AI
2025 will be the year of AI agents; however this will be the first year that we will see mass layoffs and possibly the formation of a union for workers displaced by AI.
As the focus turns to agents, consumers will call for more personalized models and labs will focus on improving context length and model memory.
As AI models get more personalized, consumers will start to value AI agent product recommendations, advertisers will have to begin advertising to AI rather than the consumer themselves.
Model training will become more efficient in training across multiple data centers (OpenAI & Microsoft have recently been investing in Fibre cabling companies), this could start a movement towards a system where you can rent out your own compute.
Small and fast on-device AI models will become more common as most people have little use for larger chain-of-thought systems.
Jeff Bezos will return to Amazon and drive them into the AI race using their large amount of compute (AWS) to train models aimed at optimizing logistics (or an improved Alexa given their historical voice data).
Technology
As Y Combinator calls for more hardware startups, we will see a resurgence in smart home systems with AI integration. These will be a significant improvement on the 2019 trend as AI voice models become available to developers.
Mixed reality systems will continue to improve and so will the input methods to these devices.
TSMC will begin mass production of 2nm chips.
Robotics systems will achieve breakthroughs in multi-agent collaboration, with different robots working together to complete complex tasks. This advancement will have significant implications for manufacturing, logistics, and automation across industries.
Education
Many large universities will struggle to regulate AI use, leading to continued erosion of trust in higher education from both students and employers. Energy
US nuclear power generation will increase for the first time in a decade due to plant life extensions and prevented closures in order to fuel growing demand in electricity for AI training.
Several new small modular reactor projects will break ground in North America.
Geopolitics & Economics
The war in Ukraine will come to an end, some trade tariffs may be lifted on Russia, and Europe will increase its demand for Russian oil and gas.
Argentina's economy will continue to develop, attracting foreign investment even more if they go through with dollarization.
Medicine and Health
Gene-editing therapies will receive first major regulatory approvals - likely that CRISPR gene therapy will be approved for a common genetic condition.
AI diagnostics will become standard in several medical specialties.
Breakthroughs will be made in our understanding of the gut microbiome and the role of bacteria on many aspects of life.