The importance of businesses ‘staying in the loop’ cannot be overstated.
Companies of all sizes risk being left behind by the rapid advancement of technology – but harnessed correctly, tech also offers them a chance to grow in ways unheard of a few years ago.
Key UK figures across several sectors have offered their tech and industry predictions in the coming 12 months – and, once again, artificial intelligence is front and centre.
UK’s trillion-dollar tech firm?
Gavin Poole is the CEO of London tech campus Here East and spoke about how the UK can create the next trillion-dollar tech firm.
“Just one trillion-pound company would transform the UK’s economy and productivity, and I’m predicting that we’ll see the makings of one in 2025. However, their long-term success can only be guaranteed if there is a clear, joined-up strategy involving the companies, their investors and the relevant arms of government.”
Tech to solve global housing crisis?
Gilles Retsin is the co-founder & CTO of AUAR and highlighted the impacts of the ongoing global housing crisis.
“The global housing shortage will further dominate headlines as efforts to build the required 1.5 million homes in the UK fall short. Governments, developers and communities will face growing pressure to find scalable solutions. This crisis will expose the limitations of current construction methods, creating an urgent need for systemic innovation and more efficient, sustainable approaches.”
The importance of data management
Adam Nethersole, VP at AI data centre firm Kao Data, spoke about the increasing necessity for data management and storage.
“2025 will see an increased demand for data storage and processing, driven by the rapid growth in AI, cloud services and data analytics. With the Greater Manchester Mayor’s ambitions to make Manchester the UK’s leading digital city region, it is well placed to capitalise on the growing demand for data centres and the compute power required to grow these technological capabilities.”
Sam Burgess, CEO and co-founder of Partful, added: “Better access to data will be valuable across all aspects of business. For example, in the manufacturing sector, businesses are looking to create digital threads that connect data throughout the lifecycle of a product. This is partially for compliance reasons, but it’s also creating new business opportunities.”
Increased pressure on SMEs
Hannah Fitzsimons, CEO of Cashflows, about the increased pressures on SMEs for 2025.
“2024 was declared the ‘Year of the SME’, but there has been little relief for the UK’s small businesses after years of economic headwinds. With the Autumn Statement now behind us, there is increased pressure for SMEs heading into a new year, and little change expected on the macroeconomic scale – energy and fuel prices aren’t about to significantly reduce any time soon. What’s more, the US is rumoured to be imposing tariffs on foreign imports that could see the UK-based businesses who export to the country, 84% of which are SMEs, unable to do business there.”
Uptick in deal flow
Tom Wrenn, managing partner at ECI, spoke about how an increase in the range of businesses coming to the market in 2025 could lead to both positives and negatives.
“We anticipate a continuing uptick in deal flow in 2025 as investors continue to call for more liquidity. Desire to deliver DPI for investors has led to some PE companies selling off their top businesses, often using continuity vehicles to do so, and this has driven pricing but not market volume. There will likely be a greater range of businesses coming to the market in 2025, which may lead to a normalisation of pricing, but also more failed processes.”
The dangers for cybersecurity
Kevin Dunn, VP and GM of EMEA at Wasabi, highlighted the significant disruptions to airports, banks and emergency services due to cloud outages in 2024.
“These outages, caused by factors such as network issues, cyberattacks, or faulty updates, have brought the topics of security and dependency on sole providers to the forefront of budget discussions – extending concerns beyond IT departments to executive decision-makers. To address these challenges, businesses will seek solutions that reduce internet latency and bottlenecks while ensuring fast, predictable performance. A resilient tech stack will allow companies to store and access their data exactly when and where they need it, enabling greater operational agility. By maintaining the freedom to switch between cloud providers, organisations can not only optimise performance but also ensure they are always leveraging the best available solutions, safeguarding their competitiveness in a dynamic business environment.”
Changing clouds
Adrian Bradley is head of cloud transformation at KPMG UK.
“Next year we are anticipating more strides in energy-optimised application architectures and intelligent workload placement. Optimisation for cost will move towards entire architectures that can be dynamically placed in locations with the most favourable energy conditions. This will eventually lead to enhanced application performance, and increased grid stability – reducing costs for providers and users. The cloud is changing due to pressure of efficiency, catalysed by innovations in areas such as AI. While we are braced for change, it may be happening quicker than we expected.”
AI to dominate – again
If 2023 was the year of AI… and 2024 was the year of AI… then rest assured that 2025 will be no exception.
The University of Salford’s disruptive technologies and AI experts, Dr Maria Kutar and Dr Gordon Fletcher, said: “As the prevalence of AI in our daily lives continues to increase, concerns over its ethics have been widespread. As with any technology, ensuring responsible use is critical to mitigate risk and ultimately protect our society. As such, AI governance to ensure responsible, safe and ethical use, while still encouraging innovation and investment, is likely to be a priority for both governments and organisations in 2025. AI presents many benefits for organisations. However, without effective governance, the consequences of unethical adoption are far greater so this will be at the top of the agenda next year, and we are likely to see more reporting of issues that arise.”
Gary Haynes, managing director at Voicescape, said: “While generative AI has dominated the scene in the last 12 months, augmented AI still remains extremely relevant and will come back in to the fore in 2025 as more and more businesses and organisations look to empower people through machine learning, rather than removing human beings from the equation.”
Barry Downes, Sure Valley Ventures managing partner, added: “As we approach 2025, AI is moving from experimental technology to a core driver of business transformation.”
CEO of Oxylabs, Julius Černiauskas, touched on how vital automated machine learning will be in 2025: “AutoML is a crucial step toward democratising machine learning and AI. With more experts in diverse fields being able to create ML tools tailored to their needs, AI and ML adoption in business can accelerate and open new possibilities. Thus, companies have all the reasons to invest in AutoML, and we might see impressive results already in 2025.”
Jeff Watkins, CTO at CreateFuture, said: “Generative AI in 2025 will shift from hype to substance. While some overinflated valuations may deflate, the field continues to advance, driving innovation and tackling critical challenges. Protective AI will combat threats like deep fakes and misinformation, while agentic AI is set to revolutionise businesses, with Gartner predicting 33% of enterprise software will include it by 2028, up from less than 1% in 2024. Serious investment in frameworks like Large Action Models (LAMs) is expected next year, though fully autonomous decision-making remains a few years away.”
Accessibility
Hilary Stephenson, managing director of human-centred design agency Nexer Digital, said the European Accessibility Act (EAA) will transform many tech businesses.
“It will raise the bar on accessibility for digital services and products. It’s more than just compliance. Businesses supplying into the EU will need to think about embedding accessibility into every aspect of design, creating digital experiences that work for everyone.”
Optimism
Claire Alvarez, Manchester-based partner at Foresight Group, said the investor is continuing to see a high volume of exciting companies across all sectors and transaction types.
“Sectors we are seeing frequently are business services, software, tech and healthcare. The emergence of AI is likely to continue to create investment opportunities as well as ways for companies to become more efficient.”