Source: Quantum
It's fair to say that 2025 is going to be a pretty weird year. Wouldn't it be nice to be prepared for what's to come?
Predicting the future is, unfortunately, an imperfect practice. But at least we can offer you some educated guesses at this historical juncture where our relationship with technology is shifting.
This year, the tech giants will push the boundaries of artificial intelligence and facial computers harder than ever before. You might gravitate toward smaller, more tightly knit online communities.
That's just the beginning. This week, big names, newcomers and countless "followers" will gather in Las Vegas for the annual tech event, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which is also a barometer for tech companies of all sizes to set their priorities for the new year.
As always, we'll separate the novelties from the things that will never happen. Before that, we'll give you a quick rundown of the tech trends you might have to deal with in 2025.
1. AI is everywhere
You definitely expected it.
Big tech CEOs are investing billions into conversational AI, while some critics argue the technology is overhyped. Regardless, you’re going to see a lot more AI this year.
But oddly, some experts say you might hear less about it. If 2024 was the year AI went from impressive tech demos to meaningful products, this year may see AI finally start to become mundane, says Mike Bechtel, chief futurist at Deloitte.
“In 2025, AI will really become foundational, more important than ever, but less talked about than ever,” Bechtel says. “Electricity is everywhere, but we stop talking about it. It’s just an assumption.”
This shift into mainstream life will take many different forms.
AI’s role in the workplace and in K-12 classrooms is likely to continue to expand. Relationships with chatbots, like Replika and Character.ai’s talking avatars, will become more normalized — for better or worse. While early AI devices, like Humane’s AI pin, flopped almost immediately, many other companies, including many at CES this year, are preparing to make big moves with AI wearables and computers. 2. Goodbye Metaverse, Hello Spatial Computing While the metaverse concept seems to have died down, big tech companies aren’t going to stop trying to make face computers. (If you don’t remember the metaverse, it’s a shared virtual space where we can communicate as virtual characters.) What is changing, though, is the experience some of these companies want us to have. The hype bubble about the metaverse hasn’t burst, but it seems to have deflated significantly. Instead, expect companies like Meta, Google, and Samsung to further the idea of “spatial computing,” the collision of the real world with the digital tools you use to get work done.
“We’ve seen the market move away from virtual worlds as an escape from the real world, toward a mixed reality experience,” Bechtel said.
Imagine putting on a headset or a pair of glasses that look fairly normal and seeing your favorite apps or turn-by-turn navigation appear in front of you. Now imagine using your hands to interact with these digital elements. That’s the beauty of spatial computing.
If this sounds familiar, it’s right: Apple pushed the concept with its pricey Vision Pro headset in 2024, which was a big hit but weak demand. That proved that tech companies needed to find a way to make wearable spatial computers cheaper and faster.
3. The Internet Is Growing Fragmented
For years, we’ve been talking about online “echo chambers,” but in 2025, people will continue to migrate away from large platforms and toward small, like-minded online communities.
In the U.S., for example, what was once Twitter and is now X was once the front page of the internet, where people could quickly catch up on the day’s news and start to express their opinions. Now, its feeds are filled with retweets from owner Elon Musk, and a large number of its users have created accounts on Bluesky, a relatively small Twitter clone known for its left-leaning audience.
As Tumblr communities and Neopets guilds showed at the beginning of the decade, more private online spaces aren’t always a bad thing. Create a Discord server for your close friends, join a subreddit for that weird book you love, or support your favorite authors on Substack.
Just keep your media literacy in mind and fact-check even claims from people you generally agree with.
4. Concerns about kids and tech could be peaking
In the United States, lawmakers have tried and failed to pass legislation to protect the nation’s children from a variety of online threats, from extremist content to allegedly addictive app features.
As some U.S. states and other countries introduce tech-related legal protections for minors — Australia banned social media use for those under 16 in November — federal lawmakers will face increasing pressure to address what many parents see as a threat to their children.
Experts are divided over whether social media can have a negative impact on the mental health of children and teens. The U.S. surgeon general said he believes lawmakers should set limits and warnings on social media apps as we wait for hard evidence of their impact.
5. Tech Policy Implications
2025 is just the beginning, and if you’re in the U.S., you should be prepared for the technological consequences of some key policy choices.
Of course, the possibility of tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico, and especially China, which produces many of the world’s consumer electronics, is already looming.
While tech CEOs have recently taken steps to strengthen their relationships with the incoming Trump administration, prices for some types of smartphones, tablets, laptops, wireless headphones and even video game consoles could rise significantly as 2025 rolls around.
Speaking of our wallets, President-elect Donald Trump has also expressed a willingness to eliminate the $7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicles, which could complicate the prospect of picking a new car this year. That’s not only bad news for car buyers trying to reduce their environmental burden; automakers are desperate for Trump to keep those EV tax breaks.
And then there’s TikTok, which has 170 million American users and a large army of professional content creators. It could be banned as soon as January 19. U.S. President Joe Biden signed a law requiring the Beijing-based company to sell TikTok to a non-Chinese owner or face a ban.
President-elect Trump, who will take office on January 20, has said he opposes blocking downloads of TikTok and its companion app, CapCut. He may refuse to enforce the ban once it goes into effect, though TikTok may be unavailable while the Trump administration works through the issue.
The list goes on: Net neutrality rules have been overturned, popular drones used for filmmaking and agricultural production may be banned, and the incoming FCC chairman has promised to crack down on Big Tech’s “censorship” alliances (referring to media or content platforms owned by Big Tech that the agency believes inappropriately censor some viewpoints), not to mention the ongoing antitrust cases against Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta.
Our advice is to buckle up.
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