2025: Data and AI predictions

The outlook for 2025 is all about AI – innovation-driven, focused on tangible impact and a must-have for growth: 

• Sam Altman predicts that 2025 will be the year we all get robotic colleagues in the office.
• PWC’s 2024 Pulse Survey found that AI was fully integrated into the products and services of 49% of the tech leaders interviewed. 
• The recent buzz about agentic AI amplified by the new Nvidia announcements at CES 2025.
• The UK government announcing their plan to unleash AI across the country to boost growth.

We identified 5 main themes that will unfold next year, that will cut through the micro-trends of the latest AI “snake oil” tool and will shape the landscape. 

“As a relentless optimist when it comes to AI, I can only be excited about all the innovation and progress that has been achieved so far. 2025 somehow feels different: this will be the year when AI is not optional or some R&D experiment anymore, it is a must-have for anyone who wants to gain or protect market share. Growth is engineered through organisational and market intelligence and in 2025 that intelligence has to be (at least) 50% artificial.” — Dora Moldovan, Co-founder and Managing Director.

1. AI agents: the runway to enterprise adoption of AI.

While everyone’s still buzzing about chatbots and generative AI, the real game-changer will be agentic AI – think AI systems that can independently analyse data, make decisions, and take action to achieve specific business goals.

“Picture this: instead of just getting reports about your customer behaviour, you’ll have AI agents that actively monitor patterns, spot opportunities, and adjust your business strategy in real-time. By 2028, these AI agents will handle about 15% of day-to-day business decisions autonomously. That’s not science fiction – that’s where we’re headed.” — James Wolman, Head of Data Science.

2. The time for experimentation is over. There is now an expectation for AI to deliver impact and leaders are already moving towards this.

The shift from experimental AI to enterprise-wide applications is going to be massive. We’re moving past the “let’s try AI” phase into “how do we scale this across our entire operation?” Companies that figure this out early will have a serious edge. It’s not exactly robot-uprising numbers, but in business terms, that’s huge.

But here’s the thing – this isn’t going to be a smooth ride. Three out of four companies trying to build these systems on their own will fail spectacularly. It’s like watching someone try to build a rocket in their garage – ambitious, but maybe call SpaceX instead?

“For businesses looking to stay ahead, 2025 will be about making AI work at scale. The winners won’t be the ones with the flashiest AI tools but those who can integrate AI into their core business processes to deliver real value. And that’s what makes this moment so fascinating – we’re finally moving from AI as a party trick to AI as a fundamental business driver.” — James Wolman, Head of Data Science.

3. It’s all about data and the race to get it ready for AI. Badly managed data will destroy your business. Well managed data will destroy your competition.

Without proper data infrastructure, it will be nearly impossible to leverage the full potential of AI advancements. Expect to see many organisations rush to implement AI before they fully understand its capabilities, while numerous tech start-ups will attempt to sell “snake oil” solutions that are irrelevant to most businesses. For AI, data is not optional, it’s foundational.

2025 will see continued focus on data management, automated for privacy, security and resilience. We’ll see a decrease in “time to insight” needed to extract useful information from vast organisations, real-time analytics and an acceleration in AI adoption capabilities.  

“We’ll see true ‘customer 360’ data platforms being realised fast and technologies like digital twinning will provide low-risk, high-impact sandboxes to businesses – saving huge experimentation budgets when it comes to advertising and customer acquisition. We’re already seeing an appetite and execution focused on advanced analytics focusing on predictions, what-if scenarios and machine learning applications rather than just the traditional lookback approach.” — Rene Davis, Head of Analytics.

“The 2 year all encompassing datalake project is done. It’s all about fast, purpose-built hubs of data that can be easily utilised to inform and create data reliance in decision-making for a specific business arm (i.e. product, sales, marketing, operations, etc.)” — Mark Bush, Chief Data Officer.

4. Not all AI journeys are the same. Your AI strategy has the power to determine your place on the leaderboard (or push you outside of it).

By now, AI has proven it can provide tangible business value, not just through automation and efficiency, but by transforming services and strategies. 2025 will be the year when embedding AI in the operational fabric of a business becomes mandatory and engineering it will deliver value and intelligence at scale – for the organisation and its customers. Adopting quick wins at pace, while working against a big vision is the winning formula.

“If your business is stuck at the evaluation stage, you need to seriously consider accelerating this and starting to put the data pieces in play for an AI adoption plan. Your competition is already doing it. And getting ROI from data and AI. (Ask us how we can help you extract ROI with AI)” — Sylvia Carrasco, Chief Commercial Officer.

5. AI is a culture problem not just a data problem.

In the new AI-augmented workforce, human teams will need to upskill, gain a technical understanding of AI tools and learn to translate these capabilities into language that resonates with non-experts.

 “The gap between AI early adopters and those companies still hesitant or unprepared will continue to widen. Catching up will become increasingly difficult, especially if your data is disorganised or inaccessible or your workforce is reticent or simply unprepared.” — Jamie Klingler, Chief Communications Officer.

Final thoughts

If there’s one prediction that ties all the others together, it’s this: the future will be defined by those who can strategically leverage AI. From business leaders to innovators, those who act decisively now—by integrating AI into their operations, aligning it with clear goals, and staying ahead of the curve—will shape the next era of growth and success.

If you’re looking to harness the power of AI that hinges on a robust strategic foundation, get in touch with our team.