No one has a crystal ball to see the future, but making predictions for the coming year has become as ingrained a ritual as enjoying the holiday season. Our desire to assess and face the future with optimism takes precedence. So, building on the lessons of 2024, what to expect for 2025? Spoiler: it’s all about advances in Generative AI, more emphasis on cybersecurity, and ethical governance.
In 2021, experts at the Pew Research Center said that 2025 would be much more tech-driven, but also that there would be more inequality, more authoritarianism, and more misinformation. We’re right there. But it also means that we have a lot of room for improvement.
2024 has been the year of Artificial Intelligence (AI), which has already permeated everything, regardless of the sector, but it still presents many challenges both technologically (aggregated data or AI-ready data) and in terms of sustainability. In this sense, new quantum chips offer up an entire new realm of possibilities.
So, probably the start of 2025 will be no different. There are new AI models “designed to spend more time thinking before they respond,” whatever that means. And in general, experts predict that Generative AI will continue to develop new applications, with new approaches to cybersecurity and the ethical issues that arise as a result.
A small step towards AGI
Joan Mas, Scientific Director of Eurecat‘s Digital Area, predicts “disruptive applications in practically all economic verticals, new models and improved algorithms as well as greater integration with other technologies such as robotics or quantum computing.”
He also believes that by 2025, a new branch of artificial intelligence, known as Agentic AI, will emerge, combining different techniques, models and approaches to artificial intelligence and “give rise to a new generation of autonomous agents capable of analyzing data, setting goals and taking action to achieve them, all with minimal human oversight.”
So, what’s the difference between this Agentic AI and Generative AI (AGI)? “Similar to human cognition, Agentic AI is a form of artificial intelligence that can solve dynamically changing issues on its own. It can be considered as a small step towards a higher stage of AI, known as artificial general intelligence (AGI), which is still a long way off today due to computers’ challenges in understanding the context in its totality and learning and reacting in accordance with human patterns”, he says.
Eurecat’s team also mentions that designing and manufacturing specialized chips for key areas of the economy will be a crucial trend next year. According to Ricard Jimenez, Scientific Director of Eurecat’s Industrial Area, “we will see initiatives aimed at designing and manufacturing the specific chips required by some applications for key sectors of our economy, such as automotive, electronics for industry and the Internet of Things (IoT), medical devices and wearables, among others”. There will also be measures to improve the efficiency of these devices, resulting in a much more sustainable sector. The first examples “will be technologies for cooling semiconductors or materials for encapsulating chips.”
Compliance and Cybersecurity
It goes without saying that all of these developments, at least in Europe, will have to comply with the European regulation of artificial intelligence (AI Act), which will require the certification of AI systems marketed in Europe, as well as the European Chips Act, which seeks to strengthen the continent’s competitiveness and resilience in this critical sector, key to the digital and green transitions.
Furthermore, another significant challenge will be ensuring that all of these innovations are safe and trustworthy. Cybersecurity is critical as new developments enable more sophisticated cyber assaults. Ransomware-as-a-Service, AI-powered attacks, and vulnerabilities in IoT devices are just a few of the emerging hazards that enterprises must manage.
Experts at the Center for Internet Security warn about the advances in quantum to challenge current cybersecurity measures by potentially breaking common cryptographic algorithms, and advise the adoption of zero trust security models, AI-assisted Cybersecurity tools and, above all, a “culture of responsibility and awareness across the workforce.”
Sustainability is key
Last but not least, Miquel Rovira, Eurecat’s Sustainability Area Director, reports that there is an increasing interest in investing in natural capital. “We will soon see how omics sciences, artificial intelligence, satellite images, the use of drones and the development of new sensors, in addition to typically environmental technologies such as ecological restoration and site decontamination, will become notorious for making this challenge a reality, which is at the same time an emerging business opportunity”.
That’s for a reason, because we absolutely need to protect the world, regardless of what climate change skeptics claim.
At the end of the day, we should probably remember that we need to be human, and that AI is best viewed as a tool for increasing productivity and freeing up time for higher-order tasks.
Therefore, in 2025, the most significant advancement should be establishing new rules for living in this AI-driven tech reality, which adds a new layer to the new rules we currently need for media, dating, parenting or even partying…
At the IOT Solutions World Congress, we will continue to push the boundaries of technology, harnessing the power of IoT to connect to the next level.
Wishing you a year of innovation, breakthroughs, and endless possibilities in the world of emerging tech and IoT!
Article by: Anna Solana