Gartner, Inc. has unveiled its forecast of the top 10 strategic technology trends that will shape the future of organizations in 2025 and beyond. These trends highlight transformative advancements that CIOs and IT leaders must explore to remain competitive and drive innovation.
Strategic technology trends for 2025
- The Rise of Agentic AI: Transforming Work with Autonomous Decision-Making
Agentic AI systems are poised to revolutionize the workplace by autonomously planning and executing tasks to achieve user-defined goals. This emerging technology promises a virtual workforce capable of offloading and augmenting human responsibilities. According to Gartner, by 2028, at least 15% of daily work decisions will be made autonomously through agentic AI, a significant leap from 0% in 2024.
This goal-driven technology enables adaptable software systems to handle diverse tasks efficiently, driving CIOs to explore its potential. Enterprises and vendors are collaborating to develop secure, robust solutions to unlock the transformative power of agentic AI.
- AI Governance Platforms: Building Trust and Accountability
AI governance platforms help organizations manage the legal, ethical, and operational aspects of AI systems. These platforms enforce policies for responsible AI use, provide transparency, and explain AI processes to foster trust and accountability.
Gartner predicts that by 2028, organizations with comprehensive AI governance platforms will face 40% fewer AI-related ethical incidents, highlighting the importance of adopting these solutions for responsible AI management.
- Disinformation Security: Safeguarding Organizational Integrity
Disinformation security is a growing technology field focused on ensuring integrity, assessing authenticity, preventing impersonation, and tracking harmful information. By 2028, Gartner predicts 50% of enterprises will adopt solutions targeting disinformation security, up from less than 5% today.
With advanced AI and machine learning increasingly used for malicious purposes, disinformation incidents are rising. Left unchecked, such incidents can inflict severe and lasting damage, highlighting the urgency for robust disinformation security measures.
- Postquantum Cryptography: Preparing for Quantum Computing Risks
Postquantum cryptography offers data protection resistant to the decryption risks posed by quantum computing. As quantum computing advances, traditional cryptography methods will become vulnerable, making it crucial for organizations to transition to stronger solutions with sufficient lead time to protect sensitive data.
Gartner predicts that by 2029, quantum computing will render most conventional asymmetric cryptography unsafe, highlighting the need for proactive adoption of postquantum cryptography.
- Ambient Invisible Intelligence: Revolutionizing Everyday Tracking and Sensing
Ambient invisible intelligence uses ultra-low-cost smart tags and sensors to enable large-scale, affordable tracking and sensing. In the long run, it will seamlessly integrate intelligence into daily life.
By 2027, early applications will focus on solving immediate challenges, such as retail stock checking and perishable goods logistics, through low-cost, real-time tracking to enhance visibility and efficiency.
- Energy-Efficient Computing: Reducing IT’s Carbon Footprint
In 2024, reducing carbon footprints is a top priority for IT organizations, especially as compute-intensive applications like AI training, simulation, and media rendering are major energy consumers.
By the late 2020s, emerging technologies such as optical, neuromorphic, and novel accelerators are expected to reduce energy usage in specialized tasks like AI and optimization, driving significant improvements in energy efficiency.
- Hybrid Computing: Pushing the Boundaries of Technological Innovation
Hybrid computing integrates diverse computing paradigms—such as CPUs, GPUs, edge, neuromorphic, and optical computing—to address complex computational challenges. This approach enables organizations to explore new solutions and enhance AI performance beyond current limits.
By combining various compute, storage, and network mechanisms, hybrid computing will drive highly efficient, transformative innovation environments that outperform traditional systems.
- Spatial Computing: Bridging the Gap Between Physical and Virtual Worlds
Spatial computing leverages technologies like augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) to digitally enhance the physical world, offering a next-level interaction between the physical and virtual.
In the next five to seven years, spatial computing will boost organizational effectiveness by streamlining workflows and enhancing collaboration. By 2033, Gartner predicts the spatial computing market will grow to $1.7 trillion, up from $110 billion in 2023.
- Polyfunctional Robots: Transforming Efficiency and Scalability
Polyfunctional robots can perform multiple tasks, replacing task-specific robots designed for a single function. These versatile machines improve efficiency and offer a faster ROI, with designs that enable quick deployment and easy scalability in human environments.
Gartner predicts that by 2030, 80% of humans will interact with smart robots daily, up from less than 10% today.
- Neurological Enhancement: Unlocking the Future of Cognitive Abilities
Neurological enhancement uses brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) to read and decode brain activity, offering transformative potential in human upskilling, next-gen marketing, and performance optimization. These technologies can enhance cognitive abilities, enable brands to understand consumer thoughts and emotions, and improve neural capabilities for better outcomes.
By 2030, Gartner predicts that 30% of knowledge workers will rely on technologies like BMIs to stay relevant in the AI-driven workplace, up from less than 1% in 2024.
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