Real Estate Impacts from CES 2025

The Real Estate Espresso Podcast

Real Estate Impacts from CES 2025

Spotify Google Podcast Apple Podcast Subscribe via RSS Leave a Review

Real Estate Impacts from CES 2025

Welcome to the Real Estate Espresso Podcast, your morning shot of what’s new in the world of real estate investing. I’m your host, Victor Menasce. On today’s show, we’re discussing the impact of the Consumer Electronics Show innovations on real estate.

Each year in early January, many anticipate the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas. This multi-day event showcases the latest in technology, with numerous tech companies presenting products that are still in the experimental phase and not yet available for purchase at your local electronics store. This year, AI is the defining theme at CES. There are usually prevalent themes each year at CES; in the past, these themes included topics like web 2.0, which no one even discusses anymore. Some themes seem to endure past CES, while others eventually fade into oblivion.

In the early 2000s, the buzz was around plasma TVs. An interesting story about plasma TVs is that one of my microprocessors was integrated into the experimental version of LG’s plasma TV. They were supposed to replace my design with a custom-designed chip that consolidated all the functions into a single system on a chip. However, due to a defect in the chip they designed, LG was compelled to go into production using the experimental design containing my chip. We were averaging a run rate of approximately twenty-five thousand units a month for a couple of years. That number increased substantially, hitting a few hundred thousand units monthly before eventually reaching the end of its life.

Plasma TVs were eventually supplanted by other LED technology, specifically, organic LEDs. Organic LEDs are practically a cost-saving method. This allows panel manufacturers such as Samsung and LG to significantly create large panels that are more cost-effective than previous technics. The image quality is not improved, in fact, it’s marginally inferior, but the novel TV-technology was marketed as an advancement and first presented at CES.

For some time, it was all about the connected home with low-cost, low-power wireless technologies for joining appliances together, such as Zigbee. Nowadays, many devices leverage the ubiquity of WiFi due to its drastically reduced cost compared to completely revamping the infrastructure. This year, artificial intelligence (AI) is the main focus.

The CEO of Nvidia, during the opening keynote address, highlighted the development of new chips intended for consumer PCs that would bring AI acceleration to millions of desktop PCs. Samsung also presented two new capabilities to advance home entertainment. The first is a wireless HDMI replacement that will connect all devices—Apple TV, gaming consoles, a digital set-top box—and transmit both audio and video signals to your TV without the need for an HDMI wire. When your TV is idle, you can display artwork and there are now thousands of curated artworks packaged for display on the TV. Another innovation is a Samsung TV that includes real-time AI translation, which caters to a diverse audience.

John Deere showcased a fully autonomous tractor; lawn mowers dump trucks are designed to address agriculture labor shortages. These machines operate without human intervention, underscoring the role of AI in modern farming practices. Numerous health-related products were also revealed; a blood glucose monitor that takes a reading from your breath is currently undergoing FDA approval. The show floor this year was swarming with robotics products; even the once-popular robotic vacuum cleaners and lawnmowers are showing their limitations. But, AI will definitely alter the utility of these products.

We’ve discussed technology so far, but not its application to real estate. The world of smart home technology is divided into two main groups: those who believe appliances should be hard-wired, and those in the wireless camp. Wired connections are indeed more reputable, but they’re also harder to install. Wireless devices, on the other hand, are far easier to install and they’re becoming more and more reliable. Wireless and dependable smart home technologies will change how real estate projects are executed. The interior designing will be significantly simplified; and with machine learning, robotic products will become more useful. These are the areas I personally see impacting real estate as a result of CES this year.

As you think about all this, have an awesome rest of your day. Go make some wonderful things happen. We’ll talk again tomorrow.