CES is always a bit of a spectacle. You go expecting the next big thing in TVs or phones, and you always leave with a few things that make you scratch your head. But CES 2026? It felt like someone cranked the weird dial to eleven.
I was scrolling through the coverage, and the announcements weren’t just about faster processors or thinner bezels. They were about… well, an AI-powered panda you can keep as a digital pet, for starters. And a holographic anime girl you can put on your desk. It’s a lot.
Let’s talk about the AI panda. It’s not a robot. It’s a virtual companion that lives on a screen, maybe your smart mirror or a dedicated tablet. It reacts to your voice, learns your schedule, and apparently needs to be fed digital bamboo. The pitch is companionship without the mess. It’s cute, I guess? But it also feels like we’re outsourcing emotional connection to a very expensive Tamagotchi.
Then there’s the hologram. Not the sci-fi, floating-in-mid-air kind (we’re not there yet), but a sleek, cylindrical device that projects a 3D anime character. She can tell you the weather, read your notifications, and just… exist. The marketing calls it a ‘desk companion for the digital age.’ I call it a very specific answer to a question I’m not sure anyone was asking.
So, what’s going on here?
I think we’re seeing a shift. The foundational tech—AI, displays, sensors—has gotten so good and so cheap that companies are now asking, “What can we build?” instead of “What should we build?” The result is a wave of products that feel more like tech demos than solutions to real problems.
It’s not all strange, though. Buried in the weirdness are some genuinely interesting ideas. The tech that makes the panda seem alive or the hologram look crisp could lead to better virtual assistants, more immersive remote work setups, or new forms of digital art. The path to practical innovation is often paved with bizarre experiments.
My takeaway from CES 2026 isn’t that the future is silly. It’s that the future is unfiltered. We’re in a phase of pure, unadulterated experimentation. Some of it will fade into obscurity (remember the smart fork?). But some of it might just define how we interact with technology a decade from now.
For now, I’m not rushing to pre-order a holographic desk friend. But I am watching closely. Because sometimes, the weirdest ideas today become the normal ones tomorrow. And honestly, after the straight-laced tech of the past few years, a little weirdness is kind of refreshing.
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