Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, discusses CES 2025, which drew 141,000 attendees and 4,500 exhibitors from 150+ countries. AI dominated the show, along with digital health, mobility, and quantum computing. Over 1,200 startups exhibited in Eureka Park, and 6,000 journalists covered the event.
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Joining me now to talk more about this is Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Technology Association. Gary, it's great to have you. Good morning.
Good morning. How are you?
Absolutely. It's great. It's great. I'm great. I just want to say congratulations. As we mentioned, that CES 2025 saw over 141,000 attendees and over 4,500 exhibitors. From your perspective, What were the biggest themes that were coming out this week at CES 2025?
Well, it was probably our most successful event in terms of getting the world together to focus on innovation. We had over 50,000 people from outside the United States making it the biggest confab sporting event or anything in terms of global attendance. But these are executives. It's not open to consumers. There's over 6,000 media there. But the themes were definitely generative AI was what stole is all the show. There's also digital health, mobility, disability access, and also responding to the needs of people through agriculture, close to home, all sorts of different things that really make a difference in normal people's lives.
And what would you say was the biggest difference from this year's event compared to last year's?
Well, there are several. First, we had amazingly speakers in huge forum, whether it was NVIDIA's CEO, Jensen Huang, who actually spoke before almost 8,000 or 9,000 people live in the facility, as well as probably hundreds of thousands more around the world, or Delta CEO Ed Bastian, who was the first ever trade show keynote speaker in the Sphere in Las Vegas, where he reached several thousand people and showed what a tech company Delta is. But we also focused on energy creation as well as efficiency, because tech products, especially generative AI, electric cars, quantum, need energy. And speaking of quantum, it was the first time we really focused on quantum computing at CES and talked about its— how it's coming down the road and its potential in the future.
And Gary, I do want to point out to our viewers that about 40% of attendees were from over 150 countries. And over 60% of Fortune 500 companies were participating in CES 2025. Talk to us more about the innovations that you're seeing abroad.
Well, it's global. I mean, the US is obviously a huge leader, but other countries are playing. They're fighting for who will be number one in artificial intelligence. And we see every— we saw everyone at CES from AMD and obviously US company to Hisense, LG, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Samsung, Siemens, TCL, and companies like Accenture. Julie Sweet, the CEO, was there talking about the future in AI. But digital health since COVID has been increasingly important. Technology is actually supplementing the shortage of human beings and providing solutions. And we expect generative AI to provide basically personalized solutions relatively soon. Mobility was absolutely huge. Everyone from BMW and Bosch to John Deere and Caterpillar, as well as Oshkosh, Garmin, Honda. So many of the major car companies were there and focusing on how we get around more efficiently, using less energy and smarter to reduce accidents. I mentioned quantum, but several different exhibitors were there from around the world. But sustainability was also an overwhelming theme at the show. Everyone's focusing on minimizing energy usage, but also minimizing the impact on the environment of these technologies, which actually save people time and money.
And Gary, as I mentioned earlier, over 6,000 individual media was there on the ground for CES. And, you know, this event generates more than 27,000 pieces of news. So not to mention millions of social posts across every platform that you can imagine. And this is all happening from CES to Topics like sustainability, digital equity, and emerging technologies are also key to this event. So talk to us more about what you heard last week and some of the tech solutions being created in each of those areas.
Well, it's great that you note that because it's one of the world's largest marketing events where CMOs from around the world gather to see how technology is affecting their lives. We call it C Space. We also have an area just for startups because they're so important in the ecosystem. Eureka Park had over 1,200 startups from around the world, and they really provide so much excitement. Everyone from Shark Tank to basically the heads of companies like Walmart and others go there to see what is coming down the pike and either to invest in, be a partner of, or a first customer for. So a lot is coming down that's new because basically there's so much innovation. We're at the infant stage of this great leap with AI. And with quantum that will make the difference in our lives. And there's a lot of smart entrepreneurs which are gathering and figuring it out. And you must partner to be a tech company today. And every company is a tech company.
And, you know, you mentioned earlier on about AI, and that was a major theme this year at CES. But talk to me more specifically about how this technology is transforming industries like healthcare and mobility.
Well, actually, AI is more from the enterprise point of view, which is a large part of CES. What you see is productivity focus, doing things differently so you can redeploy workers for more creative endeavors. At the, at the consumer level, though, it's more about personalization. We're seeing that in the computer area, the desktop, the laptop, as well as other devices which allow customization through generative AI and helping people find solutions. But again, this is just the infancy stage and there's so much more to come.
And Gary, just briefly, we have about 30 seconds left here. CES 2026, the planning is underway. Talk to us about what we can expect for next year.
Well, it's not only underway, I'd say a good portion of the show is already sold. Many companies have expressed an interest in coming back bigger and better. The show has been, as I say, phenomenally successful. It'll be in Las Vegas in early January where I know you are from and should return to. That's if we have you there. It'll be a great show.
Yes. Yes, I am planning on being there. Of course, I was born born and raised, so, you know, this is something that's near and dear to my heart too. So thank you so much for coming on the show to talk to us more about this extraordinary event, and we look forward to having you back on next year.
Thank you.
Again, that was Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Technology Association.
