Sector voices have their say on what’s in store.
Hans Zachar, Group Chief Information Officer, Nutun
In 2025, contact centres are poised for a transformation that will reshape the customer service landscape. The evolution of customer services has been a journey from traditional brick-and-mortar call centres to omnichannel communication. In 2025, the customer service landscape is set to shift towards seamless integration of voice, chat, email and social media. In fact, modern contact centres are goldmines for customer insights, informing meaningful business decisions and also the advent AI has also been improving their operational efficiency. AI will remain the hot topic for 2025 and beyond as the solutions mature and organisations continue to adopt them across their business. AI driven quality assurance and insights are already proving very promising in their ability to review each interaction as well as understand trends across huge volumes of interactions. AI also makes these insights much easier to understand as your average operations lead can interact with the data in a conversational way while still benefiting from analytical and business intelligence (BI) analysis.
Over the next 12 months, we expect to see significant developments in the use of AI agents. In fact, we’re noticing that credible voice and text agents are now becoming production ready. While still focused on lower complexity tasks, these AI agents provide a low-cost channel where excess workloads can be offloaded. Agent assisting tools that support, and coach agents are already starting to prove quite valuable. With the ability to access extensive knowledge bases and customer databases, they are able to supply the agent with critical information in real time as they listen in on the conversation.
Siddhesh Parab, Solution Architect – Manufacturing and Supply Chain, Percipere
The logistics sector in 2025 is poised for transformative growth, driven by advancements in technology and evolving market demands. Automation will be a key driver, with robotics and AI streamlining warehousing, sorting, and delivery processes. Autonomous vehicles and drones are likely to make significant strides in last-mile delivery, enhancing efficiency and reducing costs.
Digital transformation will reshape supply chains through IoT, blockchain and advanced analytics, offering unparalleled visibility and transparency. These technologies will enable businesses to make informed decisions, improve risk management and build resilient supply chains.
Sustainability will be a critical focus, with companies adopting greener transportation modes, innovative packaging solutions, and initiatives to lower their carbon footprint. These efforts will align with stringent regulatory standards and rising consumer expectations for environmentally responsible practices.
The continued expansion of e-commerce will heighten demand for faster, more efficient logistics, particularly in returns management and direct-to-consumer shipping strategies. Advanced forecasting powered by AI and machine learning will also play a pivotal role, enabling businesses to optimise inventory and respond to demand fluctuations with greater precision.
Overall, the logistics sector in 2025 will be defined by technological innovation, sustainability, and agility, setting new benchmarks for efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Nick Botha, Global Payments Lead, AutoRek
The latest technological advancements have driven the pace of change in the payments industry, transforming how the sector conducts its back and middle-office operations. However, there is still much work to be done. If automated reconciliation is neglected in 2025, businesses in the payments space will face substantial risks driven by businesses using outdated legacy systems.
Despite being a profoundly growing market that manages billions of transactions and data, reconciliation remains a largely manual process for many companies in fintech, banking and payments. This manual approach, whether it be Excel spreadsheets or other outdated legacy tools, creates scalability, accuracy and compliance issues due to the lack of control and auditing. These inefficiencies tend to occur in the middle and back-office operations, creating more work for the operations and finance teams, and adding a burden to their day-to-day jobs.
It is therefore crucial for businesses to replace their legacy systems with modern, integrated solutions. To ease this transition, emerging technologies such as AI, machine learning, cloud-based solutions and APIs offer boundless potential in creating scalable and flexible tech stacks. By adopting these innovations selectively and purposefully, businesses can streamline operations and manage growing transaction volumes far more efficiently. However, the trick is to not only focus on replacing outdated tools but also consider hiring people who understand and can leverage these new systems effectively, maximising the capabilities of these technologies.
Creating a purpose-built, automated tech stack is no longer optional – it is an essential strategic investment for the financial services sector in 2025. Businesses that utilise automation will reap the benefits including increased efficiency, improved controls and operational resilience.”
Neil Templeton, Senior Vice President, Console Connect
The enormous hype surrounding GenAI will continue into 2025, but next year there will be increased pressure on businesses to demonstrate value from their AI investments.
Expectations with GenAI became inflated in 2024 and businesses are still figuring out how to integrate AI effectively within their organisations, while balancing governance, risk and control.
If they haven’t already, businesses should be carefully considering the role of networks within their wider GenAI strategy. Last year we ran a survey and found that over two-thirds (69%) of senior IT leaders and 66% of CTOs did not believe current network infrastructure has the capacity to embrace generative AI.
It’s easy to see why. Not only are networks already handling vast volumes of additional data as a result of GenAI, but different GenAI workloads also present different network challenges.
Large Language Model (LLM) training, for instance, requires periods of high bandwidth for transferring data to the cloud. On the other hand, LLM inference involves a constant flow of data and requires stable network performance and low latency.
With both these types of AI workloads comes the need for a more agile and secure network model – one that can be adapted to the unpredictable traffic patterns of Gen AI and enable business to scale to meet the growing needs of their AI project.
That’s why Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) could be a good immediate and long-term solution. But unusually for a NaaS provider, we are going to advise businesses to really study the market before investing in NaaS in 2025.
In 2024, the NaaS market expanded considerably as more carriers, data centres and software companies launched or grew their NaaS offering. The market is becoming more crowded and, as a result, there is more confusion among potential enterprise buyers.
Thankfully, organisations like MEF offer guidance on what enterprises should expect from a NaaS offering, which includes capabilities such as on-demand connectivity, multi-cloud based services and an automated ecosystem. Be sure to bear this in mind if you’re investing in NaaS in 2025.
Colin Redbond, Chief Product Officer, SS&C Blue Prism
In 2025, technological innovation will continue to reshape businesses, with advancements in AI, automation, and data orchestration taking centre stage. Organisations will become more confident in their use of AI, moving towards increasingly complex processes such as becoming a ‘digital coworker’. These AI systems will augment creativity, enhance strategic decision-making, and solve complex problems, ushering in the era of ‘workplace 5.0.’ where human ingenuity and AI capabilities blend seamlessly.
With the increasing impact and capabilities of LLMs and conversational intelligence, digital agents are now able to act as coworkers that can support and amplify human efforts. A defining feature of this phase will be AI’s transition to increasing levels of autonomy, supported by robust human oversight. As AI gains more experience through training data and increased human input, we’ll see a gradual transfer over time of repetitive and lower-impact tasks from humans to digital counterparts.
This rise of Agentic AI-autonomous systems that are capable of adapting strategies in real time – will demand greater scrutiny. Trust, accountability, and ethical alignment will become business imperatives as these systems gain decision-making powers. Leaders must implement robust governance to ensure such technologies support human values and remain within corporate and regulatory boundaries. Moreover, external factors such as shifts in UK data sovereignty laws are further influencing AI adoption, pushing companies toward secure, transparent, and compliant models.
Currently, governance and risk are major barriers to gen AI adoption, with 34% of enterprise leaders citing them as concerns. AI governance frameworks will be a critical focus next year to ensure businesses are meeting these requirements.
The impact on enterprises from automation will be profound. The rise of AI-driven tools will redefine workflows, freeing employees to focus on strategic tasks while ensuring data flows seamlessly across departments. Previously siloed tools and legacy systems will become obsolete or part of a broader strategy, giving way to integrated, end-to-end solutions that enhance operation efficiency and business value. Orchestration across these systems and the data beneath them will increasingly become a key requirement for all organisations. This cross-system and data orchestration will allow businesses to create connected ecosystems, enhancing both internal productivity and customer experience on a scale not seen before.
Businesses that view AI as a collaborative enabler – balancing innovation with human-centric design – will lead the way. By fostering trust in technology and empowering employees to work alongside AI, enterprises can navigate these shifts successfully, positioning themselves for sustained growth.
In an increasingly unstable geopolitical climate, the need to adapt quickly, to protect and redefine competitive differentiation and respond to changing the fast pace of regulation around the adoption of AI will become a primary directive of every C-suite Technology leader.
Jessica Jacobs, Chief Customer Officer, Incubeta
The marketing technology landscape is evolving at a significant pace. With advancements in AI and machine learning running parallel alongside rising consumer demands for transparency and personalization, 2025 promises to be a pivotal year. To reap the benefits of new standout technologies shaping different industries, businesses must transcend traditional tactics. New strategies need to include data integration, authentic consumer personalization and responsible AI usage.
In today’s marketing industry, for instance, consumers are not passive recipients, they actively shape their own experiences with brands. To lead in this environment, brands must adopt data-driven, privacy-first, agile approaches. This involves creating a comprehensive view of the customer by investing in first-party data and leveraging AI for actionable insights that boost revenue. These trends are not merely “nice-to-haves” they are essential for achieving relevance, trust and profitability.
So, brands and businesses must be prepared to strategically leverage new standout technologies accurately to reap the benefits they bring to a business. For example, AI and machine learning have permeated every industry and are set to continue redefining industry standards in 2025. But these technologies only go so far and can only reach their full potential when data is organized and accessible, yet many organizations still grapple with data fragmentation. Unified data enables deeper insights into consumer behavior, allowing companies to adapt to market changes swiftly. This integration enhances predictive accuracy, which is critical for anticipating not only what customers want now but also what they’ll desire next.
In 2025, the most innovative brands will distinguish themselves through effective data utilization, unification and forward-thinking AI applications. By strategically leveraging emerging technologies, these businesses will gain a competitive edge across industries – especially within the marketing sector.
Richard Farrell, CIO, Netcall
Cybersecurity remains a top priority for today’s business leaders. As cyber threats escalate, CIOs, in particular, face intensified pressure to secure operations, while CEOs expect fast-track GenAI innovations. Managing both demands in tandem requires careful strategy, with security remaining central to this. Unfortunately, organisations often have finite resources available in this area, making the task of addressing cybersecurity extremely challenging.
To overcome this, organisations looking to adopt AI in 2025 would be wise to use solutions that mitigate some of the associated security and data privacy risks. One option is processing AI within the same managed environment as workflows and applications – keeping it local, safe and secure – ensuring that sensitive data is protected and not used for future AI training.
Many organisations under pressure to bring AI into the business have adopted various copilots this year. However, rather than reducing workflows, the current overload of various copilot systems is likely to complicate them if not managed effectively. Currently, copilots are available across internet browsers, alongside CRMs and numerous other office applications. This siloed and uncontrolled approach can not only become costly for organisations using multiple copilots, but the information obtained is likely to be inconsistent leading to additional time being spent reviewing it before it can be used.
Instead, a streamlined platform approach can help CIOs avoid over-dependence on fragmented AI tools, ensuring robust, cohesive tech operations in the year ahead.
There has been immense hype surrounding AI in 2024 – and GenAI in particular – however, this hype will begin to fade as the focus moves towards practical application in business. According to the Gartner Hype Cycle for Artificial Intelligence, 2025 will see the progress of GenAI slide into the trough of disillusionment stage as negative press increases, and governments increase focus on regulation.
Whilst many organisations can now say they are using GenAI in their business via various copilots, the reality is that this is merely scratching the surface of what the capabilities of AI can offer a business. It may be a tick in the box when it comes to whether a business is engaging with this technology, but it isn’t necessarily driving substantial value.