CES 2026: AI Humanoid Robots Can Now Wash Your Dishes and Do Your Laundry

At this year’s CES Exhibit in Las Vegas, major technology brands are unveiling AI-powered humanoid robots designed to take on everyday housework, from loading laundry to preparing meals.

For years, learning how to set up a smart home has meant connecting lights, thermostats, and speakers that work in the background. But CES 2026 has revealed a shift away from passive automation toward physical action – machines that don’t just assist or vacuum, but clean, fold, and even cook.

The implications are vast. These robots promise independence for older adults, support for disabled people, and time saved for busy households. These leaps in technology, which are not just embedded but moving independently around our homes, raise questions about affordability, privacy, safety, and what happens to the human labor that powers domestic life.

Announced at CES 2026, AI Humanoid Robots Are Poised to Start Doing Basic Housework

Brands are making a clear play for the next era of home tech, as revealed at CES Las Vegas, the largest annual trade show, which showcases the very latest mesmerizing design and development in smart tech and beyond.

This year is no exception, and humanoid robots are stunning the press and public. LG has unveiled LG CLOiD, a wheeled humanoid designed to coordinate household tasks across connected appliances, while SwitchBot has introduced onero H1, an ‘accessible’ household robot intended to work with its existing ecosystem of smart devices.

This is much more than the next round of gadgets. Zhao Han, assistant professor of human-robot interaction at the University of South Florida, says humanoid form is a technological turning point.

‘We have specialized machines like dishwashers and laundry machines, but many chores, in general, require humans,’ he explains. ‘These household robots are needed as they take, more or less, human forms with human-like hands and moving capabilities to do those general tasks for us.’

While the smart home trends of 2025 focused more on passive AI, working in the background and learning from our behavior, 2026 has well and truly kicked off the era of accessible AI robots actually doing our manual labor at home.

LG CLOiD and the 'Zero Labor Home'

This year, LG is demonstrating its CLOiD robot in realistic home scenarios at CES. In one example, the robot retrieves milk from a refrigerator and places a croissant into the oven. In another, it starts laundry cycles and then folds and stacks clothing after drying. It goes far beyond what today’s smart appliances can do alone, even the best robot vacuums.

‘The LG CLOiD home robot is designed to naturally engage with and understand the humans it serves, providing an optimized level of household help,’ said Steve Baek, president of the LG Home Appliance Solution Company.

LG CLOiD’s design is built for household spaces, with two articulated arms, independently actuated fingers for fine manipulation, and a wheeled base designed for stability around pets and children. LG also positions its ‘Physical AI’ – using vision-language systems trained on household task data – as what makes those actions possible.

‘We will continue our relentless efforts to achieve our Zero Labor Home vision, making housework a thing of the past so that customers can spend more time on the things that really matter,’ Steve adds.

Pricing information and an official release date are yet to be confirmed.

SwitchBot's onero H1

SwitchBot’s onero H1 is framed as a more accessible step toward embodied AI at home. The company says it’s designed to learn and adapt using visual perception, depth awareness, and tactile feedback – aiming to make actions like grasping and opening more reliable in everyday environments.

For now, it's said to be programmed for three basic functions: Dishes, laundry, and organizing shoes, though SwitchBot suggests more capabilities could be added through new training data – an approach that mirrors how other smart tech gadgets that transform your home evolve through software updates.

These early capabilities reveal what these robots are designed to replace. Whilst around 89 million US households have dishwashers (according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration), along with other appliances for laundry and dishes, the chores remain arduous and often despised, as humans still have to load, unload, sort, and handle messy or dirty objects daily.

But as you can see in the above video (provided by SwitchBot), it doesn't appear as if the onero H1 is quite ready to replace the speed or focus of human function. Maybe one day they'll move as efficiently and will start doing laundry like a pro.

SwitchBot tells Homes & Gardens that onero H1 will launch worldwide, and the team is targeting an MSRP (manufacturer's suggested retail price) under $10,000 – but more specific pricing and release date information isn't yet available.

Who Are These Robots Really For?

According to Rich Pleeth, CEO and co-founder of Finmile, the biggest beneficiaries may not be tech enthusiasts necessarily, but those who need it.

‘Robots are not about laziness,’ he said, adding, ‘Humanity will see huge benefits, particularly those who pay the highest cost in time and physical effort – older adults, disabled people, carers, and time-poor households.’

There may also be unexpected social benefits. Zhao Han notes that automating domestic chores could help rebalance unpaid labor, which often disproportionately falls on women (a disappointing 40% more than men, reported by NBC), while reducing physical strain that often leads to long-term health issues.

But it begs the question of who will have access to such sophisticated machines. Even if SwitchBot achieves a sub-$10,000 price tag, only a small proportion of the public would be able to afford it. And typically, it isn't the wealthy who struggle to load the dishwasher properly, need to use adaptive pacing when cleaning, or do their laundry day in and out.

Thomas Anglero, an AI and robotics expert at Anglero, expands on this, ‘For people with financial wealth, these robots replace paid housekeepers. For poorer households, renting a robot for a day or a specific event could offer access to world-class skills without the high price.'

This in itself highlights another potential risk: That humanoid robots could one day replace carers and cleaners, putting people out of work and replacing that human presence with an at-home robot.

Zhao Han believes the change will be uneven: ‘Cleaners will become fewer, limited to niche, specialized areas. Carers’ jobs will remain, but more for the personal touch.’

But as is the case for any smart home must-have, from smart kitchen technology to premium robot vacuums, 'The wealthy will fund the first generation of thousand-dollar robots. That will fund the R&D of cheaper, more accessible robots in the future,’ Thomas speculates.

In that time, however, many of these AI humanoid assets will likely be in the ownership of larger companies, forcing the regular consumer who wishes to rent one to pay a sizeable fee.

Safety, Privacy and the Future of Home Living

A robot that moves through your home using cameras and sensors connected to your Wifi raises inevitable privacy concerns. Fergal Glynn, AI security expert and CMO at Mindgard, warns, ‘Brands should collect the minimum data possible and process information locally. Users need clear options to operate robots offline and delete recordings easily.’

Another potential risk comes from a strong, humanoid robot accidentally damaging delicate cookware, or worse, pets or family members. But while it's easy to immediately feel fear, Chris Matthieu, VP of Developer Ecosystem at RealSense, gives some reassurance, 'Most humanoid robots leverage RealSense 3D stereo depth cameras, allowing them to “see" like humans.

'The RealSense cameras make humanoid robots spatially aware of their surroundings and can see objects and depth at 90 frames per second, which is faster than human perception skills, allowing these robots to react faster than humans.'

The current form of humanoid AI robots may be a little slow and clunky, but one day, perhaps they could pose less of a risk than our own human bodies.

While we wait for robots to do our housework for us, the best robot vacuums and the AI-powered best washing machines are the best we've got.