‘CES is no longer just about consumer tech’

“CES offers a glimpse into the future,” she told Mint in a video interview from her US office. “Nothing beats the energy of being in person. CES is about the serendipity of discovery—meeting someone in line for coffee who could become your next business partner or seeing a product that changes the way you live,” she added.

About 140,000 people attended CES 2024 with 40.6% of the attendance coming from outside of the US, including India. CES 2025, which will see attendees from over 150 countries, is being held from 7-10 January. “We don’t have the (attendee) numbers yet but the hotel pickup is tracking ahead of this time last year. We also had more innovation award entries and speaker submissions than we had for CES 2024, indicating that it’s going to be a really strong and healthy show,” she added.

Over the past few years, CES has moved beyond consumer technologies as most gadgets are now used as part of enterprise tools. “Our artificial intelligence or AI-powered smartphones are a good example. You can use them to check your work email, collaborate with your colleagues using tools like Zoom, Teams, or Slack, or even use them as edge computing devices,” she said.

CES’ growing focus on enterprises can also be seen from their this year’s speaker list—which includes ‪Nvidia‬ founder and CEO Jensen Huang; Accenture chair and CEO Julie Sweet‬; Volvo Group‬ president and CEO Martin Lundstedt; Waymo co-CEO Tekedra N. Mawakan; Delta CEO Ed Bastian; and Yann LeCun, VP & chief AI Scientist at Meta—as well as from its attendee profiles.

While the numbers for CES 2025 will be audited later next year, CES 2024 saw 42.5% of the total verified attendees from business-to-business (B2B) companies, while 20% came from business-to-consumer (B2C) firms.

Fabrizio acknowledged that CES has evolved far beyond consumer electronics, reflecting shifts across industries. “Every company is a tech company,” Fabrizio said, underscoring how technology has become the backbone of industries ranging from healthcare to transportation. “We do have the name (consumer) in our organization but everything has evolved and transformed, and we see that transformation at CES.”

For instance, the West Hall showcases advancements in mobility, expanding from aftermarket car tech to vehicles from original equipment manufacturers (OEM), industrial tech, and even marine and aerial technologies like Oshkosh, John Deere, Brunswick, and flying cars. Similarly, the North Hall focuses on the future of work, featuring AI, cloud, sustainability, smart cities, and renewable energy technologies.

“By aligning CES with industry transformations, we ensure it remains the leading platform for showcasing innovation and shaping the global tech conversation,” Fabrizo said. She added that attendees can expect to see groundbreaking advancements in alternative power sources, renewable energy, and quantum technology. A dedicated programme called “Quantum Means Business” will be around the advancements in quantum computing and their applications in companies.

Fabrizio also believes that healthtech is “truly transformative”. “From wearables that empower individuals with health data to solutions addressing global challenges like healthcare access, these innovations are life-changing,” she noted. CES 2025, she said, will feature a robust lineup of companies tackling issues such as hearing enhancement, efficiency tools for working parents, and even autonomous vehicles for safer transportation.

A key aspect of CES’ success also lies in its ability to cater to both tech giants and startups. Fabrizio highlighted the significance of Eureka Park, home to over a thousand startups showcasing their innovations. “We also have programmes like investor matchmaking to bridge the gap between these communities,” she explained.

With AI and generative AI dominating discussions, Fabrizio acknowledged the importance of responsible tech development. “We’re committed to balancing innovation with safety, privacy, and ethics,” she said, adding that the CTA collaborates with industry leaders and governments to establish guidelines and best practices, particularly in emerging sectors like AI and healthcare.

But how easy is it to strike a balance between speedy innovation and policy guardrails?

“It’s important to collaborate together with the government. One thing that’s very challenging here in the United States is that a lot of states will create their own privacy guidelines, their own guidelines for social media, their own guidelines for AI, and their own guidelines for autonomous driving. And that’s really challenging for tech companies to be innovative when they have to know all the rules from all the different states,” Fabrizo said.

She added that the CTA has been advocating a “federal framework around these areas that would clearly explain to companies these are the guardrails and the guidelines when it comes to privacy, when it comes to AI and this is what you need to know as you build your products so that they understand the rules and they can innovate within the rules and that’s what we want for the industry and for our companies”.

Underscoring the importance of government representatives making the effort to attend CES, Fabrizo said, “We think it is important for government leaders from around the world, and here in the United States, to demo tech products, to see products in action, to talk to the innovators and the founders and the creators and understand how their tech products are changing the world and solving big global challenges.”