Outlook 2025: 6 AI Trends to Watch Out For From technological advancements to regulatory efforts, the industry witnessed watershed moments this year.

It is said that slow and steady wins the race. Artificial intelligence (AI) adoption has been practising this by collating little yet meaningful adoption rates over the years- jumping from 20 per cent in 2017 to 72 per cent in early 2024.

In 2024, 73 per cent of the Indian population surveyed were reported to be using generative AI. It is safe to say that genAI has evolved beyond what ChatGPT gave a taste of in late 2022. From technological advancements to regulatory efforts, the industry witnessed watershed moments this year.

"AI is already making the impossible feel possible, and over the past year we've seen significant numbers of people and organizations moving from AI experimentation to more meaningful adoption," says Chris Young, executive vice president of business development, strategy and ventures, Microsoft.

Let's take a look at six AI trends we can expect more of in 2025-

1. Enhanced capability- Over a couple of years, advancements have made AI models faster and more efficient. Models such as OpenAI o1 have surpassed expectations in metrics such as solving complex problems with logical steps, comparing contracts, generating code, and executing multistep workflows.

"There could be synergy between how we are training the models and how those models are powering agents in return...And people will now have more opportunity than ever to choose from or build models that meet their needs," said Ece Kamar, managing director, AI Frontiers Lab, Microsoft.

In 2025, faster, better and more specialized models will create new and more useful AI experiences, including with agents.

2. AI agents- According to MarketsandMarkets, the AI agents market is projected to grow from USD 5.1 billion in 2024 to USD 47.1 billion by 2030. For the uninitiated, AI agents are autonomous systems that perform tasks without human intervention. Microsoft 365 Copilot is helping 70 per cent of Fortune 500 companies tackle repetitive and mundane tasks.

With advancements in memory, reasoning, and multimodal capabilities, agents will tackle more complex tasks, utilizing new skills and innovative interaction methods. Notably, amid all development, Kamar notes that human oversight will remain a central cog in the evolving AI-powered agent wheel.

3. Everyday companion- AI will make parts of your life beyond work easier in 2025. This includes simplifying and prioritizing tasks to free up time while safeguarding privacy, data and security.

4. More resource‑efficient- Emerging technologies, including AI, demand computing power and energy. For instance, Google announced partnering with Kairos Power to use nuclear power to power its AI data centres.

However, tech players are strategising a broader effort to make the infrastructure for AI more efficient and sustainable in 2025. Global data centre workloads grew roughly nine times from 2010 to 2020, with data centre electricity demand increasing only 10 per cent. Players like Microsoft, AMD, Intel and NVIDIA are working on making their hardware more efficient, from their custom silicon series to their liquid cooling heat exchanger unit designed to efficiently cool large-scale AI systems.

Notably, it is expected that in coming years, AI-focused data centres will come online and consume zero water for cooling with the companies using superefficient liquid cooling systems such as cold plates.

5. Measurement and customization- As AI continues to advance exponentially, users and researchers have voiced their concerns about the responsible use of AI.

Measuring and evaluating risks in AI is essential for developing responsible AI systems. One of the most significant advancements anticipated this year can be encapsulated in two key concepts: testing and customisation. If risks and threats can be measured, they can be addressed or mitigated.

6. Accelerate scientific breakthroughs- Among all the spaces AI is being leveraged in, AI advancements in scientific breakthroughs are having a dramatic impact worldwide. AI's impact on science will continue to grow.

"We'll start to see these tools having a measurable impact on the throughput of the people and institutions who are working on these huge problems, such as designing sustainable materials and accelerating the development of life-saving drugs," said Ashley Llorens, corporate vice president and managing director, Microsoft Research.