This audio is automatically generated. Please let us know if you have back.
In 2024, business technology has seen major changes in a short period of time.
The implementation of generative AI tools has captured the attention of business leaders, putting data and cloud infrastructure under more pressure than in previous years. Now, as 2025 approaches, technology leaders are preparing to face more disruption and organizational demands.
In 2025, executives will rely more on software companies as they grapple with the rise of an agentic workforce and an overall acceleration in AI maturity. Hyperscalers will continue to invest in building infrastructure to meet growing demand, and CIOs will be more particular about the problems they solve with generative AI.
Here are six predictions that analysts say will shape 2025 for enterprise technology leaders:
1. Software companies double their consumption-based pricing
Next year, Forrester expects a sharp increase in usage-based pricing, largely driven by businesses’ consumption of data and AI services. Consumer prices will rise to encompass 10% of business software costs, the analyst firm predicts.
“We want to distinguish consumption-based systems from subscription-based systems,” said Liz Herbert, former vice president and principal analyst at Forrester.
Rather than paying for a specific number of users or seats (a common vendor pricing model), customers will pay for the use of the software as they consume it.
“You can prepay a set number of credits and get a discount proportional to the purchase amount, or you can just let the meter run the same way cloud computing is sold now,” Herbert said.
2. CIOs will be more selective about generative AI use cases next year
Vendors have presented a myriad of generative AI use cases this year, offering multiple applications for the technology to enterprise customers. In 2025, CIOs will be more selective about where they apply technology, favoring use cases with higher rates of return on investment.
“I think CIOs are going to start to be more selective about where we should spend generative AI, because you have a limited resource pool in terms of people and money,” said Eric Johnson, IT Director at PagerDuty. “Do you want to spend a dollar and get back fifty cents or do you want to spend a dollar and get back five dollars of value?”
3. Companies will consolidate IT service provider contracts with their largest suppliers
To optimize technology spending and curb application proliferation, businesses will look to consolidate their IT service purchases with their largest vendors in the coming year, according to Alex Bakker, Distinguished Analyst at ISG.
“We’re talking about companies that run technology operations, not vendors of software solutions and hardware,” Bakker said. “These are providers who manage your data center, perform maintenance, manage software updates, and keep legacy applications running. »
ISG estimates that companies spend about a fifth of their IT budget on service providers. The lion’s share of the budget goes to a few large vendors who offer a wide range of cloud and data modernization services, as well as tailored industrial solutions and adoption strategies for emerging technologies like generative AI.
“Businesses are reaching a point where additional IT spending cannot generate additional value due to the complexity of the existing IT environment,” Bakker said. “If they bring in a new service provider, it would take them a year just to show them how the systems are designed. »
4. Hyperscalers will continue to develop their infrastructures
AWS, Microsoft and Google Cloud will continue to investing billions in data center infrastructure to support AI workloads next year. Hyperscalers have expanded their presence in the United States in 2024, with Microsoft planning to add regions in California and create a new region in Georgia, and AWS expanding to 17 local zones, Forrester reported.
“We expect the expansion of hyperscalers to continue in the United States as they compete for high-end AI workloads that require additional investment. » Lee Sustar, Principal Analyst at Forrester said. “There is no workaround: they will have to spend big, as shown by the Microsoft-Black Rock partnership to raise $30 billion for AI-driven data centers, with Nvidia and the investment fund MGX as partners.”
“At the same time, hyperscalers must continue to invest in core cloud services to maintain market share,” Sustar said.
5. Agentic AI will double the workforce in 2025
As enterprise AI capabilities evolve from rapid-response systems to more autonomous platforms, PwC expects leaders manage an expanding workforcenow staffed by AI agents – or AI-based autonomous tools – in addition to human workers.
“It’s a really interesting point in the maturation of AI, because it’s a cumulative effect of intelligence,” said Matt Wood, head of global and US business technology and innovation at PwC. “The more agents you add, the more they are able to communicate. It’s more of a multiplier than today.”
6. The maturity of enterprise generative AI strategies will accelerate
Many companies took an initial approach to generative AI that prioritized low value-add and fairly simple execution, but experts expect that to change over the next year.
Applications of technology tailored to specific roles, functions or use cases will proliferate as leaders better understand what is needed, how to mitigate risks and apply other lessons learned.
“The maturity with which people are adopting these technologies for the enterprise is going to accelerate,” said Elia Zaitsev, CTO of CrowdStrike. “We continue to evolve and iterate.”