Last year was when talking to a smart speaker started to become the norm, but surprisingly, LG has struggled to replicate the same success with its CLOi series commercial robots. Ahead of LG's CES show, I talked to its Head of Research for Life Robots, Jaewon Chang, who updated on the company's robot trial service in South Korea's Incheon International Airport. Since deployment in July, each of the five Guide Robots has interacted with around 2,500 people. However, only a quarter of travelers used voice interaction, with the majority preferring the touchscreen mounted vertically on the robot's chest. Likewise, just as few people let the robots guide them to their destination.

LG spent much of their lackluster CES keynote highlighting the potential of its new AI platform, ThinQ, to revolutionize the lives of consumers and their company's bottom line. A big part of this vision was voice control interfaces. Not only did the South Korean company highlight the continued growth of its partnership with Google, but they gave significant stage time to its CLOi voice assistant robot, which the company boasted could tie together all of its touchscreen fridges, rose gold AC units and fancy washing machines. Now, keynote demo mishaps with voice recognition products are par for the course, but the company's Hub Robot, which debuted at CES last year, didn't work onstage for the majority of the keynote, leaving an LG exec speechless and fumbling to stick to the script while the dumb little robot he talked at blinked innocently. "Even robots have bad days," the human executive said.

LG has had a busy week at CES already, and the show hasn't even started yet. Over the past seven days, the firm has announced new wireless headphones, a levitating speaker and today it unveiled its latest smart home products including a household robot that is a cute rival to Amazon Echo and Google Home. Called Hub Robot, the household robot is a cross between Bicentennial Man (in function, rather than looks), and looks like it comes straight out of a Pixar film. It connects to other smart appliances in the home and uses Amazon Alexa's voice recognition technology to carry out tasks. LG's examples include turning on the air conditioner or changing a dryer cycle.

IN JUNE 1967, 200 exhibitors and 17,500 attendees packed into the Hilton and Americana hotels in New York for the very first Consumer Electronics Show. From that moment, the expo has been responsible for unveiling some of the most impressive products for the time including the VCR (1970), Camcorders (1981) the Nintendo Entertainment System (1985), HDTV (1998) and 3D TVs (2010). Now, in its 50th year, the world's largest consumer technology show boasts more than 3800 companies and attracts over 200,000 visitors. After a week of gazing into the future of our home, work and play, news.com.au has picked some of the latest and greatest innovations and trends. As expected, TVs were big business with LG's Signature 4K OLED W series the talk of the showroom floor.

LG unveiled its own competitor to Amazon Echo and Google Home on Wednesday – a home assistant that can play music and tell you the weather but also order your vacuum cleaner to start cleaning the house and turn on your oven. The Hub Robot, which LG said will go on sale in 2017, was shown for the first time in Las Vegas ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show, which opens to the public on Thursday. The device – a little white machine that has two glowing blue "eyes" on the front – appears to be a direct competitor to Amazon Echo and Google Home. Introducing the Hub Robot, David VanderWaal, vice-president of marketing, home appliances & consumer at LG, described it as "your intelligent home assistant". It can also play music, tell you the about the weather and traffic – all things that Amazon Echo and Google Home can do.

LG's vision of the future is filled with intelligent robots that help you manage your life more efficiently. This vision sounds expensive, but LG's new lineup of robots, unveiled on Wednesday, is the stuff we come to CES to see. First there's the Hub Robot, which also comes in mini models that you can deploy throughout your house. The main bot is supposed to be stationed somewhere your family regularly congregates, like the living room, though it's mobile. The Hub Robot is a sleek, small bot with a round display.

LG kicked off the second press day of the Consumer Electronics Show on Wednesday with a 45-minute keynote featuring robots, consumer appliances, and more products. One of the first announcements LG made Wednesday was that all of its appliances going forward will be Wi-Fi enabled. The aim is to connect them to the company's DeepThinq artificial intelligence features. The connection means that the appliances will be able to improve their performance for individual users over time based on the data gathered through their use. For example, the company's robotic vacuum cleaner will learn what obstacles look like and how to avoid them, and its washing machines will automatically adjust their wash cycles to match water conditions.