What are the most relevant and exciting trends for 2025? In this article, I discuss my fascination with technological developments, such as artificial intelligence

But not only technology is relevant. Also, what is going on around climate change and what are social issues?

These are the parts of this article:

You can leave a comment at the bottom of this article if you have a question or comment.

If you would like to hire me for a lecture or presentation on this topic, please contact me. Or check out the Trends 2040 page first for more information, examples and references.

What will happen around artificial intelligence in 2025 and beyond?

Next steps of artificial intelligence

In all my lectures, artificial intelligence, or artificial intelligence (AI), does have a role. Sometimes AI is the theme of the entire lecture. During other presentations, it is one of a number of technology trends I discuss, such as in Trends 2040.

Developments in artificial intelligence are rapid. Here are some exciting directions for 2025 and beyond.

  1. AI agents
  2. Voice recognition
  3. Deeper impact

1 AI agents

One theme that AI companies are now fully committed to is AI agents. This means that artificial intelligence will perform certain tasks more autonomously and in collaboration with other AI tools.

At least this is the view of Olivier Godemement, head of product development at OpenAI:

In a few years, every person, every company, will have their own agent. This agent knows you inside out. He knows your preferences, has access to your e-mails, apps and calendars. This agent functions as a kind of personal chief of staff.’

The first signs of this move toward AI agents are already here:

  • The SciAgents project consists of a team of specialized AI agents, each with a unique role such as the Ontologist for defining concepts, Scientist for drafting research proposals, and the Critic for reviewing and suggesting improvements.
  • The company Antropic announced the Computer Use feature in October 2024. This feature will allow Claude to independently navigate your computer, send emails and fill out spreadsheets. Check out the announcement below:
Computer use of Claude

2 Voice recognition

The application I encounter most often during my lectures and workshops is speech recognition. Instead of typing reports or notifications, you speak it into your phone or computer. Then the spoken text is converted into sentences in a report or notification.

A good example where this application can really add value is in failure reports. I spoke about this with Chris van den Belt, head of product development at IFS Ultimo. That company supplies enterprise asset management (EAM) software. In this software you manage the planning, maintenance, and replacement of assets such as machines, equipment, servers, generators, cars, conveyor belts and offices, among other things. Customers of IFS Ultimo include airports, factories, and hospitals.

When it comes to failures, the main bottleneck is:

Engineers spend most of their time surveying the fault. Not fixing the failure.

This is usually because the colleague reporting the malfunction has little time or inclination to pass on the report as comprehensively as possible. Because: that employee is also busy with other work. This is where artificial intelligence, especially speech recognition, can add value:

By speaking into a report instead of typing, the reporter often provides more information. Then the technician spends less time figuring out what’s going on.

Hereafter: ambient listening

In the failure report example, the employee dictates what he or she notices in the plant. But what is the next step? Personally, I’m thinking of ambient listening. That means artificial intelligence listening in on conversations between colleagues, with customers or with patients.

I spoke about this with Bart Scheerder, business developer at the UMCG hospital in Groningen. What might ambient listening in the hospital look like?

With ambient listening, AI listens in during consultations. Between doctor and patient, but also with a conversation between healthcare providers.

Applications of ambient listening include:

  • The AI immediately generates a summary of the consultation.
  • Based on the conversation, the AI automatically schedules a follow-up appointment and/or sends medication requests to the pharmacy.
  • The AI can help patients better understand physician information.
  • After the consultation, the patient can ask the AI questions about what was discussed.

3 Deeper impact

What is the deeper impact of AI? In the scientific domain, interesting things are happening because of the development of so-called foundation models.

Foundation models

Foundation models are large-scale AI systems, trained on various datasets, and designed to perform multiple tasks within specific subject areas or across different domains. GPT-4, Gemini or Claude are also foundation models, as is Dall-E for image generation.

I think the foundation models that consumers are not directly involved with are going to have a big impact. Think of medical research, new drug development and materials science.

A few examples:

  • DeepMind’s Graph Networks for Materials Exploration(GNoME) came up with over 2.2 million new materials. Of these, 380,000 appear to be stable enough for further research.
  • From the same DeepMind: AlphaProteo AI makes new proteins that can effectively bind to target proteins. This offers medical scientists new insights into disease origins and designing new treatments.
  • AlphaProteo is a successor to AlphaFold, an AI that predicts protein structures and folds. In October 2024, the developers of this AI model were awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry.
  • The AI model Chai-1 predicts the 3D structure of egg proteins, small molecules, DNA and RNA. Like AlphaFold and AlphaProteo, this is crucial for drug development.
  • AI model RT-1 (Robotic Transformer 1) processes visual input and natural language commands to generate direct actions for robots. RT-1 is expected to accelerate the development of robotization.

These foundation models I will definitely follow with great interest in 2025 and beyond.

Will more attention be paid to social values and ethics?

Increased focus on ethics

In addition to all kinds of applications surrounding artificial intelligence, I am noticing more conversations about the social impact of technology. Consider the sustainability of AI, privacy, the use of these types of applications by hackers and criminals and the growing power of technology companies.

Teneur on technology changes

After a congress in Leiden in September 2024, I was able to place this trend a little better. It was there that the congress Brave New World took place.

For years, I have found this conference to be an excellent place to pick up signs of change. This is because the compilers make bold choices about speakers. The speakers are often outspoken scientists, thought-provoking artists or visionary start-up entrepreneurs.

During the break, I spoke with director Alexander Mouret about the congress’ themes over the years. His observation:

In the beginning, the tenor was than technology would solve many problems. The vibe was very optimistic. This has tilted, now it is increasingly about the disadvantages and risks of technology.

Alexander Mouret (right) next to chairman of the day Jim Stolze (left).

Future of indifference

So was the theme of the 2024 edition, which was the “Future of Indifference. A theme with a pessimistic slant.

I found it striking that the speakers interpreted the theme of indifference differently. Is indifference the opposite of empathy, attention or something else? The same was true of the solutions offered.

These are the ideas that stick with me:

  • Ignaas Devisch argues that pure empathy is not enough for social solutions. Why? Devisch: “Empathy narrows our consciousness.
  • Anjuli Bedi presents Beneficial Intelligence as a new approach using AI to bring people closer together. Principles behind BI include people-centricity and achieving positive social impact.
  • Liselore Tissen explores how mass reproduction of art can lead to indifference. Consider Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring or Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night.

What choices do we make now?

Legendary American computer scientist and author Jaron Lanier, via an online connection, was the bouncer of the first day of Congress. He shared his insights on the choices made in the development of the Internet.

He argued that because of nuclear threats in the 1960s and 1970s, the U.S. military necessarily wanted an indestructible distributed network. To achieve this resilience, information was distributed in packets and transmitted without central authority. This made it difficult to consistently track the source and ownership of information.

As a result, a few essential design principles that scientists, engineers and others thought important at the time were lost. Among them was the irrevocable provenance of information. For example, each data package could have contained metadata about its original creator and the rights to it.

The current design of the Internet is not equitable. Platforms such as Google, Meta and Microsoft exploit the lack of origin control to collect and use data freely.

Jaron’s call is to reinstate this principle of origin to counter the dominance of large technology companies. In his words:

Build back the backlinks!

What is the lesson for our time? Based on the history of the design of the Internet, with AI and other technologies, we must now design systems in which the origin and ownership of data are inseparable from its use. Then we won’t make the mistake as in the design of the Internet.

As then, we now face choices whose effects are not immediately visible.

Jaron Lanier.

Nature as a solution has been coming up more and more in the media and science lately.

Nature as a solution

Think of global warming, the decline of biodiversity, plastic in the oceans, pollution of (fresh) water, and other planetary boundaries we have crossed.

In addressing the climate crisis and related problems, there are two paradigms, according to author Charles Mann in his book The Wizard and the Prophet:

  • wizards think we find solutions with science and technology;
  • prophets think that we as humans should also change: consume less, fly less, etc.

What are trends and developments within both paradigms?

Technological solutions from the wizards

The wizards’ worldview is that science and technology can solve the world’s big problems. And there are certainly signs that they are right, especially regarding the transition to renewable energy.

These are a few posts that stand out to me:

  • Follow the money. By 2024, $2 trillion was invested globally in renewable energy, such as solar and wind power. This is twice as much as investments in fossil energy, such as oil, coal and gas. Source: International Energy Agency.
  • Breakthrough: scientists at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea have developed a transparent solar cell. Possible applications is to place the cells on glass, think windows or smartphones.
  • Extraordinary: in Valencia, Spain, they are installing solar panels on and around cemeteries. This generates 440,000 kilowatts of energy per year. Fun detail, the project is called Requiem in Power, or RIP.

Paradigm solutions of the prophets

The prophets argue that man must change. This is partly in different behavior, but also by looking differently at their relationship with nature and animals.

For example, I read an article about a herd of wandering bison in Romania’s Tarcu Mountains. Through their grazing, they stimulate plant growth. Each year this causes the sequestration of over 54,000 tons of carbon.

The Romanian project is an example of rewilding, a radically different way of managing nature. It requires a different perspective from humans. As a manager, man plays a minimal role. The ecosystem regulates itself as much as possible.

Enchanting prophets

Is it also possible to connect the two worldviews? That we get prophetic magicians? Or magic prophets?

One inspiring place where I hope to find such a mix is the Dutch Design Week (DDW) in Eindhoven. The DDW takes place throughout Eindhoven and is considered one of the largest design festivals in Europe. During DDW, there are exhibitions by designers, artists and scientists, in addition to lectures and workshops.

As in past years, I visited the DDW in October 2024. These are some projects that fall into the mix of prophecy and sorcery.

  • Carbyon is a Dutch startup developing Direct Air Capture machines that can capture CO2 from the air.
  • Releaf makes bioplastics from plants such as corn and sugarcane, and from plant waste.
  • Vattenfal asked designers for ideas to reuse wind turbines in other ways.
Design by Carbyon.

If you would like to hire me for a lecture or presentation on this topic, please contact me. Or check out the Trends 2040 page first for more information, examples and references.