As CES wraps up, we're still pulling together our favorite picks of the show. That includes finger-nibbling robots, smart beds and all kinds of TVs, laptops and gadgets. Yes, we've been able to see some of the products while not attending the show, but it has meant a lot of spec-sheet perusing and a fair dose of skepticism without getting a lot of the announcements in the flesh. For things like TVs, that's usually months later, but for tablets, phones and wearables, you can expect Engadget to be reviewing and stress-testing many of them sooner rather than later. Have a great weekend and see you back here Monday.

What does Lululemon see when it looks into (the) Mirror? A future where artificial intelligence coaching changes the game. Lululemon recently paid $500m (€423m) to acquire Mirror, the maker of a $1,500 vertical home mirror with an embedded training service to guide you through your workouts. The incredible valuation of this startup fires a starting gun for the race to create personal remote coaches, powered by computer vision, for everyone who needs a little motivation and guidance at home. "Home fitness products like Peloton and streaming classes have boomed during the [Covid-19] pandemic," writes the New York Times about Lululemon's acquisition of Mirror.

In this special guest feature, Matt Field, President and Co-Founder of MakerSights, says there's no denying that AI and ML are starting to change the nature of the retail industry. One of its greatest benefits will be in how intelligent automation can be used by humans to augment their jobs. Drawing from his extensive background in both retail and technology as the former employee #1 at Birchbox, Matt is helping to transform the way brands develop and bring to market new products by combining voice of the customer software and predictive analytics. Through the MakerSights platform, leading apparel, accessories, footwear and home brands are able to de-risk their most important product decisions, making more of the products their customers want, and driving greater speed and profitability across their businesses. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are no longer just buzzwords of tech giants and consulting firms.

Businesses are now using artificial intelligence (AI) to predict the future, foreseeing potential product failures and public relations controversies before they happen or escalate. Of the sectors taking advantage of AI, retail ventures, including traditional bricks-and-mortar stores, are using the rapidly advancing technology to adapt to the 21st century and stay ahead of the disruption that has spurred some observers to paint a gloomy picture of the industry's future. "There is no retail apocalypse; the end of everything isn't happening," said David Ian Gray, principal and founder of the retail-focused consulting firm DIG360. "But there is this huge, cataclysmic kind of change. The ecosystem of retail is in rapid flux right now."

In 2005, 5% of adults in the U.S. were on social media; today it's around 70%. Facebook has over 1.65 billion users engaging for more than 50 minutes per day. Social media is ubiquitous, and smart brands are sprinting to keep pace. What has evolved beyond Social Monitoring to Social Listening is now poised to enter a 3.0 phase in which crowd-sourcing and artificial intelligence will play pivotal roles. Social Listening starts with a required input: "What, where or whom should we listen to?" Creating that list, similar to how SEM and SEO marketers derive their keyword list, takes expert practitioners and smart tools. However, social is just more wild, more organic and more unpredictable than search.