After New Year, but before that first Monday back at work, we enter a twilight zone. There is nothing more to celebrate… the mince pies, still stacked high, are on sale… and it can be easy to be just kicking around the house.
For many, of course, this is a great time to get out, head to the January sales, do jobs at home or even dare I say some DIY.
Others are happy to get the jump on work, head in and start work early… you can always tell those that do by the way, they are the ones that don’t start their emails ‘Happy New Year’ next week… no they are not grumpy, they just did it already!
Then for some, it is a good time to trawl through the myriad of predictions for the year ahead, even come up with some of our own too. (I do quite enjoy these I have to admit). So here goes.
- Nostradamus is quite the soothsayer. Popular yes.. although let’s be honest not exactly a bundle of cheer. However apparently even he has something to say for 2025… more global conflict… however maybe some medical breakthroughs?
- Advancements in robotics and AI. Certainly, there has been some interesting posts around humanoid robots more recently…
- Agentic AI. Lots of talk on this one already. Is this AI turning the corner, getting up and out of the lab (or data centre) to help us in our tasks?
- Use of AI for better energy management. An optimistic one this. Can we use some of these new techniques to use less energy… matching production to demand?
- AI-Powered Cyber Attacks. There is good and bad with AI I suppose. We need to remember that AI will continue to add capability to everyone… so everything can become more sophisticated, unfortunately also cyber attacks.
- AI chips to dominate and make a new most profitable company… from the wonderful Saxo bank outrageous predictions.
- Starship operational but more competition for SpaceX. This will be interesting to watch, esp what could have with increased/cheaper access to space.
- Wicked to win the best picture Oscar… I really have not much to add on this, I thought Perfect Days was a great film last year… never that close really.
- and of course… top baby names Mila and Ezra.
Is all this real insight or just a large example of groupthink? Both indeed may be true and still fun to think about… so here are a couple of less-than-outlandish predictions for 2025 from my perspective.
- We are going to hear a lot less about AI. This is already true, I have already stopped trying to talking about it so much… although have failed here. The reality is it is being accepted and already getting rolled into products and process, some places we don’t even notice, it is not going anywhere, we are just going to hear about it less. No doubt we will be exploring use cases a lot.
- The call for more regulation, more oversight and more control will get louder. With great technology comes extra capability flexibility vs control split is going to get ever harder to navigate. We need to be ready and stay ahead. Evidencing, data and reporting will be top of mind.
- 2025 is the year the rubber hits the road on Consumer Duty in the UK. Yes, I know it is already launched, but it feels like we will see much more regulator activity and action this year. This is going to generate a lot of discussion (and activity I suspect).
- Economic outlook... not wanting to sound like Nostradamus on this one, but not great. My view prepare for a storm, and if it doesn’t happen you can laugh about it… if it does you are ready. We know what to do here, but time to take action.
- Lastly I am optimistic however around medical advances… this would be great too, so will be watch this space.
That’s it I think… all the best for 2025, lets see how it all plays out.
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