Our CES 2026 Recap: Compliance & Connectivity Challenges Continue

CES is widely recognized as the most exciting technology event in the world and CES

2026 proved why. Across four packed days, our visit to the show floor delivered an unforgettable snapshot of where technology, for both consumers and business, is headed next. AI everywhere, robots doing real work, smarter appliances that anticipate our needs, and major advances in digital health and wellness. From AI-powered laptops and next-generation wearables to home robotics, smart security systems, and cutting-edge mobility solutions, innovation was on full display at every turn.

With over 4,000 exhibitors, including 1,200 startups in Eureka Park and 2.6 million square feet of exhibit space, we found CES 2026 exhibitors focused heavily on AI integration, robotics, digital health, and sustainability. They displayed everything from voice-enabled smart kitchens and autonomous cleaning devices to medical-grade wellness sensors, sleep optimization tools, and advanced displays designed to make entertainment more immersive than ever.

But as dazzling as these breakthroughs were, our conversations with exhibitors highlighted a less glamorous reality: even the most exciting product in the world can’t succeed if it can’t reliably connect or legally ship. This is where, they said, connectivity and compliance continue to dominate.

As expected, breakthroughs come fast and furious as innovation moves at startup speed. Meanwhile, regulations are slow-moving and sometimes conflicting. Requirements are very often non-uniform and create confusing complications. This leaves innovators in the difficult position of building the future while dealing with the slow-moving, and sometimes outdated, regulations of the past.

CES 2026 exhibitors said they continue to find that gap impossible to ignore. The smart ones already know compliance and connectivity are not “extra steps” at the end of product development, they’re foundational requirements. Cybersecurity regulations like EN 18031 and radio standards like EN 300 328 on wideband transmission systems can make a groundbreaking smart device useless if it can’t be marketed due to missed compliance obligations. A beautifully engineered product fails in the real world if it can’t communicate reliably because of connectivity limitations, regional spectrum constraints, or problems with interoperability.

In practice, this challenge appears in multiple forms: wireless certification requirements that differ by region, cybersecurity expectations that continue to evolve, and sustainability regulations that affect materials, packaging, and even long-term product support. The result is a growing burden on product teams trying to scale globally.

While regulatory complexity remains a challenge, CES 2026 also showcased progress toward a more unified smart home. The Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) is an industry group of IoT home product manufacturers that originally created Zigbee and now supports Matter. Matter is an initiative designed to simplify and harmonize connectivity and compatibility among smart home products. Built to reduce friction for both users and manufacturers, Matter creates clearer interoperability standards and reliable device onboarding.

In real terms, Matter helps make smart home products easier to set up, easier to connect, and easier to manage, regardless of brand. Instead of requiring consumers to navigate a maze of apps, hubs, and device limitations, Matter helps smart home devices “speak the same language.” It acts like a universal translator across ecosystems and connectivity bands, leveraging existing technologies for simple, secure, and reliable setup.

At CES 2026, the continued expansion of Matter support signaled a key shift: the connected home is moving away from fragmentation toward real-world usability. This is good news for consumers. It’s also a competitive advantage for companies that adopt standards early and build compatibility into their product strategy from day one.

CES 2026 made it clear that the future may be global, but exhibitors we talked to understand market access can still be regional. Compliance and connectivity expectations vary widely across major markets, and these differences shape how products are designed, tested, and launched.

Europe: Regulation, Privacy, and Sustainability.

Europe continues to lead with a strong focus on regulation, privacy, and sustainability. Companies targeting EU markets must account for strict requirements around data protection, cybersecurity readiness, and environmental responsibility. For connected devices, this often means deeper scrutiny of how data is collected, stored, transmitted, and protected—along with expectations for secure software updates and long-term support.

Asia: Hardware, Speed, and Manufacturing Scale.

Across many Asian markets, the focus often leans toward hardware performance, speed, and large-scale manufacturing efficiency. This region remains a powerhouse for production and component supply chains, and CES exhibitors reflected the emphasis on high-performance devices built for rapid commercialization. However, even in hardware-driven markets, regulatory compliance remains essential for products that will be exported globally.

United States: AI, Software, and Rapid Commercialization.

The U.S. continues to push forward on AI, software innovation, and rapid go-to-market strategies.

Many CES 2026 highlights focused on AI-driven experiences: smarter assistants, predictive automation, real-time personalization, and cloud-connected platforms that evolve continuously through updates. This creates heightened compliance considerations around cybersecurity, privacy, and responsible AI use, especially when devices rely on cloud services or model updates post-launch.

These regional disparities reflect similar technologies challenged by differing priorities. For global product teams, the takeaway is clear: success depends not only on building great technology, but on building it in a way that can scale across different regulatory environments and connectivity realities.

Not surprisingly, we found Eureka Park remains one of the most exciting parts of CES, and the 1,200 startups brought bold ideas across health tech, AI, smart home, robotics, and sustainability. But exhibitors shared that startups face a unique version of the compliance and connectivity challenges as they have limited time, limited funding, and limited room for redesigns.

A common theme many startup exhibitors shared was designing products to work across regions while managing different regulations and connectivity standards. Many are building global-first products, but quickly discover that “global-first” requires planning for market-specific compliance from the earliest design phase.

Startups face common challenges around regulatory compliance, such as data privacy, cybersecurity, and certification for multiple markets, as well as connectivity issues including reliable global coverage, interoperability, and network fragmentation.

Different categories face different pain points:

Health and med-tech startups said they struggle with regulatory approvals, clinical validation expectations, and strict data privacy requirements as devices collect sensitive personal information.

IoT and smart home product manufacturers spoke of facing interoperability and connectivity issues, including ecosystem compatibility, onboarding reliability, and inconsistent user environments, some of which Matter can solve.

AI developers run into challenges involving data quality, security, compliance, and the complexities of AI behavior evolving over time through updates and retraining.

For startups, these issues can make the difference between cloud 9 and chapter 11. A product that can’t pass certification, or can’t reliably connect in real-world conditions, may never reach its intended market, regardless of how innovative it is.

CES exhibitors we talked to reinforced the industry-wide reality that innovators move faster on connectivity than compliance regulators can adapt. In the short term, the challenge is meeting current national, regional, and global regulations. That means managing certification timelines, testing requirements, and documentation expectations—often across multiple markets at once. It also means designing products to function reliably across real-world connectivity conditions, from Wi-Fi congestion and spectrum constraints to Bluetooth coexistence and regional network differences.

Ideally, the long-term horizon includes the need to reduce global differences in compliance requirements, develop clearer AI governance frameworks, and support secure scalability across billions of connected devices. As AI becomes embedded into everyday products, regulatory attention will continue to grow with even greater oversight on around security, privacy, transparency, and long-term update policies.

In other words, the future isn’t just about faster networks and smarter devices. It’s about proving those devices are safe, secure, interoperable, and ready for the global market.

CES 2026 proved that AI, robotics, digital health, and smart home technologies are moving from “future concepts” to real products at remarkable speed. But the show also made it clear that the companies that succeed won’t just be the ones who build exciting technology. They’ll be the ones who can ship it, support it, and scale it across markets without delays.

Regardless of where you are in your product design, development, or marketing timeline, it’s essential to get expert guidance on compliance and connectivity. A partner like IoT Consulting Partners can help you navigate evolving regulations, certification requirements, wireless performance planning, and cross-market launch strategies, so you can focus on innovation while staying prepared for the realities of global product readiness. If you’re preparing for certification, launching in multiple regions, or validating real-world wireless performance, visit our website at iotapproval.com and contact us for a chat.