Smart Devices Redefine Search Experience at CES 2025

As the dust settles on CES 2025, one thing is clear: the future of search is powered by AI and voice technology. This year's CES was a glimpse into a world where our interactions with information and commerce are fundamentally transformed.

From AI-enabled refrigerators that understand our dietary preferences to cars that can order our dinner while we drive, the line between digital search and our physical world is blurring.

The AI Revolution in Search

The search landscape is undergoing a profound transformation, driven by advancements in artificial intelligence and voice technology. At CES 2025, we witnessed a new era of AI-powered search capabilities that are reshaping how consumers interact with information and make purchasing decisions.

Samsung's Home AI exhibition at CES 2025 showcased how AI is becoming deeply integrated into our daily lives. Their Bespoke 4-Door Refrigerator with AI Family Hub™ now features Bixby, an AI assistant capable of distinguishing between multiple voices and providing personalized information to each household member. This level of personalization in everyday appliances signals a shift towards more intuitive and context-aware search experiences.

The Transformation of Search Results

As AI becomes more sophisticated, search results are evolving from simple text-based lists to rich, multi-modal experiences. Google's Search Generative Experience (SGE) and Microsoft Bing's AI-powered search results are early indicators of this trend, offering more comprehensive and contextual information in response to user queries.

At CES 2025, LG Electronics showcased their new AI-powered smart TV lineup featuring advanced voice search capabilities. The new LG OLED TVs come equipped with an upgraded version of their ThinQ AI platform, which now understands complex, multi-step voice commands. For example, users can say, "Find action movies from the 90s starring Tom Cruise, exclude Mission Impossible, and show me only the ones with high ratings." This level of natural language processing in consumer electronics demonstrates how AI is creating more intuitive and user-centric search experiences.

Voice Search: The Next Frontier

Voice search is rapidly becoming a dominant force in how consumers interact with technology and access information. The innovations showcased at CES 2025 highlight the growing sophistication and adoption of voice-activated devices.

Telly, in partnership with Sensory, unveiled a groundbreaking approach to voice technology for TVs at CES 2025. Their solution processes hundreds of common voice commands locally on the device, ensuring faster response times and enhanced privacy. This on-device processing capability represents a significant advancement in voice search technology, potentially setting a new standard for smart home devices.

Moreover, SoundHound AI's in-vehicle voice commerce platform demonstrates how voice search is expanding beyond smart speakers and smartphones. Drivers can now use natural language to find restaurants, place orders, and navigate to pickup locations, all hands-free. This integration of voice search with navigation and commerce showcases the technology's potential to revolutionize how we interact with our environments and make purchasing decisions.

Implications for Marketers

The rise of AI-powered search and voice technology presents both challenges and opportunities for marketers. Marketers must adapt their strategies to stay competitive in this new landscape:

1. Optimize for conversational queries: With the increase in voice searches, content should be structured to answer natural language questions directly. Retailers like Sephora have leveraged AI-driven tools to enhance customer engagement and drive sales. As smart speaker adoption continues to grow, marketers have a unique opportunity to explore voice-activated experiences that cater to consumers' preferences for convenience and personalization.

2. Focus on local SEO: Voice searches are often used for local queries. Ensuring your business information is up-to-date and optimized for local search is crucial. This is particularly important as 72% of voice-activated speaker owners use voice search to find information on local businesses.

3. Leverage connected packaging: Integrating voice-activated features into product packaging can create innovative customer experiences and drive engagement. Appetite Creative demonstrated this with a campaign for a major FMCG client, incorporating voice-activated packaging that allowed customers to access product information and recipes through simple voice commands. This innovative approach led to a 45% increase in customer engagement, a 30% rise in conversion rates, and a 25% improvement in brand recall.

4. Adapt to new search result formats: As search results become more dynamic and AI-generated, traditional SEO tactics may need to evolve. Marketers should focus on providing comprehensive, high-quality content that AI systems can use to generate informative responses. For instance, DISH Network used AI-driven conversation intelligence to optimize paid media for subscriber lifetime value, resulting in a 500% lift in ROAS.

5. Explore voice commerce opportunities: With the growth of voice-activated purchasing, marketers should consider how their products can be easily discovered and purchased through voice commands. Walmart has partnered with Google to offer voice-activated shopping through Google Assistant, allowing customers to add items to their Walmart grocery cart using voice commands. This initiative has contributed to a 30% increase in online conversion rates.

As we move towards 2025, the convergence of AI, voice search, and connected devices is creating a more integrated and intuitive search experience. Marketers who embrace these technologies will be well-positioned to succeed in this voice-first future. With 75% of households projected to own at least one smart speaker by 2025 and voice commerce sales expected to reach $80 billion annually, the time to act is now.