Manufacturers, listen up, there was some big news and announcements from CES 2026 that you may want to take note of. Perhaps one of the biggest—and perhaps most notable—came from NVIDIA, which keynoted the event and talked in detail about physical AI (artificial intelligence) and autonomous robots.
All about Physical AI
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang says every 10-15 years the computer industry resets and a new platform shift happens from mainframe to PC, PC to internet, internet to cloud, cloud to mobile, and each time the world of applications target a new platform—but now there are two significant shifts happening at the same time. While we move to AI, applications will be built on top of AI, but in addition to that how you run and develop the software fundamentally shifts as well. It changes, oh my!
“You no longer program the software, you train the software,” he says. “You don’t run it on CPUs, you run it on GPUs.”
NVIDIA suggests physical AI lets autonomous systems like cameras, robots, and self-driving cars perceive, understand, reason, and perform or orchestrate complex actions in the physical world. With physical AI, robots can be built and trained to seamlessly interact with and adapt to their surroundings in the real world.
NVIDIA isn’t the first company to talk about physical AI. At CES, chip technology company Arm Holdings also announced a physical AI unit. Last December, AWS introduced physical AI in its blog, suggesting it is the foundation of autonomous intelligence.
The AWS team defines physical AI as a system of hardware and software that integrates perceiving, understanding, reasoning, and learning to interact with the physical world. At its core, it is a subset of artificial intelligence that focuses on understanding the physical nature of the world and then interacts with their surroundings through sensors and actuators.
All about the Robots and Machines
If you were following me over on X and LinkedIn during CES, then you know I highlighted the Boston Dynamics announcement that transpired. At Hyundai’s global CES media day presentation, the company unveiled a product version of its new Atlas robot, which is a fully electric humanoid.
Atlas is an enterprise-grade humanoid robot built for industrial environments, capable of handling tasks ranging from material movement to order fulfillment. It rapidly learns new operations, adapts to changing conditions, and manages heavy loads while operating autonomously with little oversight. The robot continues operating even as battery levels drop by independently navigating to a charging station, replacing its own batteries, and immediately resuming work.
Certainly, this just another cool example that was on the CES 2026 show floor. CES is always a bevy of announcements for the automotive industry as well. As an example, at the event, Caterpillar showcased Cat AI Nexus, which integrates advanced intelligence on a Cat 306 mini excavator. The company has a vision for an autonomous future. All in all, the manufacturer is using AI to turn operational data into actionable insights.
The Industrial Revolution Moves Forward
The industrial revolution was spurred forward at CES 2026. Microsoft showcased new Windows 11 PC innovations and Copilot+ PCs, which can save up to five hours a week per user. New innovations can help spur productivity in many industries.
At CES, we also saw many partnerships on display. For instance, Siemens and NVIDIA are expanding their partnership to build the Industrial AI Operating System, which aims to reinvent the industrial value chain through AI, from design and engineering to manufacturing, production, operations, and into supply chains.
The bottomline is industrial technology is taking a bigger role at CES—and the future of manufacturing will be driven by intelligence.
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