2025 already! Happy New Year! It seems like only yesterday that I was writing the predictions for 2024.
Again, as is tradition, I write this on my Tuesday morning train to London St Pancras. Let’s see how I did based on last year’s predictions. Technology and product: There have been fantastic advances in AI from LLM (Large Language Models), new models with increased context windows, improved reasoning and coding abilities, and integration into mainstream applications such as Microsoft and Salesforce, making AI more available to businesses. The rise of AI agents to drive autonomy and human collaboration. AI in health care and logistics sustainability and the debate of ethics and legal issues continue. However, this is just the beginning. There is still considerable chiasm to cross for AI to be the core of products, but it will come. I completed my MBA last year, and my dissertation was on the disruption of AI on the product value chain, from ideation to post-launch optimisation and marketing. I’ll share my findings in another post, so watch out for that. There are vast opportunities for AI adoption. Hear my warning, though: be careful of the snake oil salespeople who will sell you “I’ to solve all your problems, and they solve none. There are a lot of failures ahead, and for each organisation, immense learning and transformation need to happen to be ready for AI everywhere.
Immersive experience has started with AI glasses, Ray Bans, Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest. This will become increasingly available; however, I have yet to find a large population of people using VR headsets on public transport once I see that I know it’s now mainstream. However, due to sheer cost and connectivity, I don’t expect it to be cool to have mid-air vision poking on the Jubilee line to London Bridge soon!
Organisation strategy and ecosystem have started progressing with AI at the centre, understanding the data context and making integration across varied systems much more manageable. However, executives still hold on to Brand equity and own their channels. Owning channels like the mobile web is great, but thinking beyond channels offering your services, data, and products through every route possible will ensure you are embedded into the ecosystem and allow additional revenue streams. More on ecosystems in the following posts. Doing more with less will still be a key imperative for organisations to ensure they can move at pace with fewer people, as well as automation and technology-enabled rocket boosters. Finally, my wild card last year was friction-free travel and a unified identity to be used at every touch point when I travel. I saw some of this on a cruise I did in Iceland, where they used medallions and biometrics, so you didn’t have to carry your passport; however, there is a long way to go in the airport scenario. I visited Disney World over Christmas, and they have nailed the access journey with tokenised access tokens and fingerprint biometrics. Let’s see how this progresses this year in the airport scenario, with the challenges being the fragmented vendor, legacy technology, and lack of absolute standards for interoperability.
Now to 2025 predictions, if organisations think they can coast into 2025 with the same old tired strategies (cost reduction, growth with existing products and patching up decaying infrastructure), they will be eaten alive. The game has changed; we are not just talking about incremental change any more. We are talking a new ball game with AI disruption across the entire value chain. Armed with AI and the right recipe and configuration, one person can do much more than a whole organisation.
- Varied industries (not just tech) will aggressively adopt AI across customer service, marketing, product development, and even HR, leading to increased efficiency and cost savings; however, there will be more job displacement in some areas. Organisations and individuals should spend 2025 re-skilling in AI for that transition and to stay relevant. Applications could include AI in the retail space for dynamic pricing, personalised recommendations, and inventory optimisation.
- Business model change: The subscription economy has expanded over the years, with the likes of Spotify, Amazon Prime, Netflix and Apple leading the charge for creating growth flywheels where value is continuously added to fuel growth and retention. This year, I see a shift from one-time purchases to recurring revenue models accelerating. More products and services, even those traditionally sold outright, will be offered on a subscription basis. This will create more predictable revenue streams for businesses. For it to succeed, it will require a strong customer-centric focus on retention and value delivery to avoid churn.
- I strongly support sustainability and how it should be intrinsically built into the complete value chain. Consumers and investors will increasingly favour businesses with strong Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices. Organisations will face pressure to reduce their carbon footprint, improve data privacy, and promote ethical AI development. When talking to my 11- and 14-year-olds about product choices, I see they buy sustainability products, whether upcycle or organisations with good ESG records. Sustainability will become a key differentiator and competitive advantage. Companies that lag will face reputational and financial risks.
- Geopolitics will be big this year, especially with President Trump being elected and Elon Musk, who has made an onslaught of comments on Western governments. With this tension, a more nationalistic approach will be taken to technology, with governments seeking greater control over data, infrastructure, and supply chains. This could lead to increased fragmentation of the internet, higher costs for global tech companies, and potential challenges in cross-border collaboration.
- In the past, data privacy has been regulatory-driven. We must adhere to the policies to function. However, data privacy and security will become more strategic this year with growing consumer awareness, and data privacy will become a core part of product strategy and a key competitive differentiator. Companies will invest heavily in security infrastructure, data anonymisation, and privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs). They must be more transparent about their data practices, especially as data is critical for enhancing foundation AI models. More companies will adopt “privacy by design” principles, building privacy protections into their products from the ground up. Ethical considerations will become increasingly important as AI systems become more powerful and pervasive; companies must establish clear guidelines and frameworks for responsible AI development and deployment. This could involve creating AI ethics boards, conducting fairness audits, and being transparent about the potential biases in their AI systems. Companies will need to address issues like algorithmic bias, fairness in AI-driven decision-making, and the possible impact of AI on human autonomy.
2025 will be a year of continued evolution rather than revolution. AI will be the driving force behind many of these changes, profoundly reshaping businesses, strategies, and products. Companies that embrace these trends, prioritise sustainability and ethical considerations, and focus on delivering real value to their customers will be best positioned for success. I am now approaching St Pancreas Station, which is my final stop!
I look forward to connecting with you this year, and let’s see how I do in 2026!
Happy New Year” “nano nano”!
Best,
Bhavesh
Digital Craftsman
I am delightfully Dyslexic, so please forgive the typos!
