The news: The 2026 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) kicked off this week in Las Vegas. While last year’s biggest trend was AI glasses and wearables, this year’s event seems to have a greater focus on AI-powered health products.

Within the health and wellness vertical, brands are leaning heavily into automation and AI-generated insights to make care more accessible, personalized, and continuous.

The products: CES Innovation Award honorees include products such as AI-powered skin diagnostic systems, mental health therapy booths, and portable health scanning.

• Derma Reader 2.0: Uses AI-powered skin analysis to bring dermatologist-level diagnostics into retail settings, reflecting growing demand for fast, data-driven wellness insights.
• MediSpa AI Pro 3.0: Tracks health metrics and uses AI to craft a personalized wellness plan and implement treatments.
• Home Therapy Booth 2.0 with AI Mental Coach: An at-home wellness booth that combines biometric sensing and AI coaching, signaling continued progress in tech-enabled mental health solutions.
• Samsung Bespoke AI Companion Care: Extends AI into the smart home ecosystem, using adaptive appliances to personalize daily care routines and position the home as a hub for wellness.

The problem: Smart insights, especially into a topic as complex as healthcare, require a trove of personal, behavioral, and environmental data to be accurate and personalized. Companies in the space need products with a strong value proposition that justifies deep data collection in exchange for actionable assistance.

One product area that may struggle is AI medication support tools, such as SleepQ with AgentZ, which analyzes data on behavior, sleep, and wearable metrics to predict insomnia and recommend medication timing. Products like this risk overstepping by asking for too much personal information in exchange for assistance that could feel invasive or uncanny.

The opportunity: We expect the market for health-focused wearables will grow substantially this year, creating opportunities for AI-infused wellness products to succeed. More than 86.4 million US consumers—or nearly one-quarter of the US population—will use a health-related smart wearable in 2026, per our forecast.

What we expect in 2026: AI wellness products show the tech’s transition from a novelty feature to a foundational layer in consumer health. The winners in AI-driven health and wellness will be brands that can justify product price through consumer value, prove utility, and balance personalization with consumer trust.