Build a better mousetrap and the world apparently will beat a path to your door. Alternatively, if you don’t actually have any new ideas, perhaps you can just rebrand the existing device as AI-powered.

Proclaiming the benefits of the latest technology is a well-tried staple of the retail business. So it should not have required expensive visits to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to predict that every absurd gadget is finding ways to incorporate the promise of AI into its latest merchandise.

There is always a new thing. Once it was digital (glows in the dark). Then it was online (if your modem was up to it). Then it was items with an “e” in front of them, at least until Steve Jobs replaced the “e” with an “i”. Then “connected”, “smart”, “voice-activated” and “virtual”.