The DPP has today published its annual report that identifies and analyses key themes from CES 2024 (the Consumer Electronics Show) from a media industry perspective. It’s the only report that looks at how the show’s trends will impact media companies in the year ahead.
As well as breaking down the biggest takeaway for the industry, CES 2024: What consumer trends mean for the media industry dissects five key trends from the show and provides individual market updates on 25 consumer technologies via the DPP’s influential CES heatmap. This analysis is then compared against 15 years of data on consumer technology trends over time.
This year it was expected that generative AI would dominate the show. However the technology was entirely absent from the stands of many of the best known consumer technology vendors, and there were even surprisingly few startups making use of generative AI. In fact the 2024 show made it clear that AI is stranded on the shoulders of global giants. Google alone offered a journey through the potential for generative AI, ranging from fun applications for smartphones to enterprise applications such as Duet AI in Google Workspace.
“Change always requires investment,” says DPP CEO Mark Harrison, the report author. “While the global technology giants may be investing billions in generative AI, the industry in general has very little capital to spend. So the adoption of generative AI may take much longer than many anticipate.”
Another notable finding that became apparent at the show was the fact that the most significant innovation now takes place through software, not hardware. Consumers get incredible value from software that often comes with little or no additional cost to the user.
“A huge number of people attend CES once a year expecting to see something exciting and new, expressed in a device. And they may well be disappointed,” says Mark. “But if they look more closely, beyond the hardware, they will always find something that made the trip worthwhile.”
The report identifies why generative AI has more potential to impact media and entertainment than any other new technology since the iPhone in 2007. So although the presence of AI was more muted in the show than many expected, it should be seen as a technology that is heating up rather than cooling down.
The report is exclusively available to download by DPP members here.
The DPP’s next trends report will be its annual DPP Predictions, created by bringing together senior DPP members who draw up business focused predictions for the media industry. Both members and non members will be able to access this report, published in early February 2024.