I’ve had a number of people ask me in recent weeks, “What were the top three trends that came out of CES 2025?” And the answer is a simple one:
- AI
- AI
- AI
The technology was inescapable and a part of an estimated 90% of the more than 4,500 exhibits at the show this year. And in the days since, the conversation remains centered on how Artificial Intelligence and its various platforms will rock our worlds and change our lives.
In just the past few days, a Chinese company has released DeepSeek, a new AI platform no one saw coming as a shot across the bow of category giant, Nvidia. If you’ve been following the gyrations of Nvidia’s stock price these past two days, you’ve seen the disruptive effects of a new entrant on the AI horizon.
While the technology was literally everywhere at CES, an important subtrend is emerging:
The humanity of AI
That may sound oxymoronic to you, but it turned out to be a theme at CES. Even though AI is derived from software code, innovators are working overtime to ensure the so-called human factor is baked into their invention. The biggest companies – Samsung and LG, among them – incorporated their versions of AI with marketing language emphasizing there’s been care taken to consider the consumer. “Affectionate Intelligence” is LG’s slug line, visible throughout their massive display space at CES:
Our Jacobs tour attendees picked up on it, too. At our “working lunch” at Emeril’s, many of them pointed out the human factor that permeated so many of the exhibits, as inventors worked hard to create a sense of humanity in their AI innovations.
And then there was the Tombot exhibit – robot puppies that mimic real dogs, without the annoying “pooper scooper” part of pet ownership. Inventor Tom Stevens told his sad and all-too-common story of caring for his mother, as she was succumbing to the numbing ravages of Alzheimer’s disease. Her plight inspired him to create AI versions of emotional support dogs – or Tombots. They retail for about $1,500 (about the cost of many “designer dogs”) and are FDA-regulated.
These AI versions of canine companions are designed to be affordable robo-pets for people who may not be able to care for an actual puppy. You can see their lifelike motions in the video we shot below, accompanied by inventor Stevens:
It’s been three weeks now since we left Las Vegas, and I’ve found myself looking for examples of how mind-blowing AI is taking shape now and what it will be like down the road. What are the human qualities that will endure and be irreplaceable by even the most advanced versions of this rapidly advancing technology?
I pondered this while reading a recent paywalled story in the Wall Street Journal about one of the most important employees at Spotify. The enigmatic Sulinna Ong is the executive in charge of selecting new music for the streaming audio giant.
The story – “The Playlist Brooker Who Makes or Breaks New Artists” – by the Journal’s Anne Steele takes us behind the scenes as Ong manages her 130 staffers (yes, you read the number correctly) to do “what the service’s powerful algorithms can’t: discover the best new music and carefully introduce it on playlists to the listeners who are going to devour it.”
As Steele points out, Ong and her team can “rocket an artist’s career” – or of course, tube it. Among her wins, the talented Chappell Roan as well as “Lorem,” especially popular with the Gen Z community.
I happened across a fascinating one-hour doc on Ong that’s worthy of your time, if breaking new music is near and dear to you. You can watch it on YouTube here.
If all this sounds familiar to some of you radio veterans, that’s because Ong’s role at Spotify is similar to the power many of radio’s music directors wielded back in the late ’60s and ’70s.
Donna Halper’s championing Rush at WMMS during this period is one of those stories that comes to mind. But perhaps the “poster MD” for being a genuine tastemaker was the late Rosalie Trombley, CKLW’s overseer of new music. In Detroit radio, Rosalie ruled, even inspiring Bob Seger to write and record the eponymous tribute, “Rosalie,” when he couldn’t get an “add” on The Big 8.”
Back then – as it is today – it’s about that instinct known in our business as “having great ears.” It shouldn’t be lost on any of us that throughout the history of radio and now streaming, it is women who have had incredible success at the fine art of “picking the hits.”
In the WSJ piece on Spotify’s sultaness of new music, Steele provides a telling quote from Ong about the limitations of AI in her process:
“AI machine learning is amazing at parsing large data sets, but when there is no data, for example, on a new release, on a new artist, what does it do? If you are waiting for the data to show, you are by definition trend following, not trendsetting.”
Interestingly, Ong’s picks often include an artist’s album tracks – not the designated single being pitched by the label. Like many of us who wandered or fell into radio, Sulinna Ong grew up wanting to be a rockstar but gravitated into concert promotion with Live Nation, and later Sony BMG Music. From there, she moved onto Spotify, and ultimately, to the position she occupies now.
Her story is an important one in this early chapter of AI, and the role it will specifically play in the worlds of music and media. As Steele reminds, Ong and her time are guided by the numbers: streams, skips, saves, etc. While all that is well and good, “The rest is instinct.”
Even as AI grows – or even meanders a bit – there is something comforting about the realization humanity will always play a critical role in the creative process. We may have to look harder for it and it may mean those who survive in specialized positions like Sulinna Ong’s will have to be among the best in the industry to attain and retain them.
But after all, isn’t that the way it is now?
Oh, the humanity.
Here’s “Rosalie,” Bob Seger’s 1973 tribute to Rosalie Trombley, CKLW’s powerful music director.
Jacobs Media has consistently walked the walk in the digital space, providing insights and guidance through its well-read national Techsurveys.
In 2008, jacapps was launched - a mobile apps company that has designed and built more than 1,300 apps for both the Apple and Android platforms. In 2013, the DASH Conference was created - a mashup of radio and automotive, designed to foster better understanding of the "connected car" and its impact.
Along with providing the creative and intellectual direction for the company, Fred consults many of Jacobs Media's commercial and public radio clients, in addition to media brands looking to thrive in the rapidly changing tech environment.
Fred was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2018.
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