of GPUs, it brings more powerful and better generative AI capabilities down to your local system. That means cheaper entry for developers, the ability for end users to run bigger models, as well speed improvements (via Nvidia’s DLSS 4) and more sophisticated capabilities for games.

Watch this: These New Smart Glasses Want to Be Your Next AI Companion

02:31

There weren’t a lot of new smart glasses, but Halliday’s stood out for the way they present information: Rather than on the screen, they have a tiny monochrome display that shows text.

Read more: Commentary: The Smart Glasses Moment Is Here. But They’re Still Missing Something Big

The big AI news for cars at CES wasn’t, for once, autonomininity: It was Volkswagen bringing ChatGPT to its voice assistant for more complex, natural-language help.

Read more: Nvidia’s CEO Explains How Its New AI Models Could Work on Future Smart Glasses

Couch potato ‘tainment

One of CES’ core pillars is entertainment (it used to be baked right into the name), which generally means TVs and audio. There weren’t any new screen technologies, but there were improvements and innovations with existing ones. 

Tweaks to OLED came to TVs, with LG’s G5 OLED‘s quality bump impressing us the most for its better brightness and contrast, along with HiSense’s 116-inch MicroLED model. But the TV that seemed to make the biggest impact on us were Displace’s hang-anywhere-thanks-to-huge-suction-cups TVs, shipping versions of prototypes we’ve seen in past years.

Watch this: Displace TV’s 55-Inch Television Hangs From a Wall Using Suction Cups

03:15

I think its impact was partly due to the enormous opportunity for “suck” puns.

There was the usual complement of gaming desktops, laptops and monitors, the latter offering the typical year upgrade to higher refresh rates (500Hz and 600Hz). 

Watch this: Lenovo’s New Legion Go S Gaming Handheld Is Lighter and Smaller but Packs a Big Surprise

03:30

But the biggest hit was Lenovo’s new handheld console. The company is the first to offer (or at least announce) a SteamOS-based model, one of the new Legion G S models. Acer’s Nitro Blaze 11 gaming handheld, however, earned some mockery, because you can’t really respect a “handheld” if it’s bigger than your head.

Read more: Commentary: The Time for an Xbox Handheld Is Now

But it was also kind of hard to sustain excitement about gaming hardware at CES this year, because of a shiny new thing possibly on the horizon. Rumors say the Nintendo Switch 2 is coming soon.

Health and beauty, the staples of CES

Sometimes I think CES specializes in sleep, skin and smart rings, plus technology designed to make you feel like a loser — so many smart mirrors, though none yet use generative AI to simulate your mother’s critical voice or to show you what you could look like if you just tried harder. But maybe that’s just me.

There may not have been as many this year, but there were some standouts. Withing’s Omnia smart mirror combines a scale and a mirror to not only tell you if you’re overweight and in bad health, but to show you as well. There’s always a device for analyzing your skin to tell you what to buy to fix it, such as L’Oreal’s BioPrint. (To be fair, I don’t know what it’s suggestions are.)

Watch this: I Said Yes to Trying a Smart Ring You Can Propose With

01:45

And, oh, the rings. One way to attract attention among the plethora of rings designed to monitor your health is to make it gold and platinum, like the UltraHuman Rare ring: Nothing’s more romantic than a ring that says, “Marry me” and “Please don’t die,” simultaneously. Or alternatively, “Show me off on Instagram.” 

Don’t forget the annual dose of flatware that makes you healthier. This year’s entrant is Kirin Electric Salt Spoon, intended to give you that salty taste without any of the nasty sodium — by zapping your tongue with a bit of electricity. On the other hand, if they could do that for chocolate, I’d be first in line. 

And while the Nike x Hyperice‘s “boatlike booties are basically recovery high-tops festooned with buttons and designed to help your weary tootsies recover from soreness and strain,” they sound pretty awesome.

But there were some truly practical and innovative new products, like the Ozlo Sleepbuds, which stay in, are flush with your ears for side sleepers and have sensors and other tech to help improve the quality of your sleep. Our team also called out the YoctoMat, a smart yoga mat that provides feedback on your poses. And while I wouldn’t necessarily categorize it as health or beauty, in the interest of hydration, the Roam SodaTop is a bottle cap with a CO2 cartridge so you can carbonate your water on the go.

Home is where the heat is

Home tech tends to cover a lot of bases, many of them robotic. No one really likes to vacuum, do laundry or mow the lawn like the AI-driven robot vacuums and lawnmower I mentioned above. 

Read more: Commentary I Really Don’t Want an AI Pot to Turn My Plant Into a Tamagotchi From Hell

Video smart locks seemed to be the focus of home security upgrades this year — we call out Lockly’s Vision Prestige and TCLs Smart Lock D1 Ultra — providing more information than existing models. Notable, also, because someone breaking in doesn’t use the video doorbell.

Cooling and heating were hot as well, especially Samsung’s DHS Mono R32 HT heat pump, which heats outside air, condenses it to water and feeds it to your water tank. As an apartment dweller, I’m partial to the Gradient All-Weather 120V Window Heat Pump, which supplies heat when the weather gets frosty. Cooling and heating go hand-in-hand with utility bills and power backup — I was really intrigued by the BioLite, which provides battery backup for a couple of key appliances, like the refrigerator.  

And Savant’s Smart Budget is designed to save you money by routing power automatically (and manually) to balance output, thereby potentially saving you the expense of rewiring your home to support new, power-sucking devices. Plus, Aqara introduced the Touchscreen Dial V1, a clever and useful dial that can control all your smart devices

And lest we forget the bread-and-butter of small appliances. There are always plenty, though really it’s the oddballs and gimmicks that catch more attention than the mundane. This year, we saw the phone-controlled Panasonic HomeChef 4-in-1 Multi-Oven, the Apecoo tortilla and roti maker (food samples really seemed to attract us), LG’s “Perfect Fancy Microwave for Social Media” with a 27-inch display and much, much more.

The future and the future’s future

The big deals for cars (and other things that tote people) tend to be new technologies and other future-flung concepts. BMW gave us panoramic IDrive with operating system X, a three-tier, ultra wide holographic 3D windshield display that’s actually not too far out from your next BMW, and Hyundai Mobis holographic windshield display one-ups it by constraining the angle of view to the driver. 

Watch this: Aptera Solar EV Gets All the Energy It Needs From the Sun

04:45

We see flying cars at the show every year, but sadly we’re no closer to me getting one. This year’s concept-du-jour was the Xpeng AeroHT, a massive six-wheeler with an electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicle in its trunk. Aptera’s solar EV isn’t a flying car, but it really looks like it should have wings.

The Pebble Flow Electric RV concept — solar chargeable — came back for a visit, as did Sony’s Afeela, and the latter is ready for your money, if not delivery. Honda trotted out prototypes of its 0 series EVs (one step closer to reality than the concept we saw last year), a sports sedan and a van. See the new photos.

But a new motor concept claims to vastly increase the range of EVs — arguably more important than all the shiny paint and glowy dashboards. 

Another concept that appealed to me personally was Nanosys’ next-gen MicroLED, dubbed UV LED, which uses ultraviolet light to energize RGB quantum dots to precise frequencies: Different lIght frequencies are how we perceive color. MicroLED may potentially supplant OLED in big screens and small. It somewhat upstaged Samsung’s MicroLED watch concept with an uber-bright screen. Samsung also brought us a somewhat disturbing-looking stretchable screen for a 3D-ish view and a transparent MicroLED screen. Lenovo’s concept ThinkBook with a rollable screen looks and gesture controls appear sleek.

In a class by itself, the Flint Paper Battery claims to be a new, sustainable power source that may eventually replace lithium ion with cellulose.

Watch this: I Made Things Weird Trying TSA’s New Shoe Scanner Machine

03:53

Finally, I will never forget Bridget Carey smuggling Gummy Worms in her shoe to test TSA’s new scanner — after complaining about the ick factor of shuffling our socks or bare soles across a floor that’s had thousands of other shoes scrape across it. Gummy Worms in your shoe has a pretty high ick factor, too.