While enterprise AI adoption boomed in 2024, 45 percent of US employees fear their company does not categorize AI applications based on the risk of potential harm to employees and customers. In the year ahead, business leaders must contend with the real data privacy and intellectual property risks that generative AI poses and chart a more pragmatic path forward.
Here are four trends I see shaping the enterprise technology landscape in 2025:
Doubling Down on Data Privacy
Organizations are realizing their vulnerability to data privacy issues and data breaches as they experiment with generative AI and other emerging technology that scans a large body of internal text. It’s dawning on IT leaders that they’ve rushed into AI without having sufficient data governance in place.
In the year ahead, I expect to see greater data privacy scrutiny influencing enterprise tech strategy. Externally, users are demanding more transparency and governments are developing new legislation to put guardrails around AI, such as the EU AI Act. To get ahead of regulation and mitigate risks, I anticipate more organizations will implement AI governance boards. The purpose of these governance boards will be twofold – to ensure the responsible use of AI technology internally and to facilitate greater transparency between tech vendors and customers around data compliance and the application of AI.
Generative AI Honeymoon Period Is Over
In 2024, generative AI passed the “Peak of Inflated Expectations” in Gartner’s Hype Cycle -- meaning in 2025, the technology is set to plummet to the “Trough of Disillusionment.” I anticipate business leaders will become more skeptical of generative AI, scaling back on applying the technology to enterprise use cases. One example is with code generation. If a dev team uses generative AI to write code and the algorithm or model it was trained on came from open-source code, then the organization risks having its production code unprotected from a copyright perspective. Given the intellectual property concerns, businesses will become more reluctant to apply AI to core production code, using it only for internal artifacts.
Leaders are learning the hard lesson that transforming invention into innovation requires the right time, right place and right mindset. Generative AI is a great invention, but something bigger must change before people are truly ready to adopt the technology.
The Automation Mindset Shift
While generative AI may be overhyped, it has warmed enterprises up to an underrated technology: automation. ChatGPT’s human-like quality has made the underlying technology feel more approachable and understandable to business leaders. I expect increased enterprise application of non-generative AI technologies, such as automation, in the year ahead. We’ll see automation enabling a more intuitive user experience, ushering in the next generation of “self-driving” enterprise software. Human-centered design and practical integration of AI/automation will be the cornerstones of effective enterprise tech strategy in 2025.
Managing Customer Expectations in an Instant Gratification Economy
95 percent of both B2C and B2B executives believe customer expectations are changing faster than they can change their businesses, according to Accenture. Over the last decade, the “Uberization” of many industries and the rise of Amazon same-day shipping has created an instant gratification economy, where consumers expect on-demand service. Customers bring the same real-time expectations to the SaaS space, despite higher complexity and operational barriers in the B2B world. Consumers have become accustomed to the ease of buying a book in “one-click”, but the reality is that implementing compliant financial software or migrating an enterprise to the cloud takes months.
In the year ahead, enterprise tech leaders will need to be cognizant of managing change and communicating to customers and employees in a way that’s both transparent and empathetic. Consider how to enable customer success by breaking large-scale implementations into bite-sized stages -- delivering quicker wins without compromising the long-term strategy.
Overall, the 2025 enterprise tech landscape will be defined by a healthy dose of AI skepticism coupled with automation pragmatism. My top advice for IT leaders? Approach emerging technology with curiosity and mindfulness.
Claus Jepsen is chief product and technology officer at Unit4