By Ron Schmelzer
Publication Date: 2026-01-10 16:06:00
An Agibot humanoid robot wears a cowboy hat as it walks past visitors during the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada, January 6, 2026, at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)
AFP via Getty Images
One of the bigger stories of CES 2026 this year is “Physical AI” and how it is changing the AI landscape. Physical AI is industry shorthand for AI that not only generates content, but can also sense, think about, and act on the real world through machines such as robots, vehicles, industrial equipment, and always-on consumer devices.
You can think of physical AI as the fusion of today’s generative AI and other base models with sensors, actuators and control systems, all operating under safety constraints and with some understanding of how the real world works. If the generative AI boom was about teaching machines to talk, physical AI is about teaching machines to talk.
When software AI…
