CES 2026 first look: Samsung frames AI as an everyday utility, not a feature

At CES 2026, Samsung isn’t pitching AI as a feature or a buzzword. It’s positioning AI as a constant presence, one that lives across your screens, appliances, wearables, and services. At its annual First Look event in Las Vegas, the company unveiled its vision of “Your Companion to AI Living”, a tightly connected ecosystem designed to move AI from novelty to necessity.

TM Roh, CEO and Head of Samsung’s Device eXperience (DX) Division, set the tone early. Samsung’s advantage, he argued, isn’t just smarter devices—but scale. With one of the world’s largest connected ecosystems, Samsung believes it can deliver AI that feels personal, contextual, and genuinely useful across daily life.

The TV Is No Longer Just a Screen

Samsung’s displays are now being framed as entertainment companions, not passive panels. Leading the lineup is the headline-grabbing 130-inch Micro RGB TV—a statement product that pushes scale, brightness, and colour accuracy into rarefied territory. Powered by individually controlled microscopic RGB LEDs and the new Micro RGB AI Engine Pro, it’s designed to deliver Samsung’s most precise colour reproduction yet, wrapped in a minimalist “Timeless Frame” design.

But the bigger story is software. Enter Vision AI Companion (VAC)—Samsung’s AI layer that sits across its 2026 TV portfolio, from Micro LED to UHD. VAC doesn’t just enhance picture and sound; it actively assists. Ask what to watch, what to cook, or even what music fits the mood, and the TV responds contextually. Watching football? AI Soccer Mode Pro tunes picture and sound to stadium levels, while AI Sound Controller Pro lets you dial crowd noise up or commentary down—by voice.

VAC also bridges lifestyle use cases. Spot a dish in a show? Ask for the recipe. That recipe can then be sent to Samsung kitchen appliances or even to The Movingstyle, a newly introduced mobile display designed to move effortlessly around the home.

Samsung also doubled down on audio leadership. With 11 years at the top of the soundbar market, it introduced two new Wi-Fi speakers—the Music Studio 5 and 7—designed by Erwan Bouroullec. The idea: modular sound that looks as good as it sounds.

The 2026 TV lineup also becomes Samsung’s most future-proof yet, with HDR10+ ADVANCED, the debut of Eclipsa Audio spatial sound, and a promise of seven years of Tizen OS upgrades, a rarity in the TV world.

Appliances That Think Ahead

In the home, Samsung wants appliances to act less like machines and more like guides. With SmartThings now crossing 430 million users, Samsung is leaning hard into scale-driven intelligence.

At the centre is the Family Hub refrigerator, now upgraded with AI Vision powered by Google Gemini. The fridge can more accurately recognise, track, and manage food—making meal planning less guesswork, more automation. Features like “What’s for Today?”, Video to Recipe, and the new FoodNote weekly report turn the fridge into a food management system rather than cold storage.

Laundry and garment care also get smarter. The Bespoke AI Laundry Combo eliminates load transfers entirely, while the AI AirDresser tackles wrinkles with automated air and steam cycles—built for rushed mornings.

Then there’s cleaning. The Bespoke AI Jet Bot Steam Ultra, powered by a Qualcomm Dragonwing processor, can identify liquids (even transparent ones), steam-clean intelligently, and double as a home monitoring device when you’re away. With conversational Bixby integration, even robot vacuums are now part of Samsung’s AI dialogue.

A notable addition: a partnership with Hartford Steam Boiler (HSB) that could translate smart appliances into lower insurance premiums—one of the more tangible examples of AI delivering real-world savings.

From Reactive Health to Proactive Care

Samsung closed by outlining its Care Companion vision—where health monitoring becomes preventive rather than reactive. By combining phones, wearables, appliances, and AI, Samsung aims to offer personalised coaching for sleep, fitness, nutrition, and long-term wellness.

The roadmap includes early detection of chronic risks, integration with healthcare providers via the Xealth platform, and expanded research into dementia detection, using subtle changes in mobility and behavior captured by wearables.

All of this, Samsung emphasised, rests on Knox and Knox Matrix, its security backbone—now evolving to protect data even during AI model training and deployment.

Bottom line:

Samsung’s CES 2026 message is clear. AI isn’t about adding intelligence to devices—it’s about redefining how those devices fit into daily life. Whether Samsung’s “AI companion” vision truly feels helpful or overwhelming will depend on execution. But one thing is certain: Samsung isn’t building gadgets anymore—it’s building an ecosystem that wants to live with you.