Tech insiders revealed what’s to come in smart gadgets designed to help us live better and longer
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) returned to Las Vegas last week, bringing more than 4,100 exhibitors eager to showcase their tech products and services to more than 155,000 industry attendees, journalists, analysts and content creators.
Athletech News was on the ground at CES 2026 to explore the most promising gadgets in fitness, health and wellness and soak up intel from experts and panel discussions. And it wasn’t just about household humanoids, “Truman Show”-sized TV screens and flying cars. AI was arguably among the hottest topics at this year’s big tech show.
“Three out of of every seven of us will have a neurodegenerative disease by the time we get to our 80s and 90s, yet many of us will live 20 to 30 years longer than previous generations because of breakthroughs we’re having in healthcare right now, so we have to have enabling technologies help to keep our brains (and) bodies healthy, and wearables will be a big part of that,” Stanford University Medical XR research and innovations director Walter Greenleaf noted in his introduction to the panel, which focused on how artificial intelligence in wearables could be used to solve some of the world’s most major health problems
That tech collects the data that makes precision healthcare possible — that is, if we trust the tech industry to keep our important data under lock and key.
ATN breaks down the top takeaways from the panel.
Strong Hardware Will Drive More Powerful Software
Before we can upgrade our software, our hardware needs to be solid — starting with powerful sensors.
“The software will be easy,” said Neuranics chief strategy officer Kia Nazarpour. “All of the complex stuff is going to happen at hardware level. If (my) glasses can show exactly what I need when I’m lost, understand more about our health that would not have been possible today, they become natural companions – not (just) chatbots.”
For instance, what AI can do with electromyography (the measurement of electric signals from muscles) will begin with the sensor itself.
“We still don’t know where the signals come from, (but) we are starting new ways of looking at muscle activity via sensors,” such as application-specific chips that can sense finger gestures and recognize that movement as input to turn an exoskeleton on or off, said Nazarpour. “How do we co-design software and hardware for the next generation of wearables?”
L-R: Panel moderator Walter Greenleaf, Kia Nazarpour, Resh Sidhu, Swapnil Vats and Wayne Tung at CES 2026’s AI-Powered Wearables panel on January 9, 2026, at the Venetian Hotel & Convention Center in Las Vegas (credit: Danielle Directo-Meston/ATN)
AI Will Give More Nuanced Context to Health Data
Noise director Swapnil Vats leads development on the Luna Ring, which measures and analyzes sleep, stress, heart rate and 70 other bio markers.
AI “will help contextualize health for everybody (because) health and fitness are very nuanced… How do you build those nuances into your products and wearables; how do we make more than just a simple tracking device? It should not need me to type 100 times a day (into an app) and give context,” he said.
For example, poor sleep can be the result of stress during the first day of the menstrual cycle, or late caffeine consumption with a late workout. AI can make recommendations based on either scenario to give the most targeted, personalized guidance, noted Vats.
Developers “need to build a system that understands more variables,” such as subtle changes in stress and recovery, he adds. “You may not feel what your data (shows),” and AI can help give better, more personalized meaning to that data.
His company’s LifeOS, for instance, “can translate biomarkers” when you share personal context via Siri and other voice assistants.
AI Can Help Us Break Away From Screens
Tech adopters may recall Snapchat’s first foray into wearables with the camera-enabled Spectacles glasses, released in 2016. The company is slated to release Spectacles, the next generation of its eyewear featuring augmented reality, this year.
Snap Inc. innovation & developer marketing senior director Resh Sidhu foresees wearable makers will expand on the tech they’ve been “building quietly…with developers over the past decade.”
“What many people don’t know is we’ve been iterating on (Specs) for five generations … with augmented reality and AI (to create an) incredibly powerful spatial computer that you wear,” Sidhu said.
She expects that their software and hardware will have applications not just in wellness (like helping people meditate more) and navigation, but also in healthcare and “having a connected experience together.” Agentic AI (an autonomous system that can handle complex planning, learning and reasoning tasks without constant input from a human), will help people do more and interact with what’s physically in front of them, “without having to reach for a screen,” she said.
A few examples: Previous Specs wearers were able to take photos and videos without taking out their phone, and the new model will let users ask for directions and see digital overlays with real-time navigation.
…But Tech Still Needs To Earn Our Trust
Users’ health and behavioral data “is so powerful for helping to improve our lives, but it’s also data that can influence (and) sell us things or influence what we do,” Greenleaf noted.
The challenge is convincing consumers that the industry is walking its talk when it comes to keeping precious data private.
Greenleaf adds that the tech industry needs to build trust among users, protect data and take responsibility: “storing (data) on the cloud has potential, but we should try to do as much of computing on the device.”
“Ultimately, comes down to transparency,” added SuitX co-founder and chief technology officer Wayne Tung. “We let the users know what data we’re collecting and we take the responsibility to educate the users on what value they get when they give us their data and what are the risks associated. (But) it’s not one solution fits all. Another person might not be willing to share that information.”
“We’re already ahead of the regulatory bodies,” noted Greenleaf. “It’s up to us as an industry (to prevent) any catastrophic issues from coming up.”
