“There is no company that can do it like we can.”

This was the point emphasized on 4 January by Roh Tae-moon, President and Head of the DX Division at Samsung Electronics, ahead of the opening of CES 2026, the world’s largest consumer electronics and information technology (IT) exhibition, to be held in Las Vegas, USA from 6 to 9 January (local time). At “The First Look” press conference, a standalone CES-related event hosted by Samsung Electronics at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas, Roh served as the keynote speaker. This event marked his first appearance on the global stage since he shed the “acting head” label for the DX Division in Samsung’s executive appointments in December last year.

Roh stated, “Samsung Electronics ships 500 million devices every year across TVs, home appliances, wearables, and mobile devices,” adding, “AI will be applied to all product categories and services of Samsung Electronics.” He continued, “Samsung has an extensive device portfolio, giving it a differentiated understanding of consumers compared to other companies,” and expressed confidence by saying, “There is no company that can do it like we can.”

LG Electronics has put forward “Innovation Tailored to You” as its theme at this year’s CES. LG Electronics is emphasizing “empathetic intelligence” that understands users’ emotions and life context, going beyond technology that simply executes commands. The LG Electronics booth, created at a scale of 2,044㎡ (approximately 618 pyeong) in the Central Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC), the main exhibition venue of CES, is set to showcase new products interconnected across various spaces such as homes, vehicles, and galleries.

● Samsung and LG face off in TVs at CES

The sector where Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are set to collide at this CES is TVs. With the global TV market facing stagnant demand and weakening profitability, both firms have made AI-based user convenience a baseline, while Samsung is highlighting ultra-large screens and LG is emphasizing ultra-thin designs.

At Samsung’s “The First Look” event that day, a 130-inch micro RGB (red, green, blue) TV appeared on stage accompanied by grand music. At Samsung’s standalone exhibition booth, which is the largest among CES 2026 participants at 4,628㎡ (approximately 1,400 pyeong), visitors entered through a tunnel-shaped, visually striking display corridor. At the end of the corridor, they came face-to-face with the product, whose design resembled a massive picture frame.

Samsung also demonstrated “Vision AI Companion,” an AI platform dedicated to TVs that interacts with users. It understands the context of questions to provide tailored responses and offers content recommendations and device control. For example, while watching a football match, if the user commands the AI to “turn off the commentator’s voice,” it can mute the commentary audio.

On the same day, LG Electronics held a pre-CES media event, “The Preview,” at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas hotel, where it unveiled the “LG OLED evo W6,” a wallpaper organic light-emitting diode (OLED) TV that combines an ultra-slim design with a thickness in the 9mm range and wireless transmission technology. The webOS smart TV platform, which will be installed in 2026 TV models, has also been expanded based on multi-AI. In addition to Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini has been added to strengthen AI search and content recommendation functions.

● Companies call for ‘liberation from housework’

Samsung Electronics has applied AI to the connected experiences based on its smart home platform “SmartThings,” with the goal of “liberation from household chores.” Through screens, cameras and voice recognition, AI understands user needs and enables devices to operate in an integrated manner. For instance, the 2026 “Bespoke AI Family Hub” refrigerator will be the first home appliance to feature Gemini. The “Bespoke AI Steam” robot vacuum cleaner uses 3D obstacle sensors to recognize not only furniture but also transparent liquids.

LG Electronics has set the direction of its home appliance business as “enhancing life’s value through liberation from housework,” and unveiled AI appliances such as the home robot “LG Cloride,” refrigerators, and WashTowers. Embodying LG’s vision of freeing users from household chores, LG Cloride learns users’ daily patterns and automates meal preparation by taking ingredients out of the refrigerator or operating the oven. After the user leaves for work, it takes over overall housework by sorting, washing, and organizing laundry.

AI home appliances such as LG refrigerators and WashTowers also analyze the condition of food ingredients and the types of laundry to autonomously set optimal cooling and washing conditions. All appliances are connected to the AI home hub “ThinQ ON,” which monitors their status in real time and provides notification and recommendation functions to users.

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