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The worlds largest tech showcase does not come without theatrics. Innovations and gadgets like a lollipop that sings to you as you consume it, a laundry-folding robot, and a smart LEGO brick have stolen the spotlight so far at CES 2026. But underscoring this years programming is a strong focus on an industry that relies on a similar theatrical flair: entertainment. More than 25 different panels and events related to the entertainment industry are on the schedule in Las Vegas, focusing on both the traditional studio side of the industry and the digital side driven by content creators. The programming has posed questions about the cinematic capabilities of AI, how advertising has been impacted by AI, and the role the burgeoning creator economy plays in the larger entertainment landscape. Artificial intelligence has long been a sticking point in Hollywood, and many creatives in the entertainment world have been reluctant to embrace the rapidly evolving technology and AI-powered tools. Outrage ensued when Tilly Norwood, an entirely AI-made character, debuted as the first AI actor in the fall. Questions about copyrighted characters, images, and materials still loom large in conversations about AI. But many speakers in CES programming were optimistic about how the technology can be beneficial, and how AI could be used to help artists harness their creativity rather than stifle it or replace it. The tools that we create have unlocked something in us. Its kind of flattened that bar in terms of what storytelling can be because anyone now can be a storyteller, said Dwayne Koh, the head of creative at Leonardo.ai, during a Monday session on AI and creativity. It levels the playing field, but it also makes it easier for people to tell stories that they always want(ed) to tell that they never could have the opportunity to tell. Others were quick to point out that Hollywoods panic over emerging technology is not new. When we launched Photoshop in the 90s, we were also getting pretty angry phone calls from creatives saying that we were destroying craft, said Hannah Elsakr, Adobes vice president of generative AI new business ventures, at a Monday session focused on advertising. Were in early days with AI. Im not advocating for more cats jumping off diving boards in your feeds. I think its about high creativity and so the director, the artist, the actor is going to drive the high quality, Elsakr continued. Think of AI as another tool in the toolkit to make you drive that forward. Many conversations also centered on influencers and the growing legitimacy of internet-native creators and content in the traditional entertainment industry. The efficiency with which these creators work, sometimes because they are using AI-enabled tools, was a prime focus among many speakers. Brad Haugen, the executive vice president of digital strategy and growth at Lionsgate and 3 Arts, said traditional media companies should welcome opportunities to work with creators and embrace their importance. We have, potentially, the next great filmmaker, the next great TV showrunner, the next great digital entrepreneur, he said. Creators are not just there to market products. Theyre not just there to do internet stuff. Theyre actually the next Spike Jonze and the next Sofia Coppola. More entertainment-related programming is scheduled for Wednesday, with many sessions coming out of Varietys Entertainment Summit at the showcase, including panels with leaders from Netflix, Disney, and Warner Bros. Discovery, and actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt. In addition to formal programming, a host of entertainment-related products and services are on display at CES. An array of impressive televisions with advanced features, AI-powered smart headphones, a stringless smart guitar and even a sound chair that has built-in audio were among the innovations aimed at bringing AI and advanced tech to entertainment consumers. Amazon also announced the rollout of Alexa.com this week, bringing its AI assistant to the web with a host of new features, including personalized movie and TV recommendations. Its one of many features designed to enhance at-home viewing, including the previously announced feature that enables Alexa to jump to a specific scene youre searching for with just a simple description. Kaitlyn Huamani, AP technology writer
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Crowds flooded the freshly opened showroom floors on Day 2 of the CES and were met by thousands of robots, AI companions, assistants, health longevity tech, wearables and more.Siemens President and CEO Roland Busch kicked off the day with a keynote detailing how its customers are harnessing artificial intelligence to transform their businesses. He was joined onstage by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to announce an expanded partnership, saying they are launching a new AI-driven industrial revolution to reinvent all aspects of manufacturing, production and supply chain management.Lenovo ended the day with a guest star-rich visual banquet dedicated to spotlighting how its AI platforms can help people personally (wearables), with their businesses (enterprise platforms) and the world around them. To strike home his points, its CEO Yang Yuanqing was joined by tech superstars like Nvidia’s Huang, AMD CEO Lisa Su and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan.The CES is a huge opportunity annually for companies large and small to parade products they plan to put on shelves this year. Here are the highlights from Day 2: Razer leans into AI Gaming tech company Razer is well known for bringing buzz-worthy hardware to CES, like haptic, or tactile, seat cushions and tri-screen laptops.This year, it’s reaching beyond its standard gaming base and demonstrating two AI-powered prototypes an over-ear gaming headset that doubles as a general-purpose assistant, and an AI desk companion that can provide gaming advice and also organize a user’s life.The holographic companion, based on a Razor on-screen AI assistant launched last year (Project Ava), has transitioned off-screen into a small glass tube that sits near your computer. The animated sprite has built-in speakers and a camera so it can see the world around it.Both devices are AI agnostic, so you can use your preferred model. For the demo, the headset Project Motoko ran on OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Project Ava worked off xAI’s Grok. Although still in development, Razer said it expects both to be released commercially later this year. Robots on the tarmac Imagine your plane lands and, when you look out the window you see autonomous robots guiding it to the gate and then unloading the luggage. Oshkosh Corporation is pitching that future for airports big and small.At CES, it debuted a fleet of autonomous airport robots designed to help airlines pull off what it calls “the perfect turn” a tightly timed process that happens after a plane lands, including fueling, cleaning, handling cargo and getting passengers off and back on.For travelers, CEO John Pfeifer says the goal is fewer delays without compromising safety. The technology is also designed to keep those tarmac tasks moving even during severe weather, like winter storms or extreme heat, when conditions are daunting for human crews, Pfeifer said. Testing with major airlines is already underway, and the robots would likely debut at large hub airports like Atlanta or Dallas, with a goal of rolling them out over the next few years. The vacuum that can climb stairs Chinese robovac maker Roborock has introduced a vacuum that literally sprouts chicken-like legs to navigate stairs and clean steps along the way.The newly introduced Saros Rover was a tad slow in its ascent and descent (but it was cleaning each step) during the demo, but Roborock says it will be able to traverse almost any style of stairwell, including spiraled. No release date was given for the Rover, which the company says is still in development. The Body Scan scale gets an upgrade While it may look like a typical scale you’d buy for your bathroom, Withings’ new Body Scan 2 measures much more than weight. Taking off their shoes and socks, people lined up to try out the “smart scale” that in 90 seconds measures 60 different biomarkers, including their heart age, vascular age and their metabolism using the pads of their feet and hands.The $600 scale, which will be available for purchase in the spring, also provides a nerve health score and measures changes in someone’s electrodermal activity, or the skin’s electrical properties due to sweat gland activity. The smart scale and a corresponding app, which costs $10 a month or $100 a year, provide personalized advice and a health trajectory for its users. The French company’s goals are to help people monitor their health and reverse bad habits to promote longevity. Fusion energy research gets a little support from Nvidia, Siemens Commonwealth Fusion Systems, NVIDIA and Siemens announced Tuesday that they are working together to use AI to hasten making nuclear fusion a new source of carbon-free energy.In Massachusetts, Commonwealth Fusion Systems is building a prototype fusion power plant called SPARC, which is about 70% complete. Through the new partnership, it will create a “digital twin,” or online simulation, of the physical machine.CFS CEO Bob Mumgaard said it will ask questions of the simulation to speed up progress on the physical machine and rapidly analyze data, compressing years of manual experimentation into weeks of understanding.SPARC is a prototype for the company’s first planned power plant, called ARC, that is meant to connect to the grid in the early 2030s. The device will use very strong magnets to create conditions for fusion to happen. Mumgaard also said CFS’s first high-temperature superconducting magnet has been installed in SPARC. Shawn Chen and Rio Yamat, Associated Press
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Fashion collaborations are nothing new, but 2025 felt like a year particularly stuffed with branding matchups. Theres a reason why this might be happening. Online platforms have become crowded, [there are] rapidly accelerating trend cycles, [and] its become more challenging than ever for brands to stand out, Cassandra Napoli, a head culture forecaster at WGSN, says. Collaborations continue to be a unique and important tool for marketing and maintaining cultural relevance. The best lead to attention-grabbing virality, as was the case with Nike x Skims first drop, Sandy Liang x Gap, and Willy Chavarria x Adidas. Collaborations have become so important because brands have a need to attract new cohorts of communities and consumers . . . as well as provide a new expression of brand DNA and satisfy many customers need for newness, Gemma D’Auria, global leader of apparel, fashion, and luxury at McKinsey, tells Fast Company. But the truth is fashion has become inundated with collabs, and the net result of so much noise has ultimately had the opposite effect: We’re numb to them. A collaboration alone is no longer enough to excite. To sell, theyll have to resonate with a brands core audience, while also tapping into culture and surprising consumers with something new. What brands could break the internet together? Insiders reveal their blue-sky collaboration ideas for 2026. [Illustration: FC] 1. A Gap collab with a luxury design partner Gap has been on a roll. The American fashion brand not only wooed shoppers this year with the aforementioned Sandy Liang drop, but its denim campaign with Katseye went viral for good reason: an incredible campaign spot that called back to its Y2K days with rising talent and fresh choreo (unlike the controversy-laden American Eagle good jeans mess that dropped weeks before). Multihyphenate host and former Essence editor Blake Newby wants to see Gap bring more designer partners on board. I feel like theres a synergy in the brand ethos of a Loewe girl and a Gap girl, Newby says, adding that Loewe has already proven it’s comfortable with collabs thanks to its drops with On Running, for instance. (Plus, Loewe has its own denim with real brand ID.) Gap has also just been doing such cool creative things. We would of course expect this to be at a higher price point [than normal Gap], but it would be so fabulous to see Gap merge their love for denim and basics with the way Loewe does [a similar thing]. [Illustration: FC] 2. A Chanel partnership that scales smaller masters of the métier People are expecting a lot from Chanel right now. The French luxury house is freshly under the creative leadership of Matthieu Blazy, who made his runway collection debut in October. Hes being celebrated for breathing new life into the brand, and fashion people are curious to see a Chanel collaboration. Technically, the brand edged into collab territory in October: Blazy revealed a white button-up on the runway in partnership with 187-year old Parisian shirtmaker Charvet. But for Blazy, it wasnt a collaboration as much as it was highlighting a house of craftsmanship, as the brand already does in its Métier dArt collection. Itll be interesting to see what other things [Chanel Creative Director] Matthieu Blazy taps into because hes really attuned to craftsmanship, Jalil Johnson, author of the Consider Yourself Cultured Substack says. It would be more interesting for these storied houses to give resources to smaller entities to see what they can produce on a bigger scale, like if Chanel worked with Gee’s Bend quiltmakers, referring to the intergenerational group of women in a rural Alabama town crafting brightly hued and intricate patterned textiles. [Illustration: FC] 3. A pairing that dares to expand Herms sportswear Adjacent to Chanel, strategist and collaboration expert Bimma Williams wants to see a storied house work with an unexpected brand. For Williams, the dream would be to see Herms and its recently appointed Mens Creative Director Grace Wales Bonner do a collaboration with Adidas. (Believe it or not, Herms already offers an HermsFit line, and Wales Bonner and Adidas have already done drops.) Adding Herms to that mix, he thinks, would be a masterclass in craft and restraint, merging heritage, sport, and contemporary cultural intelligence. Perhaps what people are craving is for an uber high fashion house to finally cave and break its mold to collaborate with another brand that seems out of the high-end purview. A spin on the Birkin would inject some much-needed energy into the highly coveted bag for Amy Odell, a New York Times bestselling author and writer of Back Row on Substack. I think the Birkin is getting stale, and theyve got to mix it up, Odell, who wrote biographies on Anna Wintour and Gwyneth Paltrow, tells Fast Company. Herms wont sell the Birkin to Nike . . . but what if you had a Birkin you could take to the gym? I feel like everyone would talk about that. Or, they could collaborate with Tiffany & Co.opulence is coming backand do a fully glittery, diamond bag. The economy is recovering in a biforcated K-shape, meaning that while inflation and a tight job market has led to less spending among lower-income consumers, America’s wealthiest shoppers are still buying, so there could still be a market for what would surely be an exorbitantly priced luxury good. Elsa Peretti jewelry on display in New York, circa 1970. [Photo: PL Gould/Images/Getty Images] 4. A collaboration that revives ’70s era Elsa Peretti x Halston The Italian jewelry designer and fashion model Elsa Peretti has had a legendary collaboration with Tiffany & Co. since 1974. Peretti, who passed away in 2021, is behind the American jewelers popular bone cuffs and other sculptural pieces. But what some may not know is that Peretti also worked with Halston to design not only a fragrance bottle, but jewelry and accessories, too. A re-edition of this duos work would be a dream come true for The Millenial Decorators Julia Rabinowitsch, who recently collaborated on a shoe collection with Reformation. Id love to see a revival of the pieces Peretti did, especially as I collect vintage Elsa for Halston pieces, and they are becoming increasingly rare, she adds. [Illustration: FC] 5. A duo that offers a new take on classic Missoni patterns Across the board, experts want one thing in a collaboration: for it to be unexpected. For stylist and founder of experiential shopping platform Sweet Like Jam, Mecca James-Williams, designer-led collaborations with bigger luxury houses would catch her eye. Imagine Christopher John Rogers, known for his unique technicolor touch and bold silhouettes, with Missoni, she says. James-Williams isnt the only one interested in merging Missonis signature zigzags and geometric patterns. British TV exec June Sarpong would be interested in the brand working with British artist Yinka Ilori, known for his savvy use of bright colors, evident in his collabs with The North Face and Bloomingdales. Across both fashion insiders, theres a real interest in seeing how the brand would keep the foundations of its signature while playing with a more flexible element, namely color. Whatever brands decide to do in 2026, its important that their collaborations form with intention and a real understanding that to land well, they have to make us wish we thought of the pairing first.
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