As we barrel towards 2025, the pace of technological change shows no signs of slowing. From AI-driven-everything to upcoming seismic shifts in the regulatory landscape, the year ahead promises to reshape industries and redefine how we live, work, and connect. 

This article explores the top technology trends poised to dominate 2025. Whether you’re a tech enthusiast, a business leader, or simply curious about the future, these trends will offer a glimpse into what lies ahead in the rapidly evolving digital landscape. Let’s dive into the innovations that the Positive team think will shape our world in the coming year.

Trump era’s UK Tech repercussions

The expectation is that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will lead to a much-needed pruning of US Government spending. As hiring freezes and layoffs bite, the need for automation and the use of IT is likely to pick up.

Other areas of change in tech will likely be the slackening of regulation on both AI and crypto. Depending on the move of our leaders in the UK and EU, our innovations in this space could make us more, or less, attractive to domestic or US tech buyers.

Finally, the antipathy of the last Trump presidency towards China will affect the planned IPO of Shein in London and the fate of Chinese-controlled brands like TikTok and Temu. We think accommodation will be reached, as Trump loves a deal. 

AI might actually bring some benefit from Brexit

The ‘take back control’ mantra always sounded off to sophisticated marketing teams in tech. They know just how dependent on collaboration modern tech is. However, as regulations on key AI tech start to diverge, there is a chance for the UK to win out. If the EU takes a very controlling stance, and the US business-friendly stance on AI, there is an opportunity for a ‘middle ground’ for the UK. Played correctly, an AI-friendly regime in a country known for its justice, could appeal to many of the world’s largest and fastest growing companies.

April will be the crunch month for tech in the UK

The hike of Employers National Insurance up by over a tenth (11%) will increase the cost of hiring UK-based staff. The effects of this will be felt in April but before then businesses are building their hiring plans for 2025. Seeing past this tax on jobs is hard, and employers will be looking for any productivity increases they can achieve from the use of non-UK workforces. 

Here again AI can play a positive role, offsetting the increased costs for headcount, by enabling more smart and agile virtual teams. These will be made up of inhouse subject matter experts and agency teams with deep AI skills. Those tech vendors who will profit most from this are those who can manage relationships, and spot the true incremental value of focused external agencies.

AI means Creatives will need to get, er, creative

It could be argued that creative types with specialist skills ranging from messaging to branding, video-editing to graphics design have overplayed their cards. Equipped with well-developed ‘right brain’ skills and using special creative suite tools, they remain a critical component of business success.

However, the AI genie is out of the bottle and the abundance of text-to-video and AI-generated image and copy solutions, means the ‘frustrated creative’ in their colleagues threatens their livelihoods. The solution is to supercharge their skillset with AI as their superpower and to pay much closer attention to the results marketing needs to deliver, and align themselves more with the objectives of performance marketing pros.

The SaaS era is over

‘Build it and they will come’, ‘Move fast and break things’ and “Software is eating the world” were fabulous sayings for the era when Software as a Service (SaaS) was growing strongly. The signs are that the SaaS era is over. SaaS megastar firms like Salesforce are slowing down as enterprises both tighten their belts, shedding vendors and consolidating all the SaaS applications they splashed on in recent boom years. The real squeeze is when they realise, rather than buy off the shelf software by the glass, they can selfcode their own applications with AI and lose the expensive drip, drip, drip of cloud subscriptions. AI-Driven development will dominate coding and app development, with AI tools like Copilot, ChatGPT, Gemini, becoming essential in coding workflows, automating repetitive tasks, debugging, and even suggesting architectural designs. 

First AI or robot ‘murder’

Are we able to hold AI responsible for careless acts? The lawyers want to know and will no doubt find a way to build a case. Whether that is taking over critical systems in infrastructure at a national level, or steering a car incorrectly for a driver and her passengers, there is a lot of room for debate. Even if we can accept robots being statistically safer at certain tasks than humans, will our Robophobia prevent us from accepting any failure when it comes to human life? The founders of the AI giants need to ‘lawyer up’ in anticipation of the courtroom dramas.

Open Source Will Be Solidified as the Backbone of AI and Cloud Development.

Open source communities will drive innovation in AI and cloud infrastructure, with platforms like Kubernetes, TensorFlow, and PyTorch continuing to lead. Companies will increasingly contribute to open source for credibility and access to talent. We’ll see increased partnerships between corporations and open-source projects, particularly in AI ethics, cloud scalability, and global collaboration tools, with big enterprises such as Google and Meta investing more resources in ensuring open-source AI frameworks align with global regulations and are interoperable with proprietary solutions.

AI PAs

AI powered personal assistants will become indispensable. They will evolve into intelligent companions, seamlessly integrating into our daily lives. They will understand our needs, preferences, and emotions to manage schedules, and provide personalised recommendations.

LEO Satellites and 5G Connect the World’s Remote Areas

Thanks to the rollout of LEO satellites and 5G, remote regions finally get high-speed internet, transforming education, business and everyday life. Villages that were once digitally isolated now enjoy the same connectivity as major cities, levelling the playing field and (hopefully) making the digital divide a thing of the past.

Composable Commerce Transformation in B2B

B2B organisations will increasingly adopt composable commerce architectures, moving away from monolithic systems. This shift will enable businesses to create more flexible, modular digital commerce experiences that can rapidly adapt to complex procurement processes. Companies will leverage microservices and API-first approaches to build custom solutions that integrate seamlessly with existing Enterprise Resource Management (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and inventory management systems. This trend will be particularly pronounced in industries with complex supply chains.

Cyber Gets Physical 

We can expect a significant surge in “cyber-physical” attacks targeting smart cities and Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystems, posing a grave threat to urban infrastructure and services. As cities increasingly integrate IoT devices and interconnected systems to enhance efficiency and sustainability, they inadvertently create a larger attack surface for cybercriminals. The consequences could range from traffic chaos and power outages to compromised water quality and disrupted emergency services, causing potentially causing widespread disruptions to daily urban life.

Social Stratification

By 2025, all UK governments will raise the age limit for social media use to 16 years old. Studies continue to show strong correlations between early social media use and negative mental health outcomes in children and teenagers. This growing body of evidence will likely push policymakers to take more decisive action in line with similar social bans around the world. 

AI bridges the augmented reality gap 

AI will continue to dominate the talking points regarding technological developments in design. It will be a constant race and play for power to see who is designing with the most innovative techniques. AI Image and video generation will be used more regularly as the AI models will become more accessible and make it easier to develop visuals through prompts. Integrating AR and 3D design into projects will become easier with the use of AI and will be a common trend in marking and advertising.