2024 was a big year for artificial intelligence. 2025 could be even bigger. Business Insider spoke with more than 10 leading figures in the industry about the future of AI. Here are their opinions:
If 2024 was the year companies started implementing AI, 2025 could be the year they start tailoring it to their needs.
Some say AI will become so integrated into our lives that we won’t even notice it’s there.
“Like the internet and electricity, AI will become less of a selling point and more of a driver of tangible results,” Tom Biegala, co-founder of frontier technology-focused venture firm Bison Ventures, told Business. he told Insider via email.
And as companies integrate that technology into their businesses, they will need to focus more on managing it responsibly.
“By 2025, we expect more enterprise companies to recognize that investing in AI governance is as important as deploying AI itself,” said Navrina Singh, founder of Credo AI, an AI governance platform. “It will be done,” he said.
Business Insider interviewed 13 leading figures in the technology industry, from startup founders to investors, to get their best guesses on what to expect from AI in 2025.
Investment will continue to increase rapidly.
“The AI hype cycle may stabilize, but AI investment will skyrocket,” Imad Akhund, CEO of Mercury, which provides banking services to startups, told BI electronically. He spoke via email.
He believes interest in AI will continue as companies move from experimentation to using it in real-world areas such as customer service, sales, and finance.
“Companies will leverage AI to increase productivity, especially in back-office operations and document management, helping small teams scale quickly and operate more efficiently,” he said. ” he said.
Under the Trump administration, new leadership at the Federal Trade Commission could foster a more favorable environment for mergers, acquisitions, and IPOs in the AI industry.
“We expect M&A to increase by at least 35% next year,” Tomasz Tungs, founder of venture capital firm Theory Ventures, told BI. “The top 10 most aggressive acquirers in the software industry are about to fall off a cliff in terms of activity. For that to happen, the combination of AI and other software companies will need to meaningfully boost the IPO market.”
Competition will intensify.
Don’t be surprised if major companies take a hit because of AI.
“At least one large, globally recognized company will go out of business or significantly downsize because it cannot compete with one or more AI-native startups.Rapid innovation cycles and AI horizontalization slow-moving companies will become obsolete,” said Stephen Weitz, Chief Executive Officer. The co-founder of HumanX, a leading AI conference, told BI.
He believes that technological threats will extend to the global stage and that major countries will need to regulate AI to remain competitive.
“As we have already seen with the regulation and blocking of core AI technologies by the US and China, nations and companies will experience major geopolitical conflicts over AI algorithms and data, and in some countries They will ban or nationalize key AI technologies to maintain control of economic and political power,” he wrote.
That said, the United States and China are already working together to reduce the existential threat that AI poses to humanity. At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November, President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping agreed that decisions about the use of nuclear technology should be made by humans, not AI.
The line between humans and AI will no longer be clear.
The idea of humans and autonomous agents working together may soon transcend the realm of science fiction. That means you should also start drafting rules to govern these interactions.
“Synthetic virtual people, indistinguishable from real people, will enter the workforce, even in limited ways. This will spark debates about employment rights and their social roles. It will create a push for ‘AI citizenship’ that defines boundaries,” Weitz said.
Some predict that the distinction between human-generated content and AI-generated content will also become increasingly blurred.
“Generative media is coming into the mainstream in a big way and will be as hot as LLMs by 2024,” said Steve Jang, founder and managing partner of early-stage venture firm Kindred Ventures. told. “The audio and images produced will get even better thanks to more advanced models, and adoption will begin to skyrocket among both consumers and businesses.”
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Specialization. Specialization. Specialization.
Business leaders told BI that next year will be about customizing AI technology to suit specific needs.
“In 2025, the AI hype cycle will give way to the rise of domain-specific AI and robotics,” Viegala said. “Products will become faster, more efficient, and deliver immediate, tangible value compared to generic solutions. This change will mark the beginning of the truly transformative economic impact of AI. .”
The focus on customization will also extend to how we search for information online, with chatbots replacing search engines like Google.
“In 2025, search will no longer be synonymous with a single brand. Instead, users will rely on multiple platforms for specific types of queries. Some may rely on chatbots powered by , while others may rely on domain-specific engines for technical or specialized questions, as well as industry-specific expertise, as well as multimedia queries. We also offer expertise in visual or voice-based tools for AI search engine IAsk Dominik Mazur, CEO and co-founder of , told BI. “This diversification will create a competitive environment where specialized players and niche solutions coexist with large generalist platforms, leading to greater innovation and choice for users.”
Over the past year, AI leaders have been touting the value of smaller AI models that can better address a company’s specific needs than larger foundational models. Aidan Gomez, founder and CEO of enterprise AI startup Cohere, previously said, “Rather than scale up through market forces, we aim to create smaller, more efficient models and make them smarter with data, algorithms, and techniques.” There’s a lot of pressure.” B.I.
Pressure is increasing as the value of building models simply based on computing power decreases.
“The days of using GPUs for brute force computing to build models and applications will be over,” says Biegala.
Businesses will increasingly use customizable AI tools and may even replace software-as-a-service applications.
“AI tools are tearing down the shell of SaaS applications as tools you can only buy or build, and companies from Amazon to ambitious startups are turning expensive SaaS applications that don’t quite fit their needs into lightweight tools. “We’re encouraging people to replace it with a custom-fit solution that’s integrated into their stack,” David Hsu, founder of Retool, a low-code platform for developers, told BI.
Regulation takes precedence.
With increased responsibility comes increased risk. Companies will start taking regulations seriously.
“We hope to see more voluntary commitments and actions towards responsible AI, as we move forward to establish guardrails similar to what happened with the frontier models currently being discussed for AI agents and autonomous AI. I think so,” Shin said. “I also foresee a world where we see the first penalties for AI-specific law violations. This will set a global precedent, forcing companies to prioritize governance or face serious consequences.” You will face consequences.”
Singh, along with AI godfather Jeffrey Hinton and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, have expressed interest in an international body governing the use of AI. “We may even see the emergence of global AI standards led by a coalition of nations and companies to set standards for safety, transparency and accountability for AI systems,” she said.
The value of regulation will be paramount next year as the cybersecurity threat from large-scale AI increases.
“AI deepfake technology makes it so easy to generate false identities and documents, creating a crisis of trust in businesses,” said Pat Kinsel, CEO of notary software platform Proof. he told BI. “The ability to distinguish between real and fraudulent identities and enable secure digital interactions in the age of AI separates resilient companies from those at risk of costly fraud. It will be an important factor.”
Search ads will become conversational.
It’s usually easy to distinguish between sponsored content and relevant search results when searching online. But this year, sponsored content could blend seamlessly into chatbot answers.
“Generative AI disrupts the traditional search advertising model by integrating relevant sponsored content directly into synthetic responses,” IAsk’s Mazur told BI. “The shift to contextual and conversational advertising will make ads less intrusive and more tailored to users’ needs, creating a smoother user experience.”
The challenge is that businesses need to maintain transparency and trust as users become aware of how their queries impact their monetization strategy, he added.
AI isn’t going to take your job yet.
The good news is that business and technology leaders only expect AI to enhance, not replace, people’s jobs next year.
“Industries that automate repetitive tasks will improve efficiency, but humans are still needed for complex decision-making and creative tasks. In 2025, many companies will use AI as a core part of their work. This is the year we will achieve productivity gains,” Akundo said.
