Value overcomes volume as AI and design take center stage at CES 2017

CES 2017 is set to be the biggest on record, with more exhibitors, more products, and more guests than at any point in its 50-year history. Despite these material peaks, there’s one weak but strengthening signal that for me cuts above all else: decreasing focus on new technology per se, and increasing focus on how it can bring more value — for people, organizations, and the whole planet. Artificial Intelligence and Design Thinking are big drivers in all this, and in the following I’ll take a dip into both the basics and benefits of this year’s wares on display.

I — The Basics

At CES 2017, it was hard to find anything not labeled ‘smart’, ‘intelligent’ or ‘learning’. Overall, we’ve certainly reached an AI breaking point, with Artificial intelligence being embedded into every product and service imaginable. While just a year ago AI seemed futuristic, people now expect it, and expect it to work straight out of the box. This is because of what I call the 4C’s: Computing, Connectivity, Cognition and Convergence, have matured and aligned to deliver everyday AI usefulness. Let’s take a quick look at each one.

Computing

Nvidia was the #1 darling of the stock market last year, with its Graphics Processing Units (GPU’s) being key to the kind of oomph needed to run parallel machine learning algorithms for e.g. computer vision, speech interfaces, as well as deep analytics, learning and prediction. At CES the company showed off some things it’s now building on top of its core competencies.

Nvidia out-Googled Google as it brought to the show the Shield, a smart media box with Google Assistant, along with Nvidia Spots for multi-room use. The company will also take on the streaming game market with its GeForce NOW service that turns less potent machines into powerful gaming monsters, as long as there’s bandwidth available. Lastly, the AI-juggernaut announced partnership with Audi for AI-powered cars. Nvidia’s efforts reinforced the immediate-term shift from autonomous to assisted driving; as fully autonomous vehicles face regulatory hurdles for some time to come, intelligent driving aids and smart monitoring and pampering of drivers and passengers are gaining explosive interest.

Connectivity

For the world to be intelligent, big chunks of data need to flow freely. Qualcomm touted the coming 5G networks as delivering neat improvement in data stream speeds, up to speeds of 1GB in 3 seconds, or a full 4K movie in 18 seconds. Also, with ever improving computing and connectivity components, ever smaller things are getting connected. An example at the show was Motiv’s fitness tracker and sleep monitor ring, that can handle anything a bracelet can.

Some AI wonks have been concerned about the job losses AI might bring. But as we’re looking towards yet another major connectivity paradigm shift, one can argue that there’s still decades of work ahead before we get to an automatically running society. Alongside talking up their Snapdragon chips that are key components in ever faster connectivity, Qualcomm’s chief Steve Mollenkopf projected 5G networks as offering a 3.5 trillion opportunity to businesses, and a 22 million jobs opportunity to the workforce.

Cognition

The leading cognitive platforms such as IBM’s Watson, Apple’s Siri, Google Assistant, Samsung’s ViV and Amazon’s Alexa are going to be giant winners of the artificial intelligence age, as countless smart applications are going to be built on top of them. The war on this front is therefore on for real, but one player is already pulling ahead of the pack: Amazon.

Believe it or not, Amazon wasn’t even present at CES in any form, but is still one of the undeniable winners of the show. Over 7,000 companies have already implemented its AI platforms in their devices, and Alexa seemed to be powering everything at CES, from fridges to lights to cars. Samsung, interestingly, was not yet showing off any fruits from its recent ViV acquisition, and so we’ll need to wait for the Galaxy S8 showcase until MWC in Barcelona next month. At CES the Korean giant was still leaning on Alexa with its smart fridges, for example.

Convergence

The final basic element in a truly intelligent world is convergence and integration into platforms like Apple’s Homekit and Samsung’s ARTIK IoT ecosystem. Samsung vowed to get all its devices connected and talking to each other by 2020. Also independent interoperability enablers and players, like Stringify and Eliot, were visibly on display and promising smooth operation for the future. While carmakers were largely partnering up with big tech, the odd one out was Toyota, bringing to the show its own AI Yui.

We saw devices tackling multiple tasks and working better together, while still being easy to use thanks to situational awareness and better design. More touchscreens, speakers and microphones and less buttons, knobs and switches, together with more of the action taking place in the cloud means more flexibility. In high-involvement and high-risk environments such as cars you’ll still see tighter commitment to specific providers and solutions, but expect your TV’s, smart home devices and wearables to be more flexible in navigating the world for you.

II — The Benefits

Being a business and service designer at heart, I’m always ultimately more interested in human value delivered than the technological underpinnings. As I also mentioned in my opening, this year for me marked a shift from volume towards value of technology. To complement the 4C’s above, here’s a look at some of the intelligent products and devices at CES through the lenses of what value they bring to people and businesses.

Ease & Automation

Making things more accessible, smoother and faster is a key promise of AI, and there was lots of action in this area. In the robotics field, the Heasy hospitality robot is aimed at helping people find things and get around malls, resorts and transportation hubs. It’s also promising to be easy for businesses to implement as the first ‘robot as a service’ of its kind. Beijing Eywaybot’s MoRo, with its six-joint arms with three fingers on each end, will run errands and pick things up for you, while being sensitive to the things it grabs and the force needed, so as not to break or drop stuff.

Intelligent and interesting things to have around the house were Genican and Hello Egg. Genican scans things you throw to trash to build you a shopping list, while RnD64’s AI-powered Hello Egg device and its complement app promise to help millennials eat healthier. The latter device comes complete with aids to meal planning, ingredient purchase and delivery, as well as cooking and serving. LG contributed to the cooking world with a fridge can monitor its internal conditions, and change temperature or even sterilize itself to enhance foods’ shelf life.

Conservation & Protection

Better intelligence will mean less wasted resources and more insights into how you use them. Starck-designed Netatmo thermostats promised to reduce your energy use tens of percentages by controlling your radiators, and letting you step in via knobs, speech or a mobile app. For conserving and recharging yourself, the Zeeq pillow, the Sleep Number 360 bed, and Dozer the Sleep Sheep, are all suitable personal sleeping aid systems that don’t only track your sleeping behavior, but respond with sounds, movements, and other types of interventions. In this way, they help you spend those precious night hours better.

While safety and security has been a concern of late, AI can indeed help boost it. Intelligent personal safety solutions were available at CES for homes, adults, kids, pets, and the elderly. ActiveProtective showed off its smart belt that recognizes its wearer falling, and triggers a safety cushion around their tender parts. On the cybersecurity side of things from private, wearable clouds to better safety measures were present. Comcast’s Gateway promises to be a smart hub for your home, but also act as a first line of defense against malice attempts towards your family.

Empathy & Personalization

CES showed that in 2017, device makers will start getting traction with robots and AI interfaces that feel human and approachable to the mainstream. It’s taken a lot of work, but we now know that the answer to first contact is not human-likeness, which can be very creepy coming from a robot. Instead, it’s features, elements, and gestures that people feel friendly and warm, even if they’re distinctly machine-like. Kuri is a great example of an adorable robot that invites interaction, despite being clearly inorganic. Even further from human form, but still on the path to human acceptance were Emotech’s Olly and Panasonic’s Egg robots.

And with intelligence there’s naturally personalization, or even individualization to the unique characteristics of each user. Mattel’s Aristotle is an example of personalization for a highly demanding audience; it’s a kids’ smart night lamp, optimized to take commands from often inarticulate but very adamant toddlers. On the other end of high-end, Carnival’s Ocean Medallion is vowing to personalize Caribbean cruises, not only suggesting things, but also anticipating your moves and preparing things for you ahead of time, from your favorite drinks at the bar to the AC in your room.

Connection & Expression

As human beings, we feel the need to stay connected and belong, and express our own unique personalities to others. AI brings power to these areas too, as we saw with Hover Camera Passport, a tiny flying camera powered by AI. It can follow you around and take your selfies to new heights, quite literally. Also on the upper end of self-actualization, artificial intelligence is helping usher in a smarter world. D-Vine for wine aficionados is an AI powered ‘Keurig for Wines’ that learns your preferences, recommends new wines and makes even ordering easy and delivery seamless.

In the workplace, Klaxoon Loupe wants to foster collaboration and getting everyone involved, engaged and invested in learning, creativity and decision-making on the job. Going the last mile and connecting businesses to their customers and the things they love, we had Mercedes Benz was showing off their Vision Van. It acts as a mothership to e.g. delivery drones, and thus already has Amazon’s attention. Pair this car with the ever-improving ability to predict people’s needs and you’ll soon have near instantaneous delivery in city zones.

Education & Empowerment

Kids, learners and people with disabilities are being increasingly in focus for AI companies and so it was also at CES. Lego has already enabled learning with programming and robotics for years with its Mindstorms product line. This year it brought to the floor Lego Boost, which lowers the barrier for creating your own robots and smart devices for everyone. For the youngest kids, the Octopus smart watch by JOY promises to become the ‘training wheels for good habits’, and teach kids the value of time and how to use it wisely.

For the elderly, we had robots like iPal and Yumii Cutii, which focus on empowering the elderly to stay at home instead of having to move to care facilities. They also foster communication with loved ones, and encourage and enable participation in coordinated activities such as museum tours. To lend some less fortunate senior people a hand, the Neofects Rapael smart glove provides stroke patients challenges and feedback, so they can relearn motor coordination.

Challenge & Entertainment

Artificial Intelligence and smart systems will enable completely new forms of inspiring and enchanting the masses. Intel & Oakley showcased and were awarded for Radar Pace, a pair of sports glasses faithful to the traditional Oakley style, but hi-tech inside. The glasses can coach trainers in real time, tailor programs dynamically, and even answer the wearer’s questions. On the other front, Halo Sport’s new ‘neuropriming’ methods and devices are geared to learn individual traits and improve performance, and are already showing results among athletes and military.

On the gaming and entertaining front, monster gaming rigs, such as Razer’s insane laptop prototype with three(!) fold-out screens were the media’s as well as the gamers’ favorites. But we saw also many devices and systems, that respond to the player’s gaze or movements, helping navigate virtual worlds while leaving the hands free. One of these was the ood but innovative and also awarded 3D rudder. In the more experimental gaming technologies, ITRI showcased its next gen vision systems for companion bots with Vision, a concept robot that can play chess with you, but also pour you coffee.

Conclusion

Sure, it’s CES, and you’ll still see big budget things verging on the ridiculous, like Withing’s and L’Oreal’s smart hair brush, YESITIS’ connected vinyl record, or the blood-scented Resident Evil 7 candle to accompany gaming sessions. But overall, I felt there was a slightly increased focus on user value compared to previous years. And who knows, maybe I’m wrong and smart brushes, smart vinyls and gaming candles are going to be all the rage come Christmas 2017.

Until then I’ll apparently keep talking to Alexa everywhere.