Attendees stroll previous a CES signal throughout CES 2026 in Las Vegas, Tuesday. Reuters-Yonhap
LAS VEGAS — The CES 2026 tech truthful has raised crucial alarm bells for Korea’s tech corporations, signaling that long-term progress can not rely merely on superficial hype over synthetic intelligence (AI) and software program on this quickly evolving period of bodily AI.
As anticipated, AI took heart stage at this 12 months’s tech exhibition and all of the Korean manufacturing giants — from IT to carmakers — went all out to showcase their up to date AI visions converged with {hardware}.
This was inevitable, because the tech paradigm shift doesn’t permit any corporations to outlive with out the adoption of concrete AI enterprise methods.
Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and Hyundai Motor stay arguably the three most influential tech gamers for the annual tech truthful, pushed largely by their top-notch technological prowess in {hardware}.
Nevertheless, CES 2026 clearly confirmed that the previous days when the Korean tech corporations might guarantee continued progress solely with hardware-centric enterprise fashions are gone.
Guests to the present might simply spot Amazon’s self-driving robotaxi Zoox working on streets close to the Las Vegas Conference Middle (LVCC) and main lodges in the course of the four-day exhibition which ended on Friday.
The fully self-driving robotaxi was busy carrying passengers from the present’s venue to close by lodges, and vice versa.
Amazon’s Zoox robotaxi drives on a road in Las Vegas, Thursday. Yonhap
Hyundai Motor Group additionally displayed its plan to provoke its self-driving service no later than this 12 months, however the Korean carmaker continues to be thought of a latecomer by way of the worldwide race for autonomous driving.
The carmaker garnered large consideration at CES for its show of a number of AI-powered robots, such because the Atlas humanoid robotic, however by way of the self-driving imaginative and prescient, it nonetheless has an extended option to go in contrast with market leaders similar to Tesla or Waymo.
Nvidia’s attention-grabbing announcement of its Alpamayo open AI platform for self-driving vehicles additionally raises considerations amongst Korean carmakers that they might develop into depending on the U.S. AI chipmaker for autonomous driving software program.
Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics additionally proved their unmatched {hardware} energy throughout this 12 months’s exhibition, specializing in selling their very own AI methods.
Nevertheless, the long-established IT giants are nonetheless not thought to be sturdy gamers in software program and the AI-driven international tech paradigm shift.
A sales space of TCL, a Chinese language electronics agency, is seen on the Las Vegas Conference Middle throughout this 12 months’s CES tech truthful, Tuesday. Yonhap
The speedy rise of Chinese language rivals additionally provides extra challenges to the Korean corporations, as numerous Chinese language gamers have expanded their presence on the world’s largest IT truthful annually.
TCL, a Chinese language electronics maker, arrange the most important exhibition corridor in LVCC, displaying a number of AI-powered sensible product portfolios. Geely additionally unveiled its Geely Afari Good Driving (G-ASD) clever driving system for the primary time at CES 2026, aiming to speed up its autonomous driving capabilities.
Chinese language gamers additionally dominated Eureka Park, a startup-dedicated exhibition space of CES. The sales space of Roborock, an clever robotic vacuum cleaner maker, stood on the very heart of the exhibition corridor, attracting large consideration from guests by showcasing a number of clever cleaners powered by AI.
“Korean corporations nonetheless have technological upsides, however the established order can not persist except they map out a clearer AI and software program imaginative and prescient to remain forward with their Chinese language rivals,” an business official mentioned.
