Is 2026 the year we fully enter the Future of Health?

By Neal Batra, principal, and Andy Davis, principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP

We are still reviewing the notes and videos we took during the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Based on what we heard from attendees, what we saw during presentations, and what we experienced on the floor of the exhibit hall, the Future of Health^TM that we outlined six years ago is becoming a reality. We don’t expect this transition to be the result of a single breakthrough. Rather, it will likely be a convergence of detailed health information, actionable analytics driven by artificial intelligence (AI), financial pressure, and a shifting mindset among clinicians, employers, and consumers.

Virtually every stakeholder—from health plans and health systems to biopharma companies and medtech to employers—is expected to contain costs and improve margins. Done well, that expectation could help accelerate innovation by aligning the market around a prevention-first mode of care. There appears to be an understanding among those stakeholders that managing costs should go hand in hand with designing a new model of care that is built around well-being, disease prevention, and early detection.

The following trends, which were on display at this year’s conference, help illustrate where the future of health is heading:

Robotics: We saw some surgical robots at last year’s conference, but the technology appeared more advanced and seemed more visible this year. Costs for some robots are expected to decline due to market competition, innovations, and economies of scale. Over the next five years, prices for orthopedic robotics, for example, could fall as much as 30%ⁱ. As costs decline, certain procedures could become more accessible and affordable for consumers. The combination of robotics and AI could help shift health care from decision support to embodied work. We were able to play around with one device that would allow a surgeon to operate on a patient 1,000 miles away. (See AI readiness in medtech.)
Consumer-centric designs: Some manufacturers appear to be getting better at hiding their technology and making their devices more consumer-friendly. In fact, many of the devices we saw did not look like devices at all. Some stylish eyeglasses, for example, featured open-ear hearing aid technology, closed captioning, or provided a live transcription of conversationsⁱⁱ. Neal fell asleep on the expo floor just a few minutes after putting on a soft tech-enabled headband. The device tracks the wearer’s brain activity and syncs it to acoustic stimulation to induce sleepⁱⁱⁱ.
Wearables and sensors: The wearable market is expected to accelerate from $314 billion in 2025 to $358 billion this year^iv. At CES, we saw a wide range of data-gathering jewelry (e.g., rings, watches, wristbands, and necklaces) and a thin skin patch that uses perspiration to track biomarkers^v. The data could encourage consumers to ask more informed questions during office visits, which could help build trust and strengthen their relationship with clinicians (see Advancing connected care).

The gap between measurement and meaning
Many of the wearables and sensors we saw at CES can generate detailed information about a person’s health. However, consumers typically receive generic rule-of-thumb guidance about what to do with the data. Actionable insights, combined with nudging and coaching, could help empower consumers to change their behaviors. If wearable manufacturers are unable to develop such insights on their own, they might need to partner with companies that can transform data into personalized actions (see The consumer mandate: a prescription for the future).

Our session at this year’s CES explored how disease prevention, early detection, and behavior change could help reduce health costs and transform care. The gap between generating data and creating information that consumers will find meaningful and actionable was a common theme during our discussion.

Pankaj Gupta, associate vice president of information technology at Lilly USA, told attendees that he drives an electric car. If he begins to drift into another lane on the freeway, the car alerts him so he can take immediate corrective action. By contrast, a wearable device might provide the consumer with data about their sleeping patterns, heart rate, or blood pressure, but it doesn’t suggest any type of action, he said. In the future, these devices might flag elevated blood pressure and orchestrate immediate action (for example, automatically scheduling a doctor’s appointment) before subtle early disease symptoms progress.

Nichole Young Lin, M.D., an obstetrician-gynecologist and clinical lead for consumer health generative AI at Google, agreed that while wearable devices are capable of generating vast amounts of data, they don’t tend to offer actionable insight. “It's like a treasure chest that has not yet been unlocked,” she said. Detailed health information from wearables combined with AI could be the key, she said, adding that data alone might not be enough to change behaviors. For example, a woman with gestational diabetes might continue to eat fast food even though she understands the health risks. Nichole said there is an opportunity to use data to strengthen the connection between consumers and their clinicians to motivate behavior change. Tailored messaging from an app or wearable device, for example, might encourage consumers to work with their doctors to develop a personalized care plan.

The panel agreed that care should be personalized. Health outcomes are shaped by multiple factors, including access to care, environment, and genetics^vi. For example, some individuals have a genetic predisposition to cancer or Alzheimer’s disease. But those diseases can also be heavily influenced by lifestyle. Modifiable risk factors contribute to about 80% of diabetes cases^vii and almost half of cancer-related deaths^viii. Nicole described personalization as the “Holy Grail” of health care. (See our full CES 2026 session here, Investing in wellness: Trillions saved, healthier futures.)

Transitioning from reactive to proactive care
People who maintain better health tend to incur lower health care costs over their lifetimes—even when they live years longer—than those in poorer health. Although expenses tend to spike in the final 12–24 months of life, Deloitte research suggests that healthier aging reduces the likelihood of chronic disease and decreases total lifetime health care costs (see Safeguarding Medicare: Proactive care could unlock $500B in annual program savings). For instance, adults who have strong cardiovascular health in midlife can typically delay heart disease by nearly seven years and shrink the period of severe illness from almost five years to a little more than one^ix. This effect, known as compression of morbidity, allows people to spend more years in good health and fewer years managing serious illness. Deloitte’s actuarial models estimate that preventing or delaying heart disease, shortening severe illness, and reducing hospitalizations could save more than $125 billion.

Conclusion
Today, health care spending is largely reactive. Health systems and clinicians focus on treating conditions after they develop, while only a small percentage of spending goes to prevention, early detection, and broader well-being. This imbalance contributes to higher long-term costs and worse outcomes. But this imbalance is also an opportunity: redirecting more investment toward proactive care could reduce spending and improve the quality of life.

Our experience at this year’s CES suggests the Future of Health is moving from concept to execution through a convergence of smarter and more consumer-centric devices, increasingly sophisticated technologies, and sustained financial pressure to bend the cost curve. Robotics, wearables, and consumer-facing tools can help improve the ability to measure health. The next wave of innovation could help close the gap between measurement and meaning—turning continuous data into timely, personalized guidance and coordinated actions that prevent disease (or detect it earlier) and support sustained behavior change in partnership with clinicians. If stakeholders can align incentives, trust, and interoperability around this proactive model, the payoff could be substantial. The technology we saw at CES appears ready to take us into the Future of Health. But the transition isn’t likely to happen until empowered consumers demand change and put more pressure on the ecosystem. Stakeholders will need to meet consumers where they are in their health care journey.

Join us for an guided tour around the CES show floor where we will highlight some of the latest tech in our video series: On the ground at CES 2026.

The executives’ participation in this article is solely for educational purposes based on their knowledge of the subject and the views expressed by them are solely their own. This article should not be deemed or construed to be for the purpose of soliciting business for any of the companies mentioned, nor does Deloitte advocate or endorse the services or products provided by these companies.

Is 2026 the year we fully enter the Future of Health?

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