‘Nobody Can Avoid It’: Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing’s Blunt Warning to AI Skeptics at CES 2026

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CES 2026 just reached its peak “Main Character” energy. As of Thursday, January 8, 2026, Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing took the stage at The Sphere in Las Vegas to deliver a reality check that has the tech world buzzing.

When asked what he’d say to the growing crowd of AI skeptics, Yang didn’t offer a long, corporate lecture. He gave a blunt, four-word prophecy: “Nobody can avoid it.” Or nothing.1 Let’s be real, it sounds a bit like a sci-fi villain’s monologue, but it’s the most honest take we’ve heard all week. Those too.

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The “Tech World” Log: January 2026

It’s an ongoing situation where Lenovo is trying to move past “AI as a feature” and toward “AI as the air you breathe.”

  • Meet Qira: This is the big one. Lenovo (and Motorola) launched Qira, a “Personal Ambient Intelligence System.”2 It isn’t an app you open; it’s baked into the OS of your laptop, phone, and tablet.3

  • Project Maxwell: They also showed off a wearable “AI Companion” pin.4 It has a camera and mic that literally sees what you see and hears what you hear.5 The goal? It orders your Ubers, summarizes your meetings, and translates conversations in real-time.

  • The “Kicker”: CTO Tolga Kurtoglu added his own salt to the wound, saying, “I don’t see a world without AI.” They’re basically telling us to get on board or get left behind.6

  • The Gear: We saw rollable laptops that expand sideways (Legion Pro Rollable) and a ThinkPad (Rollable XD) where the screen wraps around the lid.7 It’s messy, futuristic, and very CES.

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Lenovo’s AI Roadmap: Q1 2026

[Table: Key AI Deployments]

Product / Service Feature Availability
Lenovo Qira Cross-device “Agentic” AI (Syncs PC & Phone) Rolling out Q1 2026
Project Maxwell Perceptive Wearable (The “AI Pin” killer?) Concept / Proof of Concept
Aura Edition PCs Intel “Panther Lake” chips with 50+ NPU TOPS Available Now
Motorola Razr FIFA AI-driven sports tracking & 3nm Snapdragon Jan 2026

And Here’s the Kicker…

While Yang is shouting “no escape” from the rooftops, the actual users aren’t so sure. CNET just dropped a survey showing that only 11% of people actually care about AI when buying a new phone.8 The thing is, Lenovo’s own data says AI PCs will make up 70% of the market by 2028.9

So, whether you want an “AI washing machine” or not, you’re probably going to get one. It’s an ongoing situation where the industry has decided the future for us, and the “opt-out” button is getting harder to find.

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End…

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