CES 2025 Reaffirms the Importance of Wireless Connectivity Innovation in Enabling the “AI Home” Concept

At CES 2025, Bluetooth®, Wi-Fi, Ultra-Wideband (UWB), IEEE 802.15.4, and Z-Wave technology innovation was at the forefront of many announcements and product unveilings. Unsurprisingly, Artificial Intelligence (AI) had an enormous presence at the show, with the concept of the “AI Home” at the forefront of many keynote announcements from some of the largest consumer electronics suppliers. This is increasingly leading to a blurring of the lines between the conventional smart home and home entertainment sphere, with more and more displays and hub functionality being embedded in smart appliances, and smart home functionality being embedded into smart Televisions (TVs), enabled by Matter and other technologies. Alongside this, new personal robotic assistants, companion robots, cleaning robots, and healthcare devices are being folded into this AI home vision, while concepts such as Samsung’s SmartThings Pro, SmartThings for Cars, and SmartThings for Ships demonstrate a growing desire to expand this functionality outside of the conventional smart home environment. Underpinning all of this innovation was the need for robust, interoperable, and scalable wireless connectivity solutions that can address the unique needs of different applications, while offering seamless interoperability. Meanwhile, innovation in other areas such as wireless audio, Extended Reality (XR) devices, access control, personal healthcare devices, home networking, and automotive connectivity are all contingent on the continued evolution of these short-range wireless solutions, as well as unique combinations of multiple technologies, along with embedded edge AI capabilities. As a result, wireless innovation was a key theme of CES 2025.

While it was an electric salt spoon that gathered most attention at the show, the real scoops were to be found among various new announcements from wireless solution providers. Leading silicon and software Intellectual Property (IP) provider Ceva had several key announcements at the show, the most interesting of which was arguably its unveiling of the Ceva-Waves Links200, the first multi-protocol platform IP to support next-generation Bluetooth® High Data Throughput (HDT) alongside 802.15.4. This feature will enable Bluetooth® Low Energy (LE) to support data rates of up to 7.5 Megabits per Second (Mbps), a nearly 4X improvement over the current LE 2 Megabit (Mb) PHY and 2.5x Bluetooth® Classic. In addition to a wide range of latency-sensitive Internet of Things (IoT) applications, support for higher throughputs will also enable a significant improvement in the Bluetooth® audio space, enabling lossless, multi-channel, and low-latency audio streaming, increasingly vital in a time of growing competition in the audio space, as discussed below. The company is already engaging with customers working on enabling this feature in their future devices.

Across the board, multi-protocol solutions had a strong presence, with particular emphasis on support for Matter. MediaTek announced a partnership with Google to develop a new smart home-centric Filogic chipset, the MT7903, in which they will combine tri-band Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth® Core 6.0, and IEEE 802.15.4/Thead, acknowledging the wider expansion of hub functionality to smart TVs. Likewise, InnoPhase IoT introduced its new Talaria 6 family of Systems-on-Chip (SoCs), featuring support for Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth® Core 6.0, Thread, and Zigbee, targeting home, building, and healthcare, alongside industrial market opportunities. Meanwhile, other leading wireless vendors such as Synaptics, Silicon Labs, Telink, NXP, and Nordic Semiconductor, were all showcasing multi-protocol solutions with support for Matter, which had a strong presence at the event, both for Wi-Fi and Thread. Leading smart home players such as Shelly Group introduced their Gen 4 series lineup of smart plugs, leak detectors, switches, displays, and other devices, supporting Wi-Fi, Bluetooth®, Zigbee, and Matter. Resideo Technologies introduced its Matter-compliant Wi-Fi Honeywell Home X2S smart thermostat. Aqara demonstrated several Matter controllers, switches, sensor devices, and cameras. And geo showcased its smart energy management solutions in partnership with NXP. All of these showed the importance of Matter to the vision of an interoperable (and eventually AI-enabled) smart home. For additional information on the growth of multi-protocol solutions, please see ABI Research’s free whitepaper on their importance to the future connectivity landscape.

Reverting back, the evolution of wireless audio was undoubtedly a key theme at the show. Ceva also announced a partnership with MediaTek to bring its Ceva-RealSpace Elevate multi-channel spatial audio and head tracking solution to MediaTek’s Dimensity 9400 smartphone chips supporting Bluetooth® LE Audio. Beyond this, there were many LE Audio-enabled hearing aids and true wireless headsets, in addition to a growing number of Auracast™ broadcast audio-enabled devices. One example was JBL’s Tour ONE M3 headphones, which come equipped with the JBL SMART Tx, a touchscreen-enabled Auracast™ broadcast audio transmitter that can connect to a USB-C or analog audio source to enable this broadcast functionality and act as a remote control for the headphones.

However, the audio innovation was not limited to just Bluetooth®. At its booth, Qorvo displays some UWB headset devices, taking advantage of the higher bandwidth, lower latency, and robustness of the technology to provide lossless audio. In a similar vein, I visited the SPARK Microsystems suite, which had several impressive demos that highlighted the benefits of UWB technology beyond simple ranging applications, focusing instead on high throughput, low latency, low power, and robust connectivity between devices. From an audio perspective, its headset solution combined UWB for uncompressed, low latency audio with Bluetooth® LE audio for extended range support, while the low latency benefits of UWB were clearly demonstrated in other demonstrations, including data transmission between wireless speakers and wireless instrument transmitters, enabling wired-liked experiences. The company has already had success in the premium audio space with partnerships with leading vendors such as Focal and its DIVA UTOPIA loudspeaker. Meanwhile, wireless ecosystem innovator InnoPhase IoT demonstrated its High Fidelity Wi-Fi Audio 3D Spatial Audio Headset reference design, enabling lossless and lower latency spatial audio over Wi-Fi, while providing battery life comparable to Bluetooth® LE Audio. The extended range capabilities of Wi-Fi can enable new user experiences, enabling users to listen to their audio throughout the home, be less reliant on their proximity to a source device, and support direct-to-cloud connectivity, allowing streaming service support directly to the headset itself.

While there wasn’t necessarily a groundbreaking announcement that will change the course of the wireless landscape overnight, there were several areas where growing traction is reaffirming the key trends likely to impact this space in the coming years, and several technologies had an encouraging presence to demonstrate the growing interest and wider expansion of use cases. First, in addition to the previous UWB demos, there were several announcements, partnerships, and product unveilings for UWB technology, highlighting the broadening appeal of the technology beyond automotive access control.

In particular, 2025 seems to be the year of UWB-enabled door locks finally arriving on the market. Smart lock brand ULTRALOQ showcased its new Bolt Mission UWB + NFC Smart Deadbolt, which it claimed to be the world’s first lock with UWB technology. Schlage unveiled its UWB and Near Field Communication (NFC)-equipped Sense Pro™ Smart Deadbolt, and in partnership with Qorvo and Modern Smart Lockers, Last Lock introduced its UWB access and navigation technology for lockers. This builds on several other announcements in recent years for automotive keyless entry applications. NXP’s booth had some excellent demos of UWB for both access control and contactless payment and ticketing for mass transit applications, the first deployment of which has already materialized in a partnership with Shenzhen Tong. Meanwhile, other demos from SPARK Microsystems highlighted the benefits of UWB for low-latency gaming peripherals, ultra-low power sensors, and healthcare use cases such as medical implants, wireless imaging, and real-time patient monitoring. While there were many other UWB access and fine-ranging related demos at the show, SPARK Microsystems did an excellent job of showcasing this other side of UWB technology, which has enormous  potential in the years to come. In a similar vein, NXP also demoed its latest wireless battery management system based on UWB technology, enabling robust wireless communications to help eliminate complex wiring, enable greater flexibility, and reduce development costs for Electric Vehicle (EV) manufacturers. Finally, UWB radar solutions, and combined ranging and sensing solutions also had a presence in various booths for a variety of applications. For example, Qorvo was showcasing its automotive-qualified QPF5100Q UWB SoC, capable of supporting both digital key applications and UWB radar use cases such as child presence detection and motion sensing, announcing that it was now sampling with key customers. Meanwhile, NXP also highlighted consumer-centric UWB ranging and sensing use cases following the late 2024 release of the Trimension SR250, the first single-chip solution combining secure ranging and short-range radar.

Extended range connectivity was another key theme of the show. At the Z-Wave Alliance Ballroom, several vendors were demonstrating the capabilities of Z-Wave Long Range for both extended home and even some emerging commercial applications. Continuing the theme of door locks, Alfred International demonstrated its Z-Wave Long Range Certified DB2S Smart Lock and ML2 Smart Mortise Lock, powered by Silicon Labs’ Z-Wave 800 Series, which was also demonstrating its chipset solutions at the booth. Impressively, these door locks also support Wi-Charge AirCord wireless power, making deployment simpler and easy to maintain, even in larger homes. Shelly was also highlighting its upgraded Z-Wave lineup with support for Z-Wave Long Range, providing 1-mile connectivity, support for up to 4,000 devices, and improved energy efficiency, following its release in December.

Extended range Wi-Fi was also at the forefront of innovation at CES 2025. Morse Micro announced the launch of its second-generation sub-Gigahertz (GHz) Wi-Fi chip, the MM8180 SoC, promising significant improvements in range, throughput, and power efficiency. The new chip is now capable of supporting data rates of up to 43.33 Mbps over ranges that greatly surpass existing Wi-Fi solutions, thanks to its world’s-first support for 256-Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) operation. However, arguably just as important is the availability of the MM8108-RDO9 USB dongle reference design, aimed at speeding up the integration of Wi-Fi HaLow within new Access Point (AP) designs or existing Wi-Fi infrastructure. The company was also demonstrating its HaLowLink 1 router reference design, combining Wi-Fi HaLow and 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi to create dedicated Wi-Fi HaLow networks, extended the range of already deployed Wi-Fi devices, or to extend the range of the existing Wi-Fi network. Meanwhile, other Wi-Fi HaLow solution providers such as Newracom were also present at the show, demonstrating the growing variety of chipsets, module partners, gateways, APs, bridges, sensors, and security cameras—all equipped with Wi-Fi HaLow technology. All in all, CES 2025 reaffirmed the takeaways from ABI Research’s recent whitepaper on how Wi-Fi HaLow Is Poised to Transform the IoT Market, and we expect to see many new products and partnerships unveiled throughout the year. 

While it is always impossible to capture everything that happens at CES, other technologies with a strong presence at the show included Wi-Fi 7. New gaming routers from ASUS, mesh nodes from TP-Link and NETGEAR, and Personal Computer (PC) platforms from Intel, among many other devices, show the continued proliferation of Wi-Fi 7 technology, as highlighted in this recent ABI Insight. There were also numerous demonstrations of Bluetooth® Channel Sounding. which is poised to shape the future of device positioning, alongside LE Audio, Auracast™ broadcast audio, and UWB ranging, throughout various booths at the event. Meanwhile, BARROT unveiled its latest Bluetooth® Core 6.0 stack, alongside its Wi-Fi 7, LE Audio, Bluetooth® Channel Sounding, and ultra-low energy solutions for the automotive and IoT markets.          

Connectivity had a strong presence at the show, but there were some interesting recurring themes that showed some of the challenges that the industry is still facing. Chief among these was the need to reduce development and certification time, cost, and complexity, to help accelerate time to market and to attract new entrants and members to various connectivity ecosystems. This was perhaps most amplified in the CES 2025 announcements from the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA). First, there is the FastTrack Recertification Program, which aims to enable product developers to deliver bug fixes, firmware and security updates, and new features, without the cost and complexity of a full recertification process. Second, the Portfolio Certification Program enables multiple Zigbee and Matter products to be certified at once under a parent product, again accelerating time to market and keeping costs down. Finally, and perhaps most interestingly from a wider ecosystem perspective, the CSA will offer end-to-end certification and testing to help streaming the “Works With” certification process for Works with Apple Home, Works with Google Home, and Samsung’s SmartThings. This helps users avoid multiple rounds of certification for different ecosystems, which can severely delay the time to market. ABI Research expects that accelerating time to market and reducing certification complexity will be a key theme from many major organizations going forward, across different parts of the ecosystem. Highlighting this further at the Z-Wave Alliance ball, Trident IoT, a new entrant to the semiconductor market positioning itself as a company dedicated to simplifying IoT development, had some excellent demonstrations of this concept following its announcement that it had become the first company to achieve Z-Wave Alliance certification for its semiconductors and Software Development Kit (SDK).

Ecosystem formation, beyond Matter, is another challenge that remains. While ABI Research expects Bluetooth® Channel Sounding to be relatively swiftly adopted in smartphones, this will not be an overnight process and could cause some delays in adoption of end-market solutions, similar to some of the challenges that the rollout of Auracast™ broadcast audio-enabled devices has faced. Similarly, UWB also needs to extend its presence in mobile devices for more vendors to invest in the technology, whether for door locks, automotive access, or other emerging use cases, while also facing some stronger competition from Bluetooth® Channel Sounding solutions. Likewise, Wi-Fi HaLow, while undoubtedly growing in traction, would benefit enormously from adoption in Wi-Fi APs, mesh nodes, and other smart home hub devices to help accelerate interest from device manufacturers.

Overall, CES 2025 firmly re-emphasized the importance of wireless connectivity innovation in enabling the future vision of the intelligent home for smart home broadband access, wearable and personal healthcare devices, home entertainment platforms, smart home hubs and sensors, personal assistant and cleaning robotics, and a whole host of audio products. In addition, when compared with my last visit, it was also good to see how hard the industry is working to tackle some of the key barriers that have held the market back historically, most notably challenges around interoperability, certification, and time to market, and taking advantage of new or multiple connectivity technologies that have their own unique advantages, whether that be UWB, channel sounding, or extended range Wi-Fi, among several others.