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I've seen my fair share of smart ovens powered by AI, complete with all their wacky cooking functions, probes, recipe suggestions and other largely unnecessary bells and whistles.
CES always features several smart ovens, and I've become increasingly unimpressed. However, a small and simple oven with some intriguing features caught my attention on the showroom floor this year.
Apecoo's version of the smart oven, called AISO, is not ready for prime time but has some compelling qualities. It's smaller than most smart ovens and doesn't claim to "do it all." But an internal camera and weight sensors help it better understand the food that you've put inside and how best to cook it.
AISO uses images and sensors to identify the 'geometry' of food
Using sensors and a built-in camera, the AISO oven identifies the geometry of food and deploys an ideal cooking time and temperature.
David Watsky/CNETThe AISO identifies food placed inside using images captured by a camera, along with weight sensors. Those sensors help determine details like the thickness of a piece of steak or the volume of a handful of broccoli -- something a camera alone can't do. It then uses its algorithm to identify and deploy a "perfect cooking program," relying on those metrics -- rather than an annoying probe -- to determine the optimal cooking time.
The reps put a packaged granola bar inside to show how the oven would know when something was "not cookable."
David Watsky/CNETIn the words of a rep I spoke with on the showroom floor, the AISO identifies the "geometry and adjusts heat distribution in real-time. Simply place your food inside. AI identifies the ingredients and executes the perfect cooking cycle without you having to press a button."
A smart oven that doesn't outsmart itself
The AISO is a simpler sort of smart oven.
David Watsky/CNETUnlike the expensive smart ovens that came before it, AISO is not overly complicated. There are no steam or bottom-up sear functions -- just classic coil heating and convection.
It also learns as it goes. There's a program for medium-rare, but you can help the oven learn to cook to your preference. The more you cook, the better it gets, since AISO lets you refine what "perfect" means based on your feedback.
In addition to determining an ideal cooking profile for each type of food, the oven identifies and logs nutritional value, calories and other helpful information about the food you're eating. If the goal is to eat more protein over the course of your week, for example, the oven and app can help you keep track.
The product comes with an app, which the company suggests using for the best results, but it doesn't require the app or a Wi-Fi connection to run. Everything is hosted locally on the device, at the edge.
The big caveat? We didn't get to see it cook
We ultimately didn't get to see the oven in action. The reps were using fake food to show how it identifies food and suggests cooking programs, but nothing was actually cooked.
David Watsky/CNETWhile the concept behind the AISO is compelling, it wasn't in full action on the CES showroom floor. Reps were loading it with fake, plastic food to show how the sensors identify food items and suggest cooking times, but that's where the demo ended. Preorders are now live, and reps tell me that the first units are likely to ship before the end of 2026.
This smart oven has my full attention, but only time and testing will determine if this slightly less smart smart oven is worth space on your kitchen counter. I, for one, can't wait to see the oven in its full form, cooking "perfect" medium-rare steaks without any cooking time calculation or oven-watching required.
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