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CES Unveiled: AI in All The Things

A lighted billboard above a ballroom entrance reads "CES Unveiled"
At CES Unveiled 2025, AI is in all the things. Richard Gunther is on the scene with a few items that caught his attention—but nothing earth shattering.

CES Unveiled, the official media event for CES, continued its tradition last night at CES 2025. Typically, three evening media events headline the first nights of CES, which starts a few days early for journalists, bloggers, podcasters, and influencers. 

Unveiled, hosted by the organizers of CES, is the first of those. This event, where companies who choose to pay an extra exhibiting fee try to get ahead of the news cycle, is more of a preview of CES than a “best of” exposition (that’s tonight, at PEPCOM’s Digital Experience).

This year’s Unveiled included the usual suspects—plenty of startups looking for visibility, companies with gadgets and gizmos promising to make your future life easier, a few big names dropping largely iterative or otherwise head-scratching product announcements, a handful of products reanimated from last year’s CES that still haven’t gone to market, and, of course, AI in nearly everything. AI lawnmowers, AI glasses and earbuds, AI health monitors, and even an AI NAS. For some reason.

We largely cover home entertainment and automation technology here, so that’s what caught our eye. Here are a few of the things we noticed.

Yarbo. Yarbo is a modular yard work robot, consisting of a central roving core and modular attachments that can mow grass, blow leaves, or clear snow from your property. It recharges on an inductive pad/dock.

An image showing multiple components of the Yarbo yard work robot sit on a blue and black carpet. In the the foreground, the Yarbo core power and drive system is set up with the leaf blowing attachment. Behind it, the snow blowering attachment and charging platform.
Yarbo modular lawn maintenance robot

Schlage. Long-time lock maker Schlage announced the new Arrive line, an economical smart deadbolt with a keypad sporting physical buttons and keyway. It supports Google and Amazon’s ecosystems, but not Apple’s. Then today, the day after Unveiled, they also announced a new keyless (their first) deadbolt featuring Matter, UWB, and WiFi. This was not available to see at the Unveiled event.

Two display boards from Schlage show new Arrive-branded smart deadbolts. They both have rectangular, lighted buttons and a keyhole. One features a rectangular form factor in black, the other is rounded in brushed nickel.
Two version of Schlage’s new Arrive lock, both lacking Apple Home support.

Current Backyard. The maker of the impressive Current outdoor electric grill and griddle, Current Backyard, introduced a new electric pizza oven. The Current Model P promises to cook a full Neapolitan pizza in 2 minutes and can be used inside and out.

Lutron. For years, Lutron has offered automated honeycomb and roller shades compatible with its Caséta smart home ecosystem. However, this year, they’re announcing new (?) Caséta-branded honeycomb and roller shades with a relatively inexpensive ($399) starting price and simplified pricing structure. They’re available today, on Lutron.com only, in basically two colors—white and gray. We’re not really sure what problem they think they’re solving with this latest…iteration given that they continue to offer the previously mentioned Serena shades, and those remain compatible with Caséta.

A display showing a sample roller shade. It is white and currently closed. Before it lie samples of the four colors they offer and samples of four colors for the Caséta honeycomb shades. A hand rests above a Pico remote control, poised to adjust the blind.
A sample of the new(ish) Lutron Caséta roller shade

There was lots more, but nothing there that struck as earth shattering or revolutionary. But of course, there’s much more CES to come….

And for additional coverage of Unveiled and other CES events and news, be sure to follow Jimmy Hawkins’ @automated_house account on Instagram

Author

  • CES Unveiled: AI in All The Things

    Richard is a product experience consultant with a life-long interest in consumer electronics. He has been immersed in smart home tech for decades now and hosts The DMZ's home automation podcast, Home: On and co-hosts Entertainment 2.0 with Josh Pollard. Richard looks at products through an experience lens, always seeking the right mix of utility and delight.

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About the author

Richard Gunther

Richard is a product experience consultant with a life-long interest in consumer electronics. He has been immersed in smart home tech for decades now and hosts The DMZ's home automation podcast, Home: On and co-hosts Entertainment 2.0 with Josh Pollard. Richard looks at products through an experience lens, always seeking the right mix of utility and delight.