How Ai Amplifies These Other Tech Trends That Matter Most To Business In 2025

Artificial Intelligence - increasing inclination successful value from 2024 to 2025

McKinsey 2025 Research

ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• AI agents are nan technologies that matter astir for companies successful 2025.
• AI stands retired not only arsenic a powerful exertion activity connected its ain but besides arsenic a foundational amplifier of different trends.
• Autonomous systems, including beingness robots and integer AI agents, are moving from aviator projects to applicable applications.

Which frontier technologies matter astir for companies successful 2025? According to McKinsey research, location are 13 caller frontier technologies that matter astir to companies, including agentic AI.

Also: How AI agents tin make $450 cardinal by 2028 - and what stands successful nan way

Research from different manufacture expert firms validate nan economical effect of AI, including a $450 cardinal marketplace associated pinch agentic AI by 2028. This year's exertion developments item a early wherever exertion is much adaptive, collaborative, and basal for solving world problems. 

McKinsey saw this crossed various fields, from nan expanding prevalence of robotics and autonomous systems to nan captious request for responsible AI innovations. McKinsey identified a group of themes that seizure nan effect of these frontier technologies, including: 

• The emergence of autonomous systems - Autonomous systems, including beingness robots and integer agents, are moving from aviator projects to applicable applications. Autonomous AI agents are now enabling companies to beryllium built like a stealth aircraft. 
• New human-machine collaboration models - Human-machine relationship is entering a caller shape defined by much earthy interfaces, multimodal inputs, and adaptive intelligence. 
• Scaling challenges - The surging request for compute-intensive workloads -- particularly from gen AI, robotics, and immersive environments -- is creating caller demands connected world infrastructure. 
• Regional and nationalist title - Global title complete captious technologies has intensified. Countries and corporations person doubled down connected sovereign infrastructure, localized spot fabrication, and backing exertion initiatives specified arsenic quantum labs. 
• Scale and specialization are increasing simultaneously - Growth connected these vectors is enabled by invention successful unreality services and precocious connectivity. 
• Responsible invention imperatives - As technologies go much powerful and much personal, spot is progressively nan gatekeeper to adoption.

The AI Revolution - Agentic AI

McKinsey

The 13 frontier tech trends

1. Agentic AI - Agentic AI is an artificial intelligence strategy tin of independently readying and executing complex, multistep tasks. Built connected instauration models, these agents tin autonomously execute actions, pass pinch 1 another, and accommodate to caller information. Significant advancements person emerged, from wide supplier platforms to specialized agents designed for heavy research. Companies for illustration Salesforce person already realized complete one cardinal AI conversations powered by agentic AI, pinch unthinkable business results successful 2025. 

Talent and labour markets - Agentic AI

McKinsey 2025 Research

2. Artificial intelligence - Artificial intelligence refers to machine systems designed to execute tasks that typically require quality intelligence. These systems leverage algorithms, data, and computational powerfulness to admit patterns, make decisions, and study from experiences. Research from MuleSoft validates nan value of AI arsenic a cardinal integer translator inclination for 2025. 
   
3. Application-specific semiconductors - Application-specific semiconductors are purpose-built chips optimized to execute specialized tasks. Unlike general-purpose semiconductors, they are engineered to grip circumstantial workloads (such arsenic large-scale AI training and conclusion tasks) while optimizing capacity characteristics, including offering superior speed, power efficiency, and performance.
   
4. Advanced connectivity - Advanced connectivity covers a suite of evolving technologies that heighten and grow integer connection networks. This includes wireless low-power networks, 5G and emerging 6G cellular systems, Wi-Fi 6 and 7 standards, and low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites.
5. Cloud and separator computing - Cloud and separator computing impact distributing workloads crossed locations, from hyperscale distant information centers to location hubs and section nodes. This attack optimizes capacity by addressing factors specified arsenic latency, information transportation costs, information sovereignty, and information security.
6. Immersive-reality technologies - Immersive-reality technologies encompass augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) and see AR smart glasses, precocious haptic feedback, and AI-powered enhancements that amended rendering, tracking, and processing capabilities.
7. Digital spot and cybersecurity - Digital spot and cybersecurity covers technologies and practices designed to guarantee secure, transparent, and trustworthy integer interactions. This includes personality verification, information protection, encryption, threat detection, and blockchain-based spot systems.
8. Quantum technologies - Quantum-based technologies usage nan unsocial properties of quantum mechanics to execute definite analyzable calculations exponentially faster than classical computers; unafraid connection networks; and nutrient sensors pinch higher sensitivity levels than their classical counterparts.
9. Future of robotics - The early of robotics covers nan advancement of robotics tin of performing tasks autonomously aliases semi-autonomously, adapting to new, real-life inputs pinch expanding degrees of autonomy and dexterity, including autonomous mobile robots and humanoid robots.
10. Future of mobility - Mobility technologies see autonomous vehicles, electrical vehicles, drones, municipality aerial mobility solutions (such arsenic electrical vertical takeoff and landing aircraft), and micromobility (such arsenic e-scooters and e-bikes). These technologies purpose to amended nan efficiency, safety, and sustainability of proscription systems.
11. Future of bioengineering - Bioengineering is nan exertion of engineering principles to biology, utilizing technological advancements (for example, cistron editing and synthetic biology) to amended wellness and quality performance, toggle shape nutrient worth chains, and create innovative offerings.
12. Future of abstraction technologies - Space technologies screen outer systems, motorboat vehicles, habitation modules, and exploration missions, including LEO outer constellations, direct-to-device connectivity integrating abstraction assets pinch terrestrial networks, and Earth observation.
13. Future of power and sustainability technologies - Energy and sustainability technologies encompass a wide spectrum of innovations aimed astatine transforming nan world power scenery toward a much sustainable and resilient future. This includes nan spectrum of technologies transforming nan world power worth chain, peculiarly focusing connected cleanable electrons, electrification, and cleanable molecules.

Also: A cardinal customer conversations pinch AI agents yielded this astonishing lesson

The healthiest companies of nan early are autonomous companies. Autonomous companies utilize a hybrid workforce, embracing AI-first strategies and integer labour to standard speed, scale, and intelligence. When done right, AI agents will unlock unprecedented worth creation opportunities pinch non-linear affirmative effect that tin only beryllium realized via autonomous AI agents.  

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