The report “TEN TECHNOLOGY TRENDS 2025 The Year of Reckoning” by Dr. Mark van Rijmenam addresses the year 2025 as a turning point, in which the most advanced digital technologies—from artificial intelligence to augmented reality—intertwine with sociopolitical phenomena, producing profound consequences. The goal is to understand how the exponential acceleration of innovation will affect businesses, markets, and society, shaping dynamics of trust, regulation, and adaptation.
Technology 2025: Omnipresence of Artificial Intelligence and the Challenge to Truth
In 2025, artificial intelligence permeates every sphere of existence, spreading far beyond traditional sectors and embracing everyday uses, domestic devices, industrial systems, and economic platforms. This ubiquitous presence changes the relationship between human beings, machines, and organizations, creating a context where AI is no longer just a tool but the connective tissue of the infosphere. AI no longer merely enhances products or services; it becomes an integral part of decision-making processes, work, and even social interactions. For example, wearable devices or domestic smart hubs no longer stop at simply responding to a voice command but anticipate user needs and behaviors, providing real-time information and redefining the perception of reality.
This pervasiveness has profound employment impacts, not so much in 2025 in terms of massive job destruction, but rather in increasing tension between the opportunities offered by automation and the need to redefine human skills and responsibilities. This progressive integration leads to agentic AI systems capable of autonomous actions, modeling industrial processes with great efficiency and speed. An investment bank might use specialized AIs for real-time market analysis, while a manufacturing company could coordinate complex supply chains without direct human intervention. Such examples are not mere science fiction, as the proliferation of large-scale language models simplifies the adoption of these systems. The accessibility of open-source frameworks, such as Llama, encourages a wide range of enterprises to create vertical applications, generating a competitive advantage for those who understand how to integrate these solutions into their business.
AI thus infiltrates the very infrastructure of daily life, from logistics to entertainment, from production to financial consulting, accentuating the need for ethical governance and transparent rules. The balance between efficiency and responsibility, between operational flexibility and transparency, becomes critical. While AI provides an unprecedented operational fluidity, it also increases vulnerabilities in the dissemination of unverified information. The emergence of deepfakes and synthetic content of such high quality that they become indistinguishable from reality fosters an environment where trusting the authenticity of a video, an image, or a statement becomes extremely complex. The manipulation of information, facilitated by generative AI, produces a fragmentation of society, where the perception of truth and falsehood falters, creating rifts among social groups, institutions, and markets.
Where once verifying a source was a matter of journalistic method and critical analysis, in 2025 this ability becomes an essential safeguard at all levels, from individuals to large companies. A manipulated piece of news can destabilize stock prices, undermine a brand’s credibility, or trigger geopolitical tensions. The problem does not lie in the technology itself, but rather in its use and the ease with which malicious actors can pollute the information flow. Knowing how to distinguish signal from noise, defining ethical guidelines, and adopting authentication standards for content is not a luxury but a strategic necessity. In 2025, a company that wants to maintain its reputation and reliability must invest in verification systems, internal training, and resilience mechanisms, recognizing that the crisis of digital truth is not a transient event, but a structural component of the technological landscape.
Information Overload, Tokenized Assets, and the Shadow of the “Big Crunch”
The year 2025 is marked by an incessant flow of data and content. Information production grows at such a pace that any attempt to maintain complete control becomes obsolete. Artificial intelligence, capable of generating text, images, and videos instantly, fuels a scenario in which synthetic content risks surpassing human-generated content in volume. The result is a constant immersion in saturated information streams, where orienting oneself becomes an arduous undertaking. A simple example is the experience of an executive traveling who, after an intercontinental flight without network access, lands to find a reality already changed, with news, economic analyses, and market trends potentially already outdated.
In this context, attention becomes a scarce resource. The ability to distinguish relevant information from noise becomes the true competitive factor. To this end, some platforms focus on tools capable of filtering, synthesizing, and contextualizing data. While in the past innovation consisted of providing access to previously inaccessible information, now the challenge is to offer criteria for interpretation and verification mechanisms. Organizations that can master selection, synthesis, and predictive analysis of information will be able to guide their strategies more lucidly, avoiding drowning in the sea of data.
In parallel, 2025 sees the rise of the tokenization of real assets, a process in which blockchain technology makes it possible to fragment and digitally represent physical property, such as real estate, artworks, or environmental credits. This phenomenon, connected to decentralized finance, promises to increase the liquidity of traditionally inflexible assets, enabling faster and more transparent transactions. Specialized platforms emerge to manage these transitions, while certain jurisdictions, such as Singapore or the EU, provide clearer rules, making it safer for investors and companies to enter this new frontier. However, large-scale adoption of tokenized assets is not without risks. Speculation can create bubbles, and the absence of global standards leads to regulatory fragmentation. The efficiency promoted by tokenization must therefore be balanced with careful oversight capable of preventing fraud, manipulation, and market imbalances.
On another front, quantum technology looms as a critical watershed in digital security. The “Big Crunch” is the event in which quantum computers will be able to break traditional cryptographic protocols, undermining the foundations of online security. RSA and ECC systems, the cornerstone of the current cryptographic infrastructure, risk becoming vulnerable in the face of sufficiently powerful quantum machines. Standard-setting agencies like NIST are preparing quantum-resistant cryptographic protocols, but effective adoption requires time and investment, especially for businesses. Some actors may be able to break important algorithms before revealing it to the world, thus exploiting a temporary strategic advantage.
This is not just a technological problem. Differences in the diffusion and control of quantum technology may intensify gaps between nations, redefining geopolitical equilibria and creating tensions among rival blocs. Those who gain access to enhanced quantum security or unsurpassable attack capabilities will hold a significant economic and military advantage. In 2025, preparing for the post-quantum era is not an abstract exercise, but a necessity for protecting data, intellectual property, and financial stability.
Augmented Reality, Humanoid Robots, Proactive Healthcare, and Geopolitical Scenarios Between Innovation and Deregulation
In 2025, augmented reality (AR) becomes an increasingly integrated interface in everyday life, going beyond the confines of the gaming sector to embrace areas such as training, retail, and healthcare. While in the past AR glasses were seen as futuristic gadgets, now lighter and more comfortable models that can leverage 5G networks and artificial intelligence offer immersive experiences. AR is no longer limited to entertainment: it overlays digital information onto the physical context, enabling the recognition of objects, providing instructions for repairs, or displaying critical data during a medical procedure. However, this integration raises issues of privacy and security, since the granular collection of visual data can become an instrument of pervasive surveillance. Balancing innovation and ethics become essential to prevent AR from degenerating into a technology of invisible control.
Automation does not stop here. By 2025, humanoid robots are no longer be laboratory prototypes but active participants in the production fabric. From factories to logistics, from restaurants to elderly care, the presence of humanoid machines capable of understanding complex operational contexts and interacting with people through familiar gestures and movements becomes ordinary. Such robots help fill staffing shortages, handle dangerous or repetitive tasks, and increase productivity. In some sectors, such as senior care facilities, human work may be reduced to supervisory functions, while basic operations are guaranteed by machines.
Meanwhile, healthcare undergoes a transition from reactive to proactive. Wearable technologies, biometric sensors, and advanced genomic analyses allow diseases to be monitored and prevented before they manifest fully. Proactive healthcare uses AI to identify predictive patterns in medical records, tailor preventive plans, and suggest healthier lifestyles. While promising, this paradigm shift does not in itself guarantee equitable access. Who will be able to afford sophisticated devices and personalized genetic analyses? If technological evolution is not accompanied by inclusive policies, there is a risk of creating a healthcare divide between those who benefit from predictive tools and those who remain tied to a reactive model—less efficient and more expensive in the long run.
Rounding out the picture, geopolitical dynamics directly influence the technological ecosystem. With the return of Trump to the U.S. presidency in 2025, we witness more pronounced protectionism, pressures on technology production linked to rival powers, targeted deregulation to favor certain industrial players, and targeted restrictions for companies not aligned with Washington’s policies. This may favor sectors such as fintech, defense, and innovation platforms close to the new government’s stance but complicates the landscape for tech giants dependent on global supply chains and open markets. The fragmentation of technological governance increases, and with it, the risk that divergent standards and opposing interests create uncertainties for long-term strategies.
In 2025, economic and political actors find themselves at a crossroads.
On one hand, uncontrolled innovation can produce disruptive benefits, but without a clear regulatory framework and strategic vision, it fosters asymmetries and opportunistic exploitation. On the other hand, excessive regulation can stifle creativity and slow progress, leaving room for imitations devoid of genuine added value. Between innovating, imitating, and regulating, the challenge is to find a balance that enables the potential of digital technology to be harnessed without generating irreversible imbalances or giving up essential competitive advantages.
Conclusions
The 2025 envisioned by Mark van Rijmenam offers a scenario devoid of easy reassurances. AI is everywhere, but its diffusion does not guarantee uniform benefits; trust in information oscillates, undermined by synthetic and easily manipulated content; information overload, tokenization, and the advent of quantum computing rewrite the rules of markets and security. None of this represents a mere “next step” of linear progress: rather, it is a convergence of phenomena that forces a rethinking of entrepreneurial strategies, political choices, and organizational models.
For businesses and managers, the implications are profound. While other similar technologies, such as less sophisticated machine learning approaches or more rudimentary AR systems, already existed, today the difference lies in the speed with which these innovations permeate every sector, altering established ecosystems faster than regulation or skill-building can keep pace. It thus becomes strategic not only to adopt the most advanced solutions but to understand how to integrate them coherently with one’s own values, preserving reputation and adapting to a context where transparency becomes an intangible asset.
Comparing this with the state-of-the-art reveals that many technologies already existed, but now they change scale and context, while others—such as new-generation humanoid robots or the maturation of asset tokenization—are redefining the competitive landscape. Some alternatives, like classical cryptography or less ambitious AI systems, will continue to exist alongside emerging solutions but will have to coexist with far more complex challenges, demanding critical analysis. Entrepreneurs capable of looking beyond the myth of linear progress and evaluating the social, economic, and political impact of innovation with clarity will be better positioned in a changing environment.
It is not about extolling or demonizing technology, but about understanding its role in a global game where power, information, and value flow in unprecedented forms. The year 2025 is not a finish line, but an intermediate stage: those who learn to navigate these waters today may guide the currents of transformation tomorrow. The invitation is not to fear or uncritically celebrate its potential, but to develop a clear vision based on a deep knowledge of the dynamics at play and the awareness that it will not be technology alone that determines the future, but how individuals, businesses, and institutions use it as a lever for building a future with realism and responsibility.
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