AI Goes Mainstream at CES.

The world’s largest consumer technology show, Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2020 in Las Vegas, drew more than 4500 exhibitors including 1200+ startups from 160 countries and 200,000+ visitors (Source). This is one of those overwhelming technology events that was sprawling and befuddling, nevertheless equally exciting and inspiring. As we reorient to the new year with new expectations, it was a great time @ CES meeting our customers, experiencing new products and meandering the casino gaming floors interlaced with tech panels & demo rooms.

My five takeaways from the event :

1.      Consumer tech is increasingly consumed by the big tech 5G, Internet of Things, and Artificial Intelligence.

2.      AI has taken the preeminent technology position across the gadgets & appliances, from refrigerators to artificial humans.

3.      Privacy is hot, but so is the enterprises’ absolute forwardness to consume the big ‘personal’ data.

4.      Smart Homes are not just connected, but finally are smart. Thanks to Artificial Intelligence.

5.      AI is Augmented Intelligence. Not replacing, but augmenting humans to be productive and efficient.

CES 2020 essentially brought Artificial Intelligence to the mainstream. It is the predominant technology, pretty much across every industry from sports to agriculture, from cars to construction equipment, from health to homes, from finance to shipping. Enterprises are using AI to predict when to restock your refrigerator to how to maneuver a wheelchair autonomously. As I strolled through the expo floor, I am reinforced on my premise that AI in 2020 will become an integral part of our society, business, and personal lives.

Marc Cuban

One of the highlights for me was to hear Marc Cuban at the headliner conversation talk. Marc pretty much summed it up for me on AI with two statements.

“This (AI) is the new space mission. We really, really, really, really need to invest in it. If we don’t, it could be cataclysmic.”

“In terms of where I am investing – everything around AI. Period. End of story”

Source: Variety @ CES

AI in our everyday life.

The highlights from CES have shown an exciting future of technology. The conversations and actions specifically on Artificial Intelligence are profound. Here are a few examples of how AI is changing how we do businesses, and how this technology is driving newer experiences.

Manufacturing / Construction / Agriculture / Industrial:

Artificial intelligence is becoming the new normal among these traditional companies. IoT sensory fabric combined with ML technologies is clearly becoming the driving force of Industry 4.0. AI is ubiquitous across an expansive set of use cases around process automation, visual inspection, object recognition, conversational bots, speech recognition, voice-activated digital assistants leveraging Alexa, Google Assistant, and many more.

Bosch created a theme around connected mobility and connected living with the slogan “Beneficial AI. Building Trust together”. An impressive array of products including Virtual Visor, driverless shuttle, a wide range of smart home appliances and my favorite, an autonomous floating audio sensor that analyzes spaceship machine noise data for predicting potential technical problems, were on display.

John Deere had a gigantic R4038 self-propelled sprayer equipped with Computer Vision and other AI technologies to differentiate healthy crops from weeds, and to precisely apply herbicides only to the weeds saving both costs and improving planet sustainability.

Doosan unveiled a comprehensive autonomous construction solution fully loaded with drones, AR, automated excavators, robotics, etc.

Brunswick had a voice-enabled conversational AI on its boats turning the novice captain into a pro with a depth of nautical knowledge base.

Fanuc booth had a computer vision-based sorting robotic arm that I had a chance to compete with. It was a 1-1 tie on time it takes to sort the material. But I am sure the robot will beat me hands down when sorting 24 hours a day.

Transportation & Mobility

5G, IoT and AI technologies were omnipresent in the transportation & vehicle technology section. The combination of these technologies showcased a remarkable transformation across autonomous commercial & passenger vehicles, shared mobility, autonomous parcel delivery, connectivity, etc. CES 2020, in principal, kicked off the decade of the Future of the City bringing security, sustainability, and livability as core enablers.

PACCAR had an extensive outdoor exhibit that displayed Level 4 autonomous truck, Kenworth T680. T680 was developed in Silicon Valley with an array of sensors including cameras, LiDAR, Radar, etc., to sense the environment and ML for object detection and navigation. T680 generates 1TB+ data per hour and had centimeter accuracy navigation capability.

When Sony unveiled the driverless Sedan, Vision-S, we know that that a car can now essentially be categorized as an electronic gadget. Not that I am limiting the technology power of Sony, vision-S showed off the electronic company’s deep expertise in a range of mobility technologies. The deeply personalized vehicle’s ability to bring many of Sony’s entertainment technologies including music, movies, and games was just excellent.

LG’s connected self-driving car powered by WebOS is also personalized, entertaining and absolutely a wonder to experience. At this CES, LG also announced a JV with Luxsoft to advance the deployment of the production-ready digital cockpit, in-vehicle infotainment, rear-seat entertainment (RSE) and ride-hailing systems based on webOS Auto platform and make it available for automakers, fleet operators, and shared mobility services providers. (Source).

Toyota announced the creation of a 175-acre Woven City that is fully connected and powered by hydrogen fuel cells. Conceived as a “living laboratory,” the city will house labs to test and develop technologies such as autonomy, robotics, personal mobility and artificial intelligence in a real-world environment.

Hyundai and Uber came together to unveil air ride-sharing partnership with Uber Air taxis. AI was in full display in the vehicle including for route planning and ability to create an intelligent platoon formation. Bell had one of the most active exhibits with multiple drones showcasing its Electric Air Taxi capabilities. Bell also showed AerOS, an AI-enabled fleet management system to track and monitor vehicle health.

CES carried the future of mobility into the realm of electric, personalized and smart. AI & IoT were at the core. Apart from the large trucks, drones, passenger cars, and delivery vehicles, there were some really cool mobility solutions from the likes of Panasonic, Segway, etc. Especially Panasonic WHILL autonomous wheelchair was extraordinary. Built with LiDAR, ultrasound transducers and cameras, Whill, has autonomous mobility and assisted robotic technology. Segway showed its S-Pod with an amazingly close resemblance to WALL-E hoverchair.

And finally, the gas stations are not too far from taking AI to its consumers. Exxon Mobil showcased its connected gas station and that is also voice enhanced. With Alexa, you could make fuel choices and pay for gas.

Smart Homes

The AI component in the home devices is what is bringing AI into our everyday lives and our living rooms. Homes are becoming increasingly intelligent, connected and efficient. The many gadgets and appliances at CES are enabled with technologies around speech recognition, NLP, computer vision, tinyML, virtual agents and more. This year I saw an exquisite array of home devices including security, appliances, entertainment, gardening, blinds, lighting, and more, all with some component of AI. From underwear to toilets, from mirrors to pillows, everything is connected. The smart home got really really smart.

One of the most exciting products I saw at CES was Ballie. Samsung’s Ballie is many things; moving Alexa, the cool Star Wars droid, a helpful robot and more. Ballie is proactive instead of waiting for the owner to initiate the commands. It can communicate with devices, understand the owner’s mood, make real-time decisions. If Ballie is the future, it’s the future I like ??.

GE appliances had a Smart Oven that has built-in computer vision to check on available ingredients to suggest recipes and also to check the food readiness in the oven. The oven can automatically lower or raise the temperature. GE also had an impressive Zero-Distance "farm to table" concept with counter-grown vegetables and fruits all controlled by AI with the ability to improve water efficiency, maximize energy usage and reduce food wastage.

Source: GE Appliances

Many of the TVs and displays from the likes of Samsung, LG, Sony also had an ML component to analyze and identify the characteristics of individual pixels. It then restores different elements of the image to create an exquisite 8K picture, regardless of the content source. (Source).

Lululab showed its smart mirror, Lumine, for skincare. The product uses computer vision / deep learning on multiple variables such as –wrinkles, pores, pigment, etc., –and then recommends the personalized right products for the skin type.

Travel / Tourism

Delta is the first of the top major airlines to ever have a booth at CES. Air travel has become a commodity, but the industry is now actively leveraging AI-enabled consumer technology to differentiate and personalize. From customer experience to aircraft health monitoring, Delta showed off how ML can make a significant impact. At the Delta booth, I interacted with the Delta TechOps teams that showcased how ML is helping predict on-time arrivals, personalize the customer experience and maintain aircraft health.

Summing up, CES 2020 has propelled Artificial Intelligence into the mainstream. AI is increasingly appearing in almost every consumer product, and that the technology is no longer a vision of the future, but the reality of today. As we embark into the decade of the 2020s, I believe that AI is here to stay and will become increasingly integrated into our daily lives.