Hit/miss? AI gadgets from CES 2025 that caught our eye

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been the hottest buzzword for the past two years. You may try to avoid spoilers of the latest episode of Squid Game 2 or Slow Horses, but you can’t escape AI. At CES 2025, companies integrated AI in many different ways. Some AI innovations can be labelled utterly useless, such as a touchscreen-equipped spice dispenser and an AI-powered air fryer. But there are some genuinely helpful uses of AI, and here we round up some of the AI-powered gadgets showcased on the CES show floor that impressed us (or didn't).

Also read: CES 2025: What lies ahead in tech this year

Hitting the right spot

Realbotix Aria Robot

The Aria Robot from Realbotix is a humanoid robot that’s possibly the closest we have to a truly human-like robot. It’s designed for “companionship and intimacy,” which is possible thanks to advancements in generative artificial intelligence. Aria has 17 motors from the neck up for human-like mouth and eye movements. The robot comes in three versions: the bust (including the head and neck), which costs $10,0000; a modular version, which costs $150,000; and a full-standing model with a rolling base, which costs $175,000.

Halliday smart glasses

The Halliday smart glasses, unveiled at CES, differ from existing smart glasses in the market, such as the Ray-Ban Meta, in a few key ways. Firstly, the display is not built into the lens but integrated into the fame with a field-of-view similar to a 3.5-inch screen. It offers AI real-time translations in more than 40 languages, teleprompter text, notifications, and turn-by-turn navigation. To activate the display, you must look up (into the right lens). The display showcases green graphics, such as icons, text, and words. The Digi Window display can be used for many features and functions, including many AI-enabled ones. It offers AI real-time translations (in more than 40 languages), teleprompter text, notifications, and, surprisingly, turn-by-turn navigation.

Nvidia tiny computer

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang unveiled Project Digits, an AI supercomputer that costs $3,000 and comes with Nvidia’s GB10 Grace Blackwell Superchi. It also has an in-built GPU (with Nvidia’s Blackwell architecture), up to 4TB of NVMe SSD storage, and 128GB of unified memory. It’s meant more for AI researchers, data scientists, and students than regular users.

Natura Umana HumanPods

These earbuds give the wearer access to a range of ‘AI People’—LLM-based AI agents that come with unique personalities/voices. Consumers can choose between any number of LLMs, including ChatGPT and Claude. The earbuds run on what the company calls NatureOS, and are open-ear buds, meant for having conversations more than listening.

Roborock Saros Z70

The biggest and most different robot vacuum cleaner comes from a company called Roborock. The Roborock Saros Z70 may seem like your regular robot vacuum cleaner, but it has a robotic arm. While most robot vacuum cleaners use AI to identify objects that lie on the floor such as shoes, socks, and pillows and avoid them, Roborock takes this to the next level. The Roborock Saroz Z70 uses the same AI-powered camera and deploys the claw-like arm to remove them, as long as they are under 300 grams.

Mudra Link

This is the first neural wristband for Android, MacOS, and Windows devices. The neural wristband packs several proprietary sensors that work in tandem with AI algorithms, allowing users to interact with their devices hands-free. Like the Apple Vision Pro, users interact with their devices using wrist movements and hand gestures. Essentially, they can turn their hand into a computer mouse or a remote control.

Displace TV

Displace TV came out with a prototype of a 55-inch TV stuck to the wall in 2023 and is back with a refined design, multiple sizes, and a sprinkle of AI. The Pro versions (27-inch and 55-inch) come with a suction cup and a fully detachable speaker system that extends the battery life. The TV runs a proprietary operating system called Displace OS, which leverages AI to simplify life, from streaming and productivity features like sending emails, all with voice commands.

Missing the point

Dreo ChefMaker 2

In what world would you need an AI-powered air fryer? The ChefMaker 2 extracts recipes from cookbooks (thanks to its page-scanning feature) and calculates cooking times and temperatures. It also has a mobile app with 100 pre-programmed “recipes” that the user has to assemble and put together manually. Who asked for this product?

Spicerr

Even more outlandish is Spicerr, an automated dispenser with a touchscreen that can hold six interchangeable spice capsules. Spicerr will dispense a teaspoon of cardamom, cinnamon, or something similar when navigating through the touchscreen. It doesn’t grind; it only dispenses. The sealed capsules must be replaced, as they can’t be refilled. We can’t see this making life any easier than using a normal spice rack.

Razer’s Project Ava

This is a controversial product. It’s the “ultimate AI gaming copilot” from the house of Razer and is designed to train you and help you improve at video games. Once you grant it permission, it’ll take pictures of your screen (literally thousands of them) and get back by telling you how to play a game. In the best-case scenario, this happens in real-time as you continue to play, but at CES, this was happening with a lag. You can learn a game from the walkthroughs provided by the developer or merely by practice—which is half the fun of playing games. This could just be an AI that was fed game guides and spits it back out in real-time. The point is, no self-respecting gamer would use this.

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