AI was everywhere at CES 2026, from robots to toilets and toys. The race to define the next computing interface is on, agentic ad tech is emerging, and health wearables are pushing further into physiological data. Best in show: Lego’s Smart Brick.

Baidu posted its sharpest revenue decline on record, with ad revenues falling 18% as AI-generated answers replace traditional search clicks. Ernie Bot now powers responses on most Baidu queries, improving user experience but suppressing monetizable activity—a trend management says will weigh on results into Q4. Competitors like Tencent, ByteDance, and PDD are still growing 20% to 30% YoY, suggesting Baidu’s weakness is structural. While the US market is more diversified, Baidu offers a stress test: AI can reshape search faster than monetization evolves. For advertisers, it’s a reminder that even Google and Microsoft must balance innovation with economic stability.

The news: OpenAI is bringing its newest models to Amazon Web Services (AWS) for the first time, marking a major milestone in the ongoing battle for AI cloud dominance. Its open-weight models, gpt-oss-120b and gpt-oss-20b—available via Amazon Bedrock and SageMaker AI platforms—are able to handle complicated text-based operations and integrate into cloud-based systems. Our take: OpenAI’s models are getting easier to access, meaning lower costs and fewer technical hurdles to trying powerful AI tools. AWS customers should start testing oss-120b and oss-20b for things like generating subject lines, social copy, and campaign variations and explore ways to fine-tune the models with company data.

The news: Z.ai’s new open-source GLM-4.5 model is undercutting DeepSeek and US rivals in cost and efficiency and intensifying global AI competition. Our take: For marketers, open-source tools like Z.ai offer affordable alternatives to costly AI platforms, levelling the playing field for smaller agencies looking to compete. But Z.ai (formerly Zhipu) is on the US Entity List due to its Beijing ties after OpenAI flagged its rapid progress. With this in mind, companies piloting open-source options should do so cautiously and consult with compliance teams before integrating.

The news: Meta is in talks to invest upwards of $10 billion in Scale AI, a data labeling startup. The deal would be Meta’s biggest ever external AI investment and could help it position its Llama large language model (LLM) as an industry standard, per Bloomberg. Scale AI has already partnered with Meta to develop Defense Llama, an LLM designed for military use that’s built on Llama 3, and also works with Meta competitors like Microsoft and OpenAI. Our take: Meta’s massive investment could draw antitrust scrutiny in an era of acqui-hires. The outcome of active probes in Big Tech partnerships could influence regulatory action, especially if this investment contains any exclusivity that limits model training resources for other companies.

The news: Amazon is testing humanoid delivery robots, per The Information, which could work in tandem with human drivers or as part of an autonomous fleet of delivery vehicles. The humanoid robotics team is working on incorporating large language models (LLMs) from Chinese companies DeepSeek and Alibaba so the bots can contextualize real-world surroundings. Our take: Delivery bots could help with heavy loads and ease the burden on human drivers, but Amazon might be better served with a less human form factor, such as a platform with walking legs to carry packages. The focus on humanoids could limit functionality, and bringing the uncanny valley to consumers’ front door could be off-putting.

The R1-0528 model nearly matches OpenAI and Google on reasoning, offering a tantalizing preview of what the cheaper, open-source future of AI could look like.

Poor planning, political posturing, and a shift to inference workloads turned China’s state-backed data center spree into a cautionary tale for US hyperscalers.

Advertising’s AI obsession is upside down: While genAI dominates for content creation, agencies are sleeping on AI’s real strategic edge—like SEO, workflow automation, and data insights

Its next-gen models are built to generate big ideas, not small talk—aiming squarely at science and high-value enterprise work.

AI agents are here, but they’ve had little effect on the consumer journey so far. That should change by the end of 2028.

Meta’s CTO claims nimbleness trumps incumbency in AI. However, Meta’s AI future still depends on the health of its core ad business.

: Its low-stakes investment strategy lets it back Claude’s standout coding abilities while sidestepping antitrust heat.

Delays in core features could stall everything from Vision Pro to smart home devices, just as rivals double down on smarter assistants.

This invite-only tool tackles full workflows autonomously—raising the bar for US rivals stuck on text responses.

DeepSeek, a genAI chatbot that originated from China, astonished the world with its capability to match ChatGPT while costing significantly less to build and using less powerful GPUs. The launch has triggered an industry soul search that could potentially accelerate AI adoption worldwide.

Revenues soared 114% YoY to $130.5 billion, but stock struggles highlight concerns over AI’s cost efficiency and whether high-compute investments will pay off long term.

Rapid growth and enterprise deals position OpenAI as an AI giant, but as expectations rise, the real test will be proving long-term financial viability.

A September 2024 CivicScience/EMARKETER survey reveals consumer hesitancy toward AI tools. But data also pinpoints areas of receptivity, offering brands a blueprint for strategic implementation.