Cognizant leaders on the tech trends that will define 2025

December 19, 2024

Cognizant leaders on the tech trends that will define 2025

From industries under pressure to hot growth regions to workforce trends, our experts weigh in.

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Over the past year, AI has dominated investment dollars and enterprise innovation. The global AI market's projected growth to $827 billion by 2030 shows this likely won't slow down anytime soon and will continue to steer business plans and talent strategies in the year ahead.

In this blog, Cognizant's leaders weigh in on the trends that will define 2025-from generative AI's impact across businesses and industries, to how skilling and hiring will continue to evolve in the AI era.

1. Multi-agent AI systems will take hold across industries.

Businesses are struggling with how and where to apply AI to solve business problems, and that's why we've seen most AI use cases limited to prediction-based outcomes or single LLM chat-based solutions. But enterprises are moving quickly from embracing single- to multi-agent architectures, and these systems are transforming how businesses break down siloes, make better decisions, and drive new revenue streams.

"With multi-agent systems on the rise, we're on the cusp of gaining deeper experiences with AI that help business leaders identify valuable use cases and make informed decisions more quickly. Those that push boundaries and embrace the art of the possible will benefit first."

Babak Hodjat, CTO of AI

2. Talent strategies must adapt as more roles are enhanced and augmented by AI.

In the year ahead, more AI business strategies will prioritize people at their cores. According to Cognizant research, there's a growing desire to value and redevelop existing talent. Nearly half (44%) of business leaders prefer to reassign employees within their organizations, and HR will play an essential role in this.

"Generative AI opens doors to diverse and dynamic career pathways. In the coming year, we'll see more internal transformation driven by examining roles and ways to reskill employees within the existing organization and an investment in continuous learning that supports these new career paths."

Kathy Diaz, Chief People Officer

3. Marketing will lead the way with generative AI.

Cognizant's research shows that marketing is on the leading edge of generative AI investment, outpaced only by IT. These teams possess inherent creative and analytical skillsets that make them the natural scientists of the corporate suite. Generative AI will power more personalization and content creation -both verbal and visual-enhancing productivity and unlocking creativity across marketing. It's also allowing marketers to bridge previously disconnected data sets to surface insights.

"In the year ahead, marketers will continue to raise the bar on experimentation with new and novel use cases. We'll also progress from pilot to practice and start to see substantial changes in how we work using more mature, practiced application of AI tools. From opportunistic to purposeful, from test to apply, from learn to lead. For example, our marketing team has worked with IT to build an interface that guides users via a specific series of questions, and outputs substantive thought leadership in a style and format in line with brand verbal style and editorial rigor. It's AI-enabled, grassroots thought leadership."

Thea Hayden, Interim CMO and SVP of Global Marketing

4. CIOs will strengthen their digital foundations to fuel growth and resiliency.

Generative AI is here to stay, and CIOs must be engaged in preparing their organizations for success. In the year ahead, CIOs will continue prioritizing digital investments to help drive growth and strategic efficiencies.

"In 2025, CIOs will be most important in guiding, strategizing, and channeling investments to yield the most impact and benefit to the organization. CIOs increasingly play a seasoned business development role, looking beyond the curve and preparing the organization to adapt and evolve with the changes."

Neal Ramasamy, Global CIO

5. Financial services firms must prioritize AI transparency amid regulatory turbulence.

The rise of AI necessitates a strong focus on ethical considerations and regulatory compliance. Addressing algorithmic bias, ensuring data privacy, and promoting transparency are all crucial for financial services firms, especially as complex multi-agent systems become more prevalent. With evolving regulations, financial firms will increasingly need to document the entire lifecycle of their AI models, including data provenance, to identify biases and details of the training and decision-making processes.

"Financial services firms will need to set themselves up to respond to any changes in regulation over the next year. For example, ensuring they can provide traceability around why generative AI models have made a decision will be essential."

Nageswar Cherukupalli, Senior VP & Business Unit Head of Banking, Capital Markets & Insurance

6. AI will further accelerate drug discovery.

In the coming year, generative AI will continue to accelerate drug discovery, significantly transforming the life sciences landscape. By streamlining research and development, generative AI enables researchers to synthesize vast literature quickly, significantly cutting research time. Automating clinical trial protocol writing reduces the time required for compliance, speeding up patient access to new treatments.

"We will witness AI further transforming the landscape of drug discovery. By harnessing its capacity for rapid data processing, predictive analytics, and real-world evidence integration, AI will dramatically shorten the timeline for bringing new therapies to the market."

Dr. Scott Schell, Chief Medical Officer

7. As AI powers the green energy transition, a demand for evidence will increase.

The use of AI solutions requires increasingly powerful data centers that consume more energy and water and will require businesses to increasingly turn to AI itself to address the environmental challenges it creates. But with this acceleration, disclosure and transparency are going to be high on the sustainability agenda for many companies, particularly in the EU, as regulations demand much more reporting of data on sustainability management and performance.

"The era of trumpeting big sustainability commitments and targets without clear detail and evidence of delivery is ending. Clients and investors want concrete evidence of delivery, which means real, sustained reductions in emissions and contributions to the circular economy."

Stuart Poore, Chief Environment Officer

8. Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, and China will emerge as powerhouses for technology R&D

In 2025, companies will leverage the productivity gains that gen AI delivers in this economically favorable environment, driving significant growth and innovation. One key way this will happen is by companies expanding their operating presence in countries like the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, and China, which are rapidly emerging as key labor frontiers in strategic technology and research and development, as well as operational outsourcing and automation.

"These countries are ideal near-shore hubs for global companies wanting to serve Asia, thanks to their strong language proficiency, cultural compatibility, and skilled graduate talent."

Jane Livesey, EVP and President of Asia Pacific and Japan

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