On January 7, about 140,000 people will join serpentine queues in Las Vegas, where over 300 of the Fortune 500 will flaunt their wares at the world’s most revered tech show: CES 2025. Here are five things to expect this year (beyond mammoth TVs, flying cars, a John Deere tractor, and the occasional toilet-paper-carrying or ping-pong-playing robot):
A Focus On Customer Experience
You wouldn’t be faulted for thinking that CES is the “Customer Experience Show.” Over the last decade, the event has morphed into providing as much of a platform for brand and customer experiences as it does for tech mainstays such as consumer electronics and cars. Expect that trend to sustain as companies like Walmart, Delta, and John Deere show up in Las Vegas, where Accenture’s CEO will keynote on how technology can power the customer experience (CX).
Everywhere AI
CES, like the city it calls home, is prone to excess. In years past, the show has always doubled down on the tech du jour (such as the ubiquitous Alexa and the metaverse mania). This year, AI will be everywhere, in ways both astonishing and absurd. But one must ignore the hype and seek the diamonds in the rough. For example, CES 2025 will exhibit the world’s first AI-powered hotel, which, by design, sounds outlandish. But once you peel back the “Jetsons” layer, you will see that it’s really about AI driving pricing strategy for revenue maximization and creating personalized mobile app-based guest experiences (which is more evolution, less revolution).
A Quest For What’s Next
As the iPhone enters its golden years, there is a scramble to find the next singular technology that will define how consumers interact with brands. The promise of last year’s darlings such as the rabbit r1 has fizzled out but not without leaving an impression, albeit imperfect, of what the future of consumer digital experiences might look like. Expect wearables, especially glasses (given the buzz around Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses), to make a play for claiming that space.
The Search For Salience
The full spectrum of brand experience includes the process by which prospects search for and discover brands that they then engage with. Generative AI tools like ChatGPT and others are becoming an alternative to the conventional consumer search process for brand discovery, advice, and recommendations. AI providers such as Perplexity, which is rumored to be at CES although not exhibiting, are already testing the ad waters to let brands into that conversation. At this CES, expect many behind-the-scenes dialogues to happen about how brands can enter this new AI-powered consideration stream.
AI-Powered Agents
And now for something distinctly less flamboyant: There will be plenty of consumer-facing genAI agents at the show. But realize that in real life these conversations are fraught with risk and brands are extremely sensitive to such conversations spiraling out of control. Financial services brands, which tend to be quite risk-averse, have found that one of the best ways to deploy genAI to improve CX is by using it to empower customer service agents. At CES 2025, brands such as Goodyear will discuss why these unglamorous implementations may well be among the best applications for CX.
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