As the AI momentum continues into 2025, experts warn leaders to place expectations on returns.
It wasn’t hard for experts to predict that artificial intelligence (AI) technologies would continue to gain momentum in 2024.
However, the sheer importance that AI – especially GenAI and widely available large language models (LLM) have garnered since exploding onto the scene just a few years ago, driving conversations around new regulations, is still astounding.
While this momentum isn’t looking to slow down in 2025, expert analysts are now saying that business leaders will focus on getting their return on investment (ROI) on AI by putting the lessons they learned over the years into practice.
Dr Marc Warner, the CEO of Faculty, an AI consulting firm says that senior leaders need to stop viewing AI as “experimental”, and start treating it as an essential part of business transformation.
He also advocates for a business strategy that integrates AI, rather than introducing standalone strategies, which will, according to him, provide the most success.
“Introducing new goals driven solely by AI has the potential to overcomplicate business processes and distract from solving key challenges,” he says.
Moreover, newer developments on the regulatory side of things, including the European Union’s landmark AI Act slated to come into force – in parts – throughout the coming years, the UK’s recent attempt to regulate data usage by AI firms as well as the US’s flip-flopping stance around the technology could succeed in containing some of the ‘Wild-West’ attitude of AI innovators, compelling them to fall in line.
Beware of premature of AI roll-backs
According to the Forrester’s 2025 predictions, impatience with AI ROI “could prompt enterprises to prematurely scale back investment”. Warning against this, analysts from the market research company say that businesses are achieving improved customer experience and productivity with AI, however, ROI could still take longer than decision-makers anticipate.
According to its analysis, 49pc of US generative AI decision-makers said that their organisation expects ROI from AI investments within one to three years, while 44pc said three to five years for the same. Meanwhile, a Basware report from last month said that 48pc of senior finance leaders would be wary of further investments into AI if their initial investments don’t deliver within 12 months.
However, Nitesh Bansak, the CEO of R Systems, a digital product engineering company, said that more and more organisations will take a practical approach towards what they can achieve using AI in a short period of time.
“AI has had a lot of hype – and that will continue – but more and more tech leaders will place a higher emphasis on ensuring measurable ROI – especially what can be achieved in the same fiscal year or under 12 months,” he says.
“For example, if an organisation requires complex coding to enhance a new product, using AI to automate routine development tasks can free up needed time and giving an immediate benefit.”
TuringBots will accelerate SDLC
This leads into another industry prediction for the year; More businesses will infuse AI development tools to assist their development teams.
TuringBots are AI development tools that automate and assist development teams, and 24pc executive-level respondents told Forrester that they will leverage AI and GenAI across the software development lifecycle (SDLC) within the next year.
And Bansak agrees. He says that “in the coming years, generative AI copilots, equipped with expanded memory and an agentic mesh framework, will increasingly enhance SDLC.
“With the agentic mesh, enterprises can deploy AI copilots that offer services such as high-fidelity UI testing, dynamic UX design, advanced prompting, and domain-specific customisation.
“This interconnected intelligence will automate routine tasks, allowing engineers to focus on high-value, innovation-driven initiatives,” he adds.
The vitality of ‘clean data’
Much of the conversation around AI data usage this year has been in relation to the origin and quality of data used by firms.
Transparency around data usage and a rethinking around future regulation of AI is key to protect businesses and content owners from copyright infringement, Sahara AI’s CEO told SiliconRepublic.com last month.
“Good, clean data is imperative for enterprises,” Bansak says.
“If a company is leveraging AI in a chatbot feature, they must consider what data is being used to train the generative AI model and ask critical questions. Where did the model obtain its data? What kind of data is included? Has the data been evaluated and vetted to ensure its accuracy?
He explains that “poor quality, inaccurate, or incomplete data can cause multiple issues in AI training and output, ultimately negating the benefits that the AI was initially meant to create.”
This past week, the UK government launched a consultation with the intention of introducing regulations around AI and copyright. While its proposals have received mixed reactions from stakeholders, with regulations just around the corner, AI firms need to be wary what data they use.
“AI will be driven by governmental entities and there will be a more focus on the regulation of AI,” says Marais Bester, a consultant at SHL, a data analytics and consulting firm, who adds that “there will be a focus on how we utilise the tools to ensure that people’s confidentiality is protected, but also in an ethical way so that AI doesn’t get too smart before we lose control of the technology.”
However, while Europe is moving towards stricter regulations, the US’s stance on AI remains to be seen. Incoming president Donald Trump’s first major AI policy move would likely be to repeal outgoing president Joe Biden’s executive order on AI, which sought to address the developing technology’s threat to civil rights, privacy and national security, Time Magazine opines.
Data centres will take centre stage
According to Sure Valley ventures, the AI-focused venture capital firm operating in Ireland and the UK, global data centre power consumption is expected to double, potentially reaching 1,000 TWh (terawatt hours) by 2026. Moreover, newer technological breakthroughs like high-density racks of 30-40kW are expected to become the norm.
In order to supplement the growing need for energy, the International Energy Agency expects that nearly 25pc of data centre power will come from renewable energy sources by the end of 2025.
However, while the rate of renewables are expected to rise, the meteoric rise in the requirement of energy will ultimately result in a rise in overall energy consumption, a significant portion of which is still fossil-fuel based.
For example, earlier this year, Google signed an agreement with Kairos Power with the aim of transitioning towards clean energy by 2030. However, the software giant, which has goals to reach ‘net-zero’ carbon emissions by the end of the decade, also recorded a carbon emissions growth of nearly 50pc compared to its 2019 levels.
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