25 Tech Predictions for 2025

What. A. Year. Biden dropped out, and Kamala dropped in. Also in, the first felon US president. There was an assassination attempt… but it’s the Hawk Tuah girl who made a killing. In other gun news : Olympics shooters, CEO down. Also, breakdancing. Evil, evil, evil wars. Wicked. AI slop was everywhere… and will continue to be. Bluesky exploded, and so did a lot of Lebanese pagers. This is going to ruin the tour. Crowdstrike, Navalny and the Assad regime went down. Chappell Roan stood up. In other standing up news: South Korea, the UK, New Zealand, Brazil. A bridge collapsed, a cathedral reborn. Am I brat? Demure? Mindful? Either way, those lookalikes Not Like Us. Does a popcorn bucket match my freak? Sure looks like it. I never had Meth Lab Oompa Loompa on my bingo card and I want off this ride.

History has always rhymed; in 2024 it did so faster than ever.

But we’ve made it. And though many (but not all) of my predictions for 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019 and 2018 have fallen flat, there are two reasons why you should keep reading this article. Firstly… because predictions are fun! Secondly, because the knowledge gained through planning for the future is crucial to the selection of appropriate actions as events unfold. Predictions can act as catalysts to steer the conversation in the right direction. We don’t know the answers, but we can at least ask useful questions.

Corporate Power Plays & Industry Quakes

1. Elon Musk Buys TikTok

As of writing, TikTok is getting banned / removed from US platforms on Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025 — if ByteDance does not sell the platform by then. A lot of money is at play here : TikTok’s valuation is c.300B$. A third of that value is likely in the US. 100B$ is too much money to leave on the table — the powers that be will likely find a compromise.

Here’s what I see as most likely to happen : president Xi gets on the phone with then-president Trump and coaxes him into letting the company continue to operate (maybe something about golf courses in China?). Trump — who used to back banning the platform — asks Elon Musk if he would like to purchase 51% of TikTok’s US operations. That’s enough to save face / pretend the US is in control. Musk agrees because he has “infinite” money and wants his kids to think he’s cool (he’s not). XI agrees because China can easily control Musk via Tesla (37% of Tesla sales are in China).

2. The Crypto industry gets its own App Store

The crypto industry has (rightfully) had a bad name for the past couple of years. It’s been all scam and no substance. A slow shift is however happening. One I had predicted for 2022, in fact. Crypto is growing up. Very slowly, with many hiccups, but maturing nevertheless. This is taking the form of projects with increasingly interesting use cases, as well as broader acceptance from historical players (banks, governments…).

There is however a major issue : it is hard for “normies” to use crypto / web3 today. There is no apps, no physical business, no clear way to use meme coins beyond useless “white papers”. We still “see the wires”.

An app store is a somewhat obvious fix. More specifically, an intuitive platform to let users use the tokens in which they’ve invested, without having to learn the technical lingo in which the industry revels. Apple’s app store changed the world; could something like that happen again? Coinbase is probably the best placed to manage this opportunity… but I have little faith in their operational abilities. Only time will tell.

3. Studios create AI-first games that never end

Ready for a world salad? Here’s what the new AI gaming paradigm will look like once the industry learns to wield newly available tools.

Procedural content generation will ensure limitless environments and challenges, while dynamic storytelling will adapt to player choices to create unique narrative arcs. AI-powered “agents” will create lifelike companions, turbo-charging games with NPCs capable of passing the Touring test. Adaptive difficulty and player behaviour learning will tailor difficulty and content to individual preferences, enhancing engagement. Incorporation of real-world data will continually refresh the game’s relevance. Community-driven content will allow for an ever-expanding universe, and cross-platform experiences will interconnect different games. Ultimately, autonomous AI could independently evolve games, introducing new features and fixes, heralding an era where games continuously grow and change, providing infinite exploration and entertainment possibilities.

4. Sleep Tech start-ups become unicorns

I haven’t slept well in about 4 years. I guess the same goes for many people. Wars, Covid, politics, climate change… It’s hard to fully give oneself to Morpheus’ embrace when the horsemen of the apocalypse are running circles in one’s head.

The cost of bad sleep to the economy is astronomical: 411B$/year in the US alone. If a company manages to offer a way to reduce that number by 20%, while taking a mere 1% cut of the generated value, they’d be making a bit less than 900M$ a year, which would easily warrant a unicorn status.

Many smart entrepreneurs have already done this math, but execution has been sub-optimal (too much focus on gimmicks, not enough on science at hardware). With a new age of materials and AI / compute dawning, this is about to change.

5. We see a new wave of Embryo Tech start-ups

Embryonic stem cells — first derived from leftover IVF embryos 25 years ago — are finally showing real promise after long-standing controversy and massive investments. From dopamine-making neurons for Parkinson’s treatment to reprogramming cells for anti-aging therapies, we’re witnessing breakthroughs that could transform medicine.

By 2025, expect a wave of embryo tech start-ups pushing organoids, synthetic embryos, and novel gene-editing methods. With obstacles like manufacturing challenges and ethical debates being addressed, these ventures are poised to unlock next-level regenerative and longevity research, turning once-futuristic ideas into practical realities.

The Great Tech Culture Shake-Up

6. One of your friends starts wearing smart glasses

By now, we’ve all seen at least a couple adverts for either Meta or Apple VR headsets. They look(ed very) good, and were followed by expert reviews one might qualify as “sort of positive”. A few bugs, a little heavy, but futuristic and immersive. And then? Nothing. No one is buying the supposed “platform of the future”, and VR headsets are having very limited cultural impact, bar the occasional mocking meme.

Prof. Scott Galloway has long argued that headsets would not become prevalent, mostly because they look silly on the wearer. He writes that people do not want to ward off potential mates by donning clunky gear IRL. I’m inclined to agree.

Over the past couple of months, however, Meta has made some great strides. Their Ray Ban X Meta glasses are good… and improving fast, with the addition of LLM able to answer audio / video queues (ex: “tell me what meal to make with this” as you open the fridge). They also look pretty good, given how much tech they’re packing. In 2025, the third generation of the smart glasses will ship with a display for viewing incoming text messages, scanning QR codes, and translating text from another language in real time. It takes a lot out of me to give them props, but here we are.

7. The AI culture wars begin

The past five years of social media controversies over bias and censorship have exposed deep societal divides, and the rise of AI systems like ChatGPT and Lama is poised to escalate these tensions. From how chatbots answer politically charged questions to the emergence of ideologically tailored AI models, these tools risk deepening polarization. Their use in personal roles, such as companions or advisors, raises ethical concerns about manipulation and reinforcement of harmful biases, while the fragmentation of AI into ideological silos could exacerbate echo chambers and mistrust.

Even a single high-profile incident of biased AI responses or leaked conversations could spark widespread backlash, adding fuel to an already volatile cultural landscape. As these systems shape narratives and influence decision-making, transparency, fairness, and ethical safeguards are essential to prevent AI from becoming a source of deeper societal fractures. The unfolding “AI culture wars” highlight the urgent need for responsible development and open dialogue about technology’s expanding role in human lives.

8. Phones get banned from schools

It doesn’t take a child psychologist to see that phones in school are harming learning. I will let better informed commentators weight in on their overall benefits (?) and drawbacks for young people; but we can all generally agree that their place is not in the classroom. Cheating, distractions, FOMO-induced anxiety… none of it is good.

Predicting phones getting banned from schools is not the bravest call in this list : government-level recommendations on the topic have already been made, and calls for outright bans are becoming louder.

9. Cheating becomes cool again

As AI agents multiply across every corner of our world, it’ll dawn on us that we can’t outdo them by playing fair. They process data at record speed, remember everything, and zip through tasks in a blink. But they’re bound by rules. We’re not.

It’s simpler for a human to spy on competition than decode complex analytics. Seducing a CFO for insider information sure beats trying to match AI’s microsecond decision-making. Feeding competitors’ algorithms trash data is easier than build one’s own algorithms.

And so, every company or person without the ability to fund and use AI agents will cheat. Until lawmakers step in and lawyers will have a field day, at least. It will be a fun couple years. Because in a world dominated by AI, cheating just got cool again.

10. More people switch from “AI is fake and sucks” to “AI is real and dangerous”

Over the past couple of years, AI commentators have split into two camps. The first argues that all LLMs do is predict the next word in a sentence based on a prompt. They sneer at simple mistakes, like when ChatGPT can’t count the number of Rs in “strawberry”. It’s a coping mechanism. I would know, I was in that camp until mid-2024.

The other camp focus on the millions of things such tools can do, and how terrifyingly fast their progression is. They also notice how few guardrails have been put in place to protect every-day citizen from the havoc some tools, left uncheck, could wreck. That camp has long been occupied by the people working on AI tool. I now believe they are right. AI is real and dangerous.

11. Writing begins to disappear

Despite being the oldest and most common form of human communication, voice has never really worked as an interface for engaging with technology. Alexa and Siri have always been disappointments, used for playing music, checking the weather… and little else.

Today, however, the evolution of large language models promises dramatically improved voice assistants. Verbal models will soon offer more human-like conversational abilities, making voice interactions more natural and efficient. The digital world hasn’t caught up yet; existing apps aren’t naturally equipped to build / accommodate voice experiences. Neither is our hardware, in fact. In 2025, this will change. Smart glasses, wearables, and AI assistants are facilitating this shift, enabling people to communicate, create, and consume content through spoken language and visual interfaces.

This shift has profound implications. Writing, once a cornerstone of human expression and culture, is becoming a niche skill, akin to calligraphy or cursive handwriting. Schools may deprioritize teaching it, focusing instead on multimedia skills and digital fluency. At the same time, AI-generated content raises questions about originality, creativity, and trust — how will we distinguish authentic human voices from algorithmic ones.

AI Ascends to the Throne

12. OpenAI announces they have achieved AGI

In September 2024, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claimed that AI superintelligence could be just “a few thousand days” away. That’s anywhere between 5 and 14 year. I however believe the company will announce that Artificial General Intelligence has been achieved in 2025:

• They need to announce it first, before any other firms do, to keep their AI street cred… and keep investors interested. It helps that AGI doesn’t really have a definition (after all, we hopped over the Turing test fence so fast hardly anyone noticed).

• “Reaching” AGI would release OpenAI from their ongoing Microsoft obligations / partnership. Once the board decides AGI has been reached, such a system will be “excluded from IP licenses and other commercial terms with Microsoft, which only apply to pre-AGI technology.” OpenAI would likely like to reduce their dependency on Microsoft… but still need them. In fact the opposite also applies, making this a very interesting discussion.

13. Facebook creates synthetic content

When was the last time you saw a real-life friend’s post on Facebook? A Not recently, I bet. Our feeds have turned into ghost towns — relics of a time when “social” meant pokes, relationship updates and family photos. Now, it’s all memes, ads, and sponsored randomness. Good riddance, perhaps? But here’s the catch: with 3.1 billion monthly active users, Meta can’t just let Facebook gather dust. Even if the platform feels deserted, they need users to keep coming back. After all, Meta’s got to keep funding its next big pivot (the metaverse? VR? Dating?)

Facebook will likely soon start auto-populating our feeds with personalized, AI-generated content. It’s a logical next step. TikTok already proved that you don’t need to rely on your friends for engagement. Once the “social” part started sliding, there was never any going back. In 2025, your feed will be an endless stream of tailor-made posts conjured up by Meta’s machines — shiny, catchy, and begging for a “Like.” If your real friends and family no longer post… Meta will find a way to fill the silence.

NB : I got a notification on the topic as I was editing this article. Looks like my first right prediction of 2025 came earlier than expected.

14. We begin to see negative effects of AI dependency

Anyone who’s worked with a young person over the past 2 years may have noticed that they are quite keen on ChatGPT and other such AI tools. That’s normal! They’re great assets, much like a calculator may have been back in the 70s and 80s. I happily use it daily too — there is no putting the genie back in the bottle, and neither should we want to.

There are however a few troubling stories of under-25s reporting having more and more issues thinking / making decisions on their own. They go straight to the digital helper because, let’s be honest, it’s clearly smarter than we are for everyday topics. That laziness (though natural), is pervasive, and will have second-hand (reduced resilience and adaptability…) or third-hand effect (groupthink and institutional vulnerability…).

15. You get your eyes scanned to prove you’re a human

18 months ago, I wrote about The Weirdest Project happening in the Tech World. In essence, Sam Altman — of OpenAI fame — launched a company aiming to facilitate “proving” one’s humanity online by creating a unique cryptographic code based on one’s irises. Customers would get a pretty useless crypto token in exchange for this biometric data. My premise at the time was that asking people to scan their eyes in exchange of fake internet money is — and I quote — “super weird”.

All that remains true. However, countless companies are currently working on creating AI “agents”, who will take actions / make decisions on behalf of users. In the meantime, we are also seeing AI-generated images, sounds and videos becoming increasingly realistic. It doesn’t take a genius to see the need to quickly develop “proof of humanity” concepts. And yes, they may be similar to what has been proposed by the World Org. Scanning eyes is the wrong way to go about it, but the underlying idea is not as bad as I once thought (only idiots never change their mind, right?). And because I haven’t seen better ideas proposed, and because Sam Altman is a worshipped billionaire, his will likely be the “winning” solution.

16. We give AI agents crypto wallets

The age of AI agents is upon us. At least that’s what every tech and consulting company is telling us. Personalised AIs will supposedly be able to take actions on our behalf very soon. A simple use case : a person prompts an algorithm / AI agent to plan (easy today)… and book a 3-day trip to Paris for 4 people.

This is would be a great tool, but also a stressful one. Who in their right mind would give an untested digital intelligence access to their bank account? Additionally, having those tools whizzing through the internet could do some actual damage to the economy if left unchecked (via bugs or malice). What if they start interacting with each other and get stuck in a never-ending price war?

The easier solution is giving AI agents “pocket money” in the form of crypto token. It’s already digital, traceable, without too many rules, and somewhat remote from the real economy. It’s perfect. In 2025, you will give your AI Bitcoin pocket money, and no one will find that weird.

The Energy Paradigm Shift

17. Everything goes nuclear

A lot of the predictions in this article center around AI. It’s the hottest technology today, and will likely continue to be for at least another innovation cycle. But technology does not exist in vacuum. AI needs data centers to work. And those data centers need to be powered by electricity. A lot of it : an AI request requires 10 times more energy than a Google request.

Energy grids the world over are under stress because the like of Meta, Google, AWS and Microsoft are building at such rapid rates. A new paradigm is needed. Hydrogen? Not mature enough. Batteries? Too expensive. Coal? Not green enough. Gaz turbine? Maybe, for the short term. No, the only real and valid solution to power thousands of data centers throughout the world is nuclear energy. Small Modular Reactors to be specific. SMR refers to a new generation of nuclear reactors that are smaller in size and designed for modular construction, allowing for increased scalability and reduced capital costs. These reactors are highly efficient and offer enhanced safety features, making them a promising solution for sustainable and flexible energy generation.

18. Hydrogen becomes front page news, be it Carbon-negative, White or Metallic.

Hydrogen is not matured for full-scale deployment yet, but is nevertheless the topic of many a discussions. It comes in all colours and shapes, but some are more SciFi (and thus interesting) than others. Carbon-negative hydrogen is produced with renewable power and carbon capture, effectively removing more CO₂ than it emits. White hydrogen occurs naturally underground, requiring little intervention. Metallic hydrogen, still largely theoretical, forms under extreme pressure and carries massive energy density. All three variants promise a green alternative for powering AI’s voracious energy demands, aiming to replace coal, gas, and other high-emission sources in data centers around the globe.

Digital Diplomacy & Cyber Politics

19. War becomes technologically decentralized

Right now, most AI tools live in somewhat distant data centers, which is fine until you need lightning-fast responses (data has to travel back and forth, which that takes time). That’s where specialized silicon chips come in. These next-generation chips will handle AI tasks — like identifying images or answering prompts — right on the device, cutting down latency / nearing real-time and granting real independence from critical infrastructure. If the above explanation feels unsatisfying, trust your instincts : it’s years worth of expertise crammed into the simplest possible paragraph.

The shift from compute on “the cloud” to “on device” won’t just show up in smartphones; it will entirely reshape warfare. Imagine a drone that can spot, lock onto, and fire at a target all on its own, without relying on a human operator or vulnerable communication links. No one’s entirely sure whether such experiments are already underway, but if you watch how drones are used in places like Ukraine, it’s not far-fetched.

Scary? Definitely. But the rise of autonomous weapons — “killer robots” — feels inevitable.

20. European countries impose an AI data centre tax

If you’ve made it this far in the article, you’ll understand how important AI is likely to be in future economies. Not only in terms of sovereignty… but also when it comes to energy reliability, the latter being directly linked to critical infrastructure build-out.

European countries are particularly impacted: Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin all have many, many data centers… and significant energy issues because of it (Dublin had to impose a moratorium on new build in 2024). And so, political posturing will prevail, and foreign data center players will get taxed. This will also act as retaliation against the planned Trump tariff, have a positive impact on power supply, and allow national players to potentially emerge. It’s not the choice the markets would make… yet here we are.

21. World powers implement data embassies as a form of neo-colonialism

The two predictions above will have a fascinating second-hand effect. Regional powers not bound to the US or China will try to boost their digital economy by hosting AI tools / infrastructure that would have otherwise gone to Europe. But, as mentioned, these assets are of national importance, and can’t be shared without some form of protection.

And so, in 2025, countries in South-East Asia and the Middle-East will allow countries from all over the world to build in locations where power and space is abundant. The way they will lure national clients is by promising that data centers built will be regulated under the laws of the country operating it, rather than those of the countries where the building is physically located. This will be hugely beneficial for “middle powers” trying to get a toe-hold in the industry… but may very well end up being a form of neo-colonialism. Only time will tell.

The Economic Tectonic Shift

22. Ozempic-style drugs get people to doctors, prompting a wave of long-ignored diagnoses

In 2023, I predicted that Ozempic would reshape the economy in 2024. This is currently happening. We can now explore second-hand and third-hand effect.

One of the least expected externality of Ozempic will likely be that, pushed by hubris and envy (honestly… same), more people will go to the doctor in 2025 to get a prescription. This will lead to long-overdue check-ups, itself leading to a visible increase in disease diagnoses. Everyone will be confused. RFK will probably blame vaccines. But the reason will be simple : people just want to look good.

23. The “middle economy” breaks down

The AI boom we find ourselves in is really about selling one thing: automate work we don’t value enough to hire a human being to do. This will have a drastic effect, as parts of society automates and gains massive rewards, while the other part sheds jobs at massive speed.

In 2025, the middle class will continue to disappear, being replaced by “with AI” and “without AI”. We are already seeing it: the top 5% of public companies are running away with the market. The 400 richest Americans holding wealth equivalent to about 17% of GDP, a 15% (!) increase from the 2% level in 1982. And these trends are only accelerating.

Every day, god’s light, we stray, etc.

24. Open Source becomes key in political discourse

Yann LeCun, Meta’s Chief AI Scientist and a deep-learning pioneer, champions open-source software as the cornerstone of the tech market. He argues that when market forces operate freely, they naturally favor open-source models due to transparency, collaboration, and lower costs.

Yet by 2025, government interventions may disrupt this vision. In pursuit of national interests — commercial, military, or strategic — countries could impose export controls or regulations that stifle open-source development. Instead of letting free market competition foster innovation, these policies may create a fragmented landscape of proprietary “national champions,” undermining the benefits of open collaboration that LeCun and others promote.

25. Hope stays alive

For the past 10 years, the tech world has not really delivered on its many promises. Just more monitoring, more nudging, more draining of our data, our time, our joy.

In 2025, let us hope that the industry goes back to doing hard, but necessary work of improving lives. That we invent new tools to help reduce infant mortality, deaths from infectious disease and wealth inequalities between the poorest and wealthiest nations. That great medical advances are made, that education is further democratized, and that green technologies emerges as a long-term force for good. Fingers crossed.

Good luck out there.