Okay, so CES 2026 just wrapped, and I gotta be honest, it felt less like a tech show and more like a wake. A wake for the PC, I mean. Look, I’ve been doing this gig for fifteen years, seen more tech cycles than I care to count, and this one? This feels different. It’s not just a slump or a shift. From where I was standing in Vegas, the personal computer, the thing that basically built modern computing, seems like it’s well and truly on its way out. Like, for real this time.

My Brain Melted (Or Just Gave Up on PCs)

You know how CES usually has halls dedicated to, like, everything PC? Gaming rigs, business machines, those weird all-in-ones nobody buys? Yeah, not this year. Or not like that anyway. What we saw instead was this overwhelming, almost suffocating wave of “AI Everywhere” devices that… weren’t really PCs. I’m talking about smart home gadgets with more processing power than my first desktop. Wearables that promised to manage my entire digital life without me ever needing to open a laptop. Even the fridges were trying to be your personal assistant, which, honestly, kinda freaks me out a little. What’s next, my toaster offering stock tips?

And the “AI PCs” that did show up? They felt like a desperate attempt to stick a new label on the same old box. Slap an NPU in there, call it revolutionary, and hope nobody notices it’s still, you know, a box. With a screen. And a keyboard. Which, don’t get me wrong, I still use daily. But the buzz, the actual innovation, the stuff that made you stop and say, “Holy smokes, I need that” – it wasn’t in the PC section. It was in the autonomous farm equipment section (no kidding, that was huge), or the medical wearables that can predict a heart attack a week out. Wild stuff. But not PC stuff.

The “Good Enough” Problem Just Got Worse

Here’s the thing: most people don’t need a new PC every year, or even every three years anymore. My mom’s five-year-old laptop does exactly what she needs it to do: check email, watch cat videos, complain about Facebook. It’s “good enough.” And honestly, for a lot of us, our phones are “good enough” for an awful lot of tasks too. So, if the PC isn’t getting dramatically better in ways that actually matter to the average person, and everything else is getting smarter, more connected, and more personalized, then who cares about the next incremental CPU bump? Nobody, that’s who. This was big. Really big.

Is Anyone Actually Surprised, Though?

If I’m being honest, this has been coming for a while, hasn’t it? We’ve seen this pattern before. Remember when netbooks were supposed to save everything? Or tablets were gonna replace laptops? They didn’t, not entirely, but they definitely chipped away at the PC’s dominance. This time, though, it feels different because the competition isn’t just another form factor; it’s an entire paradigm shift. It’s about AI being baked into the fabric of everything, not just a feature on a specific device. It’s about ambient computing, where your tech just is there, helping you, without you having to boot up a machine.

“The PC isn’t dead; it’s just becoming less central, fading into the background like the humble washing machine. Necessary, but not exciting.” – A weary industry analyst I overheard in line for coffee.

Here’s Where It Gets Real

The implications are pretty massive. For years, the PC was the hub. It was where you created, where you consumed, where you connected. Now? That hub is dissolving. It’s scattering across your phone, your smart speaker, your car, your glasses, maybe even your damn shoes. And the companies that built their empires on the PC – I’m looking at you, Intel, Microsoft, HP, Dell – they’re scrambling. They’re trying to pivot to AI, to services, to anything that isn’t just “faster chip, prettier screen.” It’s like watching a bunch of cruise ships trying to turn into speedboats in a hurricane. It’s not pretty, and frankly, some of them probably won’t make it.

And think about developers. If the primary platform isn’t a PC anymore, what does that mean for software? For gaming? For creativity tools? It means everything shifts. You don’t optimize for a desktop; you optimize for a cloud-connected, context-aware, voice-controlled, multi-device ecosystem. That’s a whole different ballgame. The old guard might call it progress, but I call it a massive headache for anyone who’s been comfortable in the PC ecosystem for the last thirty years. My fingers are still kinda trained for a keyboard, you know?

So, What Now? My Two Cents.

Look, the PC isn’t gonna vanish overnight. We’ll still have them for specialized tasks, for hardcore gamers (though even that’s shifting to streaming, isn’t it?), for people who just like having a big screen and a physical keyboard. But its cultural relevance, its status as the default computing device for everyone? That’s gone. Poof. And CES 2026, for me, was the undeniable proof. It felt like the industry finally admitted it, even if they were still trying to sell us “AI PCs” with a straight face.

What this actually means is we’re moving into an era where computing is everywhere and nowhere all at once. It’s ambient. It’s invisible. It’s integrated so deeply into our lives that we probably won’t even call it “computing” anymore. And for the generation growing up now, the idea of sitting down at a dedicated “personal computer” might seem as quaint as dialing a rotary phone. It’s not entirely clear yet what the full implications are, but I’m telling you, that big old beige box – or even the sleek aluminum slab – its time in the sun is pretty much over. Prepare yourselves, folks. It’s a new world out there.