8 Technology Predictions for 2025
In many ways, 2024 was the Year of AI, as artificial intelligence became mainstream in nearly everything we do. With advancements happening at a rapid pace in the field of technology, what new developments will we see in 2025?
Our experts at the Western Governors University School of Technology are tracking key trends for the year to come, including advancements in: AI engineering, agentic AI, decision intelligence, Large Language Models (LLMs), and postquantum cryptography. How will these trends transform the tech industry and place demands on tech employees in the New Year? What should business and technology leaders anticipate? How can the workforce be adequately trained to stay ahead of the curve of innovation?
Get the scoop in the 2025 forecast from our experts.
1. AI Engineering
In 2025, companies will likely recognize the limitations of generative AI in directly benefiting software engineering, yet investments and widespread hype will continue to drive its growth and focus. This expansion will fuel demand for AI Engineering, as organizations require skilled programmers to develop AI solutions for automating tasks and replacing roles. These trends are expected to create abundant opportunities for engineers with specialized AI expertise. Additionally, the evolving landscape may lead to the emergence of new project management methodologies, potentially introducing fresh competition for established frameworks like Scrum.
--Jared N. Plumb, associate dean and director for software engineering
2. Agentic AI
In 2025, the AI tsunami will push Decision Intelligence forward, but the rush to agentic AI will expose the limits of human-less automation. Automating turbulent decision-making processes without clear parameters will lead to false starts and setbacks. Success will require precision: keeping humans in the loop for volatile decisions while automating where stability allows. Organizations that strike this balance will unlock the full potential of DI and avoid the pitfalls of overreach.
--Joe Dery, VP & dean of data analytics, computer science and software engineering
3. Employee Wellbeing
According to ISC2 nearly half of cybersecurity leaders may change jobs by 2025, with 25% potentially leaving the field entirely. This capacity for burnout, attrition and loss of brain trust, presents a significant weakness for organizations as it will exacerbate the existing workforce gap and hinder the ability to effectively combat cyber threats. Organizations need to be proactive about prioritizing employee well-being, by investing in programs to support stress and workload management, mental health, and a positive work environment.
--Paul Bingham, senior vice president, School of Technology
4. Post-quantum Cryptography
Post-quantum cryptography marks a significant shift in encryption practices. According to Gartner, most conventional asymmetric cryptography will be unsafe to use by 2029 due to advances in quantum computing. Professionals with knowledge of quantum-resistant cryptography and advanced AI will be needed to ensure the long-term security of sensitive data. This includes understanding the principles of quantum cryptography and how to implement quantum-resistant algorithms.
--Mike Morris, associate dean & senior director, cybersecurity and information assurance
5. LLM Robots
In 2025, we will see the convergence of emerging technologies. The advances in LLMs echo the narrative in the movie Ex Machina, and this will be a year for testing LLMs on robots. While autonomous robots take on many forms (self-driving cars, food delivery robots, package-delivery drones, etc.), they have had limited implementation and only at a corporate level. Now, the public has access to the technology. Crowd-sourcing has been in full effect for years, and it will only be a short time before we see a new form of convergence that’s an app-controlled robot governed completely by LLM information. The self-learning nature and replicability of these robots will be something never seen before outside of sci-fi books and movies.
--Mike Peterson, associate dean and director, computer science
6. Data Analytics
In the data analytics space, large language models will be used increasingly in a low-code/no-code fashion to perform data cleaning, data wrangling, and exploratory data analysis (EDA) more quickly. Tools like Julius AI, Thoughtspot, ChatGPT, and others will help people with fewer analytics skills perform simple analyses better and faster. For more complex work, machine learning applications (one subset of AI technologies) continues to develop. Development and refinement of models will remain a focus of technical analytics education but requires understanding of statistics and programming.
--Eric Lagally, associate dean & director, data analytics
7. AI in Education Administration
In higher education, students will be empowered through AI bots to self-serve and receive just-in-time support for a variety of administrative tasks, without the need to speak to a staff member. Like travel, retail, and financial industries, where consumers conduct most transactions independently, higher ed will enable students to self-service for rote questions so that faculty have more time to provide high-level support to more complex issues, which will ultimately improve overall student academic outcomes.
-- David Townes, VP and dean of faculty administration
8. AI in Student Expectations
Instead of continuing to prohibit AI in student course work, in 2025, higher education faculty will increasingly encourage their students to use AI responsibly and strategically. AI integration into projects and performance assessments allows students to gain real-world experience with AI and experiment with the ethical use of AI tools. Even so, students must also be prepared to justify their use of AI or explain their decision to complete a task without it. This approach helps students understand how to responsibly use AI and how AI is utilized in the workplace, better preparing them to apply AI skills in their future careers.
--Peggy M. White, associate dean and director, information technology management
Western Governors University, the nation’s leading nonprofit, online university, is transforming higher education to be more student-centric, affordable, accessible to all and relevant to the workforce. WST is one of the top conferrers of both IT degrees and cybersecurity degrees in the country, and as of 2024 has conferred more than 50,000 degrees since its inception. Within the last year, a new master’s in data analytics with three concentrations of data science, decision process engineering and data engineering, a redevelopment of the bachelor’s in computer science with an AI focus, a new data analytics skills certificate and an artificial intelligence course, the School of Technology saw 15% enrollment growth in 2024, with nearly 14% growth in female students.
Find out more about WGU School of Technology at wgu.edu/online-it-degrees.html.