20/25 Vision: A Clear Look at the Technology Trends that will Define 2025

Every year the future seems to promise bigger, better technological marvels. And every year I take time to think deeply about which technology trends will truly shape the year to come. As 2025 edges closer, the technology landscape is marked by economic and geopolitical uncertainty, major shifts in consumer behavior, an expanding digital ecosystem, and intense pressure for businesses to adopt and integrate AI into their core operations. To compete in an environment like this one, business leaders must be able to differentiate between fleeting hype and the technologies that will drive lasting change-and it is this need that sits at the heart of my December ritual. My love for innovation, emerging technology, and our customers compels me.

1. Agentic AI will take center stage, delivering on AI's long-promised vision of personalization and efficiency.

In 2025, AI won't just be a tool; it will be a collaborator. Many AI-powered tools in use today are based on static rules or datasets. Agentic AI differs in that it can continuously learn from user inputs and integrate contextual information (think: account history, network environment, user behavior patterns and preferences), and make decisions with little to no human oversight. In other words, unlike today's approaches that require user prompts or predefined rules, agentic AI will operate proactively.

Imagine a customer service AI that predicts user needs before a query is made, or a network management AI that identifies potential issues and resolves them autonomously, ensuring uninterrupted service.

These AI agents will not just interact with humans or devices directly, but will also be able to discover, learn, and collaborate with each other to form complex workflows and/or chains of operations to automate even advanced business functions. For instance, multiple AI agents could automate supply chain management by coordinating with each other to forecast demand, optimize inventories, coordinate deliveries, and even negotiate with suppliers. For businesses, this shift means a leap in efficiency and personalization. It also underscores the importance of governance and guardrails. In response to the rise of Agentic AI, we will see organizations implementing mandatory ethical guidelines to ensure fairness and transparency in algorithmic decisions and protecting intellectual property.

2. We will see the first instances of humanoids and humans working together, forcing companies to reimagine workplace dynamics.

The future of work won't be a binary choice between humans or machines.  It will be an "and." AI-powered humanoids will form a part of the future workforce, and we will likely see the first instance happen next year. This will force companies to completely reimagine their workplace dynamics - and the technology that powers them. For example, companies will need to ensure their connectivity has the right levels of latency and throughput, because the humanoids' performance will be driven by their ability to process and analyze data in real time.

At the same time, organizations must ensure their security postures keep pace. Not only to ensure the data being processed by humanoids (and humans!) is kept safe, but also to keep the humanoids safeguarded from hacking and threatening tweaks to their software and commands. And all while keeping the transparency required in a hybrid work environment where humans and machines are pursuing common goals together.

This human and machine collaboration will be inspiring and allow organizations to greatly scale operations but will also likely trigger concerns about AI replacing jobs. Leaders will need to be clear and uncompromising about harnessing AI's power without losing the human touch that defines world-class customer experiences.

3. AI will surface tough reality checks for companies as they face the challenges of AI implementation - especially around infrastructure and data readiness.

AI will continue to captivate businesses, promising unprecedented innovation and efficiency, and companies will continue to invest in AI-powered solutions. This is hardly a prediction. But as AI journeys progress, so too will the understanding that the path is fraught with hurdles. Despite billions of dollars invested into AI models and AI-powered solutions in 2024, new data from Cisco's AI Readiness Indexshows that AI readiness has declinedby one point globally over the past year-now only 13% of companies are ready to leverage AI-powered technologies to their full potential.

In 2025 organizations will grapple with how best to secure the right level of compute power to meet AI workloads (today, only 21% of organizations say they have the necessary GPUs to meet current and future AI demands). Companies will need to lean on their strategic partners to identify and prioritize their AI use cases, upskill their teams, and modernize their infrastructure environments in a progressive, proportional way. IT teams will experience increasing pressure to optimize the management, hygiene, labelling, and organization of data, which is currently spread across multiple systems and locations. This mandate will apply to structured data typically associated with existing business processes, as well as unstructured data related to customer and user interactions. As teams work feverishly to prepare their environments for AI, boards and leadership teams will realize that significant gains from AI will happen in the long run and progressively - starting now and improving over time - especially in areas like opening new revenue streams and improving profitability. Many boards will find themselves readjusting expectations, timelines and priorities that were established mere months ago as companies reckon with the "messy middle" of AI implementation. Let's play the "long game."

4. Cybersecurity will see new threats - and companies will augment humans with machine scale capabilities in response.

The rise of AI also brings a new era of cybersecurity challenges. In 2025, companies must up their security postures to address entirely new types of risk introduced by AI. One such example is prompt injection attacks-where malicious inputs are disguised as legitimate user prompts in generative AI systems. According to the latest Cisco AI Readiness Index, only 30% of companies globally said they have the capabilities to tackle these threats.

And AI isn't the only factor adding pressure to security teams. Advancements in quantum computing will force companies to reckon with the vulnerabilities of traditional encryption methods to quantum-powered attacks. As quantum computing inches toward mainstream adoption in 2025, we will see organizations adopting quantum-resistant security protocols to safeguard sensitive data. And, the rise of digital ecosystems and platforms further complicates the landscape. Things are more connected than ever before - and as things become increasingly connected, the sophistication of attacks grows too. In 2025, we'll see increased risk of social engineering and supply chain attacks.

As attackers shift their tactics to compromise users and endpoints, aiming for lateral movement to maximize the impact of their attacks, the network will become a crucial pillar of security. The network's ability to provide visibility into the environment will make it the first and last line of defense. We will see organizations integrating AI to augment human capabilities to fortify the network as a pivotal line of defense and policy enforcement.

5. Network downtime due to misconfiguration will approach zero (!)

Over 40% of network outages are directly caused by misconfigurations, and can cost businesses 9% of their total annual revenue. As such, one of the most promising developments on the horizon is the potential for AI to virtually eliminate these manual misconfiguration mishaps. Intelligent, automated tools can execute automated workflows throughout the network lifecycle and provide traceability for every action. AI-driven tools are set to revolutionize network management and assurance, learning and benchmarking from each configuration to reduce errors and ensure uninterrupted operations. We will see misconfigurations decline rapidly as AI adoption grows, making automation accessible to more organizations, and we expect to see network downtime caused by human error rapidly approach zero. This is good news! Because as businesses increasingly rely on digital platforms, continuous network uptime becomes a critical resilience component directly tied to customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.

6. Companies will need help to balance sustainability and growth in an AI-powered era.

The environmental impact of AI is the elephant in a lot of rooms. AI requires high energy consumption levels that impact carbon emissions across the board. By 2025, the amount of energy used by data centers dedicated to AI is expected to match the amount consumed by a country the size of the Netherlands in one year. Indeed, in many of my AI conversations with customers, sustainability emerges as a core concern.

In 2025, customers will increasingly seek out partners who can deploy technology while helping them meet their net-zero commitments and sustainability goals on their current timeline. Businesses that win will be those who prioritize energy-efficient products and circularity in business models. Interestingly, AI-powered technology could also play a crucial role in unlocking energy efficiencies. Businesses will see AI unlock a new era of "energy networking" that combines software-defined networking capabilities with an electric power system made up of direct current (DC) micro grids to deliver more visibility into emissions, and a platform for optimizing power usage, distribution, and storage. In 2025, AI will be both the "what" and the "how" in this space, bringing us vast capabilities anda continuous learning method for delivering them more sustainably.

Looking Ahead with Expectation

This time next year, we will be closing out the first quarter of our century. 2025 marks a pivotal moment in our technological journey where AI, cybersecurity, data governance, and sustainability converge to redefine the business environment. Embracing these trends with strategic foresight and pragmatism will empower companies to navigate challenges and seize opportunities for growth and excellence. The technology trends at play in 2025 will redefine the interplay between technology and humanity. So let's embrace the future with optimism, and work to shape a world where technology and humanity thrive in harmony - for good.

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