Dell's CES 2026 chat was the most pleasingly un-AI briefing I've had in 5 years

Summary

The unshakable presence of AI has been an unwelcome companion of my job for the past few years, but it sure feels like longer. It's not even like it's some excitingly malevolent artificial mind with tendrils of influence weaving its way throughout my world. That would at least be satisfying from a sci-fi perspective. No, what I've had to deal with can barely write, definitely cannot count, and has only just figured out what fingers are.Yet it's been something that has pervading every product announcement, presentation, or pre-briefing I've been a part of in recent times from any company even tangentially related to tech. To the point where I now have a bullshit AI bingo card I fill out just to distract myself from the barely resistible desire to stab a pen through my own hand just to feel something real.Every new piece of technology, whether that's a laptop, graphics card, mouse, keyboard, BBQ, whatever, is now presented as being powered by AI or comes with an AI assistant, or just has an 'AI' sticker on the box.CES 2026(Image credit: Future)Catch up with CES 2026: We're on the ground in sunny Las Vegas covering all the latest announcements from some of the biggest names in tech, including Nvidia, AMD, Intel, Asus, Razer, MSI and more.So thank you, Dell, for making your CES 2026 pre-briefing so blessedly free of effusive AI chat that I just had to mention it.It started off with Dell vice chairman and COO, Jeff Clarke, taking to a small stage to talk about the state of the industry and where Dell and its Alienware sub-brand is going this year. He talks tariffs, the slow transitioning of the industry (he says CPU, but I'm presuming he meant OS and Windows 10 → 11), and then "we have this un-met promise of AI, and the expectation of AI driving end user demand," as well as the fact that "we're about ready to enter 2026 with a memory shortage that is pretty significant."Clarke and his co-presenters then go on to introduce the return of the XPS laptop lineup, some new hig...