4th Annual NWN Predictions: Reflecting on 2024 and Setting the Stage for 2025

As we look back on 2024 predictions, it's clear that our experts made some spot-on forecasts about the IT market. From the rise of AI-powered devices to the evolution of unified communications and collaboration tools, the past year has been a testament to the rapid advancements in technology. Now, as we turn our focus to 2025, our experts are once again ready to share their insights on where next-generation technology is headed. Let's see if their predictions are in line with market analysts!

Devices: In 2024, we saw significant advancements in the integration of CPUs and GPUs, enhancing the end-user experience with advanced AI features like voice recognition and virtual assistants. Sustainability also became a focal point, with a push towards eco-friendly devices. Looking ahead to 2025, Device trends will include the rise of AI PCs and faster Neural Processing Units (NPUs), enabling cutting-edge AI technologies that boost productivity and offer energy-efficient computing. Companies will continue to focus on sustainability, improving the use of recycled materials for products and packaging. Additionally, Digital Employee Experience (DEX) will continue to grow and mature as new hardware and software tools and capabilities emerge. user support will advance by tracking device components and software, evaluating user experiences across multiple platforms, and automating processes through AI technologies providing users with a more personalized experience.

Unified Communications & Collaboration: Our experts accurately predicted the rise of cloud-based platforms and AI integration in unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) for 2024. In 2025, the UC&C landscape will be marked by the next generation of AI Agents moving to AI Assistants, or Digital Coworkers, proactively supporting employees with context-aware insights and predictive capabilities. While AI Agents have traditionally handled routine tasks such as scheduling and transcription, AI Assistants will become integral to complex workflows, contributing to decisions, offering sentiment analysis, and anticipating team needs across platforms. Industry-specific integrations will also become more prevalent, allowing UC&C platforms to embed directly into key business applications, enhancing operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. We'll also move to the role of "Assistants" for conversational AI to address basic customer questions with self-service options and addressing of simple transactions, freeing up agents for more complex tasks.

Visual Collaboration: In 2024, visual collaboration tools saw significant advancements, with AI-powered features like acoustic intelligence, camera tracking, and real-time transcription becoming more common. For 2025, visual collaboration platforms are expected to focus on interactivity, equity, and integration to meet the demands of hybrid and asynchronous work environments. Immersive experiences will be a key trend, with platforms leveraging larger, high-resolution displays and projected visuals to create boundless virtual canvases. Asynchronous communication will also become more important, allowing team members to contribute at their own pace and reducing the need for constant real-time meetings.

Contact Center: In 2024, AI applications became the entry point to organizations with businesses moving towards virtual agents backed by AI instead of traditional IVRs. We didn't observe the adoption of cross-channel interaction to the degree that we forecasted. It's likely that we'll still see cross-channel communication within the context of AI. Looking ahead to 2025, customer journey orchestration will become the overarching theme for contact center technologies. AI-powered journeys will replace traditional routing, scripting, and call flows, using historical and real-time datasets to optimize customer experiences. AI Assistants are increasingly enhancing personalized experiences by using machine learning to analyze user data, preferences, and previous interactions. This enables them to offer customized recommendations, information, and services tailored to each individual, resulting in a more relevant and engaging experience across different platforms and applications. AI language models will become more industry and company-specific, evolving to be more intelligent and targeted for distinct use cases. Workforce Management, Quality Management, and Scheduling/Forecasting applications will be replaced with AI. The complex algorithms that allow Workforce Optimization applications to recommend staffing plans will be overtaken by AI.

Security: Our experts got it right in 2024 with predictions about secure services edge, SASE, and NWN's Secure by Design approach. In 2025, AI will continue to augment human capabilities in security, but the malicious use of AI, such as phishing and deepfakes, will remain a concern. AI governance and management, especially about Zero Trust policies, will be critical as AI workflows are incorporated into organizations. Regulatory compliance and meeting heightened security standards will be key priorities, particularly in the federal market. Identity management and identity security, including machine identity, user identity, and multi-factor authentication are critical areas of focus for CISOs.

Intelligent Infrastructure: In 2024, the focus was on the integration of 5G and Low Earth Orbit satellite services with software-defined (SD-WAN) overlays to ensure business-aligned performance and security. For 2025, intelligent edge infrastructure will enable edge AI and localized data processing, accelerating as more devices generate massive amounts of data. This will be crucial for critical applications requiring low latency and real-time decision-making. Organizations will increasingly adopt multi-cloud strategies, leveraging services from multiple cloud providers for greater flexibility and resilience. Cloud, Multi Cloud and Hybrid data storage will have combined benefits of public, private, and on-premises environments with the ideal location based on sensitivity, access needs, and business use case.

Managed Services: Managed Services are evolving beyond traditional IT admin roles to become more persona-based, providing tailored information to all users for onboarding and other tasks. AI will play a significant role in this transformation, helping to automate and streamline various processes, making it easier for users to access the information and support they need. Think network traffic patterns and natural language processing to automate customer support and help desk functions. The rise of CX services and solutions, including AI Assistants, will deliver value by providing a personalized experience with intent understanding and sentiment recognition. Knowledge and Content Management will be key to managing the personalized experience by having accurate data for effective predictive analysis to offer the right content to AI Assistants. By leveraging AI, Managed Services will become more efficient and user-friendly, enhancing the overall experience for all users.