Deliver on the Promise of AI, Unlock the Value of Data, and Eight Additional Opportunities for Tech Companies in 2025

In its "Top 10 Opportunities for Technology Companies in 2025," EY, a consultancy, explains that its report published in December 2023 "highlighted the need for tech businesses to reshape, reposition and innovate for success in a world led by generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). Throughout 2024, AI use-cases and copilot deployments surged across industries; however, many reached a plateau – often because companies were not fully prepared for the cost and organization-wide transformation to enable success."

The report adds that "To get ahead, tech companies – and their customers – need to move away from viewing AI as a capability applied to traditional business processes and instead fundamentally rethink and reinvent their business to operate in an AI-first era. Tech companies themselves can lead here by demonstrating their own internal transformation journey using their own products ('tech on tech')."

I agree with the assertion: "As 2025 unfolds, the acceleration of AI adoption will continue, but it will be against a backdrop of increasing capital needs, heightened global regulatory oversight and shifting economic landscapes."

The report's authors explain that "In compiling our annual Top 10 Opportunities for Technology Companies in 2025, we've attempted to provide a balanced, future-oriented view of the potential actions for tech companies across various growth and operational levers to drive value creation in 2025." Below are EY's Top 10 Opportunities for Technology Companies in 2025:

1. Deliver on the promise of AI: Transform potential into performance
2. Drive growth and optimize customer experience through an agentic AI future: Harness next-generation, semi-autonomous AI "agents" to create new customer offerings.
3. Adopt outcome-based pricing models to supplement subscription and consumption offerings: Get ahead of customer expectations with pricing that corresponds to customer value realization.
4. Demonstrate the power of an AI-first operating model: Rethink business models and processes to boost operational agility driven from AI.
5. Unlock the value of data: Assess opportunities to modernize and consolidate legacy systems to better harness the power of enterprise data.
6. Empower your workforce of the future with innovative training: Boost productivity and evolve skill sets for the era of AI.
7. Embed tax and legal functions at the outset of AI transformations: Improve strategic decision making by addressing rapid changes in tax, trade and compliance requirements by addressing them up front – not as an afterthought – to optimize business models and supply chains.
8. Inject AI into cyber defenses: Tech companies that embed AI-driven security solutions will not only protect their assets but also position themselves in the market as leaders in trusted innovation.
9. Move beyond contingency funds to free up capital to invest in emerging technologies: Free up resources by divesting non-core businesses/products to invest in high growth opportunities and drive sustainable growth.
10. Shape the agenda for incoming regulators: Actively engage with regulatory bodies to structure future frameworks and drive more consistency in regulatory outcomes.

The report concludes by explaining: "In 2025, tech companies have the opportunity to translate the excitement and expectations around AI into tangible business benefits for themselves and their customers. Seizing these 10 opportunities highlighted can help accelerate this goal, and in the process, shape tech companies AI-enabled business of the future."

How is your business utilizing AI to achieve tangible benefits for your team and your customers?

Aaron Rose is a board member, corporate advisor, and co-founder of great companies. He also serves as the editor of GT Perspectives, an online forum focused on turning perspective into opportunity.