Washington AI Network Hosts exclusive Preview of CES 2026 with Gary Shapiro and Kinsey Fabrizio

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Gary Shapiro, CEO and vice chair of the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), and CTA President Kinsey Fabrizio lifted the veil on CES 2026 for a podcast taping at a Washington AI Network event.

CES, widely regarded as the most influential technology event in the world, brings together global innovators as a proving ground for breakthrough technologies. Shapiro told Washington AI Network founder Tammy Haddad, “We have a lot of people not only from Washington, but literally from government capitals around the world… and the reaction to CES is off the charts. In a time of great change and great crisis, they want to come together.” President Kinsey Fabrizio said, “It is important is for public-private cooperation and collaboration, and in order to do that, you want to understand how the tech is created and what it’s capable of and what the challenges are, what the opportunities are, and the best way to do that is by seeing it in person and walking through the show floor and getting a demo.”

Shapiro, who has led CTA for more than three decades and helped transform CES into a global platform for innovation, praised President Donald Trump’s leadership on artificial intelligence. He underscored the sweeping impact AI will have on the economy, saying it “will save the economy and give him (Trump) a place in history,” and compared the coming wave of AI-driven change to the arrival of the internet, predicting “generational change.”

The conversation turned to digital health with Fabrizio, who launched CTA’s Health Division at CES 2015 and spearheaded the first Continuing Medical Education (CME)-accredited conference at CES 2019. She highlighted innovations such as a portable MRI featured at CES, which she said can be deployed in underserved communities in the United States and around the world, expanding access to critical healthcare services.

The evening drew a strong Washington crowd. Guests spotted at the event included Kara Swisher and Amanda Katz, Lynda Carter, Alex Flemister, Karen Sessions, Robert Hayes, Barbara Humpton, John Taylor, J.P. Freire, Elizabeth Falcone, Luther Lowe, Marie Baldassarre, Sara Fischer, Senay Bulbul, Thomas Pacchia, Montgomery Odle, Tina Anthony, Michael Block, Michael Moroney, Sam Feist, Liz Johnson, Liz Hart, Helen Milby, and Alex Allaire.​Listeners can hear more about CES 2026 and its featured innovations on the Washington AI Network podcast here.