Artificial intelligence will be a major theme at the world's largest tech show next week

Techies and gadget geeks alike have been talking about it for years already, but artificial intelligence made serious waves in 2018, showing up prominently in pop culture and our everyday devices. With companies like Apple, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft investing millions in AI, this will ultimately make it one of the major themes to look out for at the annual Consumer Electronics Show, which kicks off in Las Vegas next week. CES is an opportunity to showcase the consumer use for that technology, so much of what will be displayed are "smart" devices or "smart" products -- take, for instance, this smart bathroom with voice-enabled lighting technology. While there are dozens of players in the AI space, we can expect that Google Assistant and Amazon's Alexa are going to dominate the show this year. Both voice assistants are compatible with more than 10,000 devices, which -- as Wired noted-- will make the showroom floor quite noisy. We'll also see smaller players introduce even more smart gadgets and other AI-powered gadgets you would and wouldn't expect, everything from TVs to security cameras, and even golf equipment.