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By Tom Bianculli | Jan. 5, 2026
CES 2026: The AI Revolution You Won’t See on the Show Floor
Each January, the tech world converges on Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), offering a preview of the future. We see smarter homes, next-generation gadgets, and brilliant displays.
Yet, beyond the glow of the main exhibition halls, a more profound technological shift gains momentum. This shift focuses less on the consumer in their home and more on the employee at their post. For the businesses that power our economy, the most significant AI story at CES unfolds on the front line of operations.
The Urgent Call to Modernize Operations
Business leaders today navigate a challenging landscape. Years of disruption, from persistent labor shortages to rising costs, have squeezed efficiency from factory floors to grocery store shelves. Organizations feel immense pressure to deliver more with fewer resources.
All the while, customer expectations for speed and service continue to climb. Many companies still rely on outdated workflows designed for a simpler competitive era, leaving them vulnerable. The need to modernize operations has never felt more pressing.
Putting Numbers to the Narrative
We have long believed that intelligent operations act as a business growth engine. To validate this, our research with Oxford Economics, "The Economics of Intelligent Operations," quantifies the impact of modernizing frontline workflows.
The independent research, which surveyed 1,000 senior decision-makers in retail, manufacturing, and transportation & logistics, confirmed that these investments drive measurable performance.
The study revealed that optimizing workflows produces significant financial gains. For example:
- Retailers can improve customer satisfaction by 21%.
- Manufacturers see employee productivity increase by 19%.
- Transportation and logistics leaders achieve a 21% boost in productivity.
When modeled across the top 20 companies in each industry, the potential for growth becomes even clearer: a possible $3 billion in revenue uplift, a $120 million increase in profit, and a 20% surge in employee productivity. These findings illustrate the immense value locked within an organization's core processes.
How AI-Powered Workflows Deliver Results
This value creation happens when organizations deploy technology to solve specific, critical challenges. The study examined how AI and automation improve outcomes across key workflows.
- Reimagining the Retail Experience: In retail, AI-powered tools for inventory management and loss prevention offer huge opportunities. Better inventory accuracy prevents out-of-stocks, capturing sales that might otherwise not occur. The study shows modernizing loss prevention can unlock up to $35 million in revenue for a typical retailer; a margin no one can afford to leave on the table.
- Building the Factory of the Future: In manufacturing, precision and performance must go hand-in-hand. The research found that manufacturers improving quality control grew revenue 2.4 points faster and gained as much as $3 million in profit. By using machine vision and other technologies to automate inspection, companies reduce defects, protect revenue, and ensure every product meets requirements.
- Optimizing the Global Supply Chain: For transportation and logistics companies, visibility across the supply chain remains critical. The study showed that modernizing inventory management can add an approximate $25 million in revenue. Smarter delivery operations can unlock up to $17 million, helping to optimize costs from the factory floor to a consumer’s front door.
The data shines a light on a global shift in how industries compete. In stores, factories, and logistics networks, intelligent operations redefine how people work and how products move. This represents the future of work, and it happens today.
To explore these topics further, I invite you to attend our panel at CES:
AI-Powered Workflows: Transforming Frontline Operations for the Future
Wednesday, Jan. 7, 3:00 – 3:30 p.m.
Discovery Stage, Fountainebleau, Las Vegas
I will host a discussion with Christoph Enzinger of MPREIS and Scott Canney of Lowe’s where we will explore real-world use cases and offer practical steps to digitize and automate your workflows for the AI era. You will hear about their successes, the barriers they overcame, and how connecting the frontline empowers people and elevates customer satisfaction.
This is the essence of Better Every Day: small improvements in workflows adding up to more value. At Zebra, we work to provide the foundation for intelligent operations, helping our customers achieve real-time insight and connected collaboration. We believe the work we do makes work better for organizations, their employees, and those they serve. We hope you will join us at CES to continue the conversation.
Learn More at CES 2026.
