By Dejan Milojicic, IEEE CS Technology Predictions Committee Chair, IEEE Fellow, 2014 IEEE CS President, HPE Fellow, and VP at Hewlett-Packard Labs
Each year, IEEE Computer Society experts predict which emerging technologies are likely to transform industries and shape our world. For the past 15 years, these predictions have been instrumental in highlighting the innovations we should watch for.
This year’s 22 technology trends were identified by a team of 54 technology experts from around the globe. The Committee evaluated technologies based on the likelihood of commercial or research success in 2025, impact on humanity, maturity, market adoption, and adoption horizon. These predictions span various domains, from artificial intelligence (AI) to energy sustainability and beyond. This year, the team’s expanded focus stands out—looking beyond traditional computing to include space exploration, health, and power systems.
Beyond outlining computer science and engineering trends, the 2025 Technology Predictions Committee offered insights into how industry, government, academia, and professional organizations can support and advance these developments. Key recommendations for these groups include:
- Industry: Explore new facets of LLM deployment and start delivering AI agents in areas where they can complement human labor.
- Government: Invest in tools and policies for AI regulation in broad domains and foster industry to drive AI-assisted drug discovery.
- Academia: Research and prototype AI-optimized, green High Performance Computing (HPC), and prototype brain-computer interfaces for a select set of ethically approved use cases.
- Professional Organizations: Define standards and best practices for wearables/biomarkers in medicine/wellness, foster safe and ethically aligned augmented AI, and encourage AI-based medical diagnosis for existing/new diseases.
For the first time, the team also highlighted disruptions that will affect technology development beyond 2025. These disruptions are expected to influence the trajectory of innovation for years to come and will serve as a guiding framework for future technology predictions, helping experts and stakeholders prepare for what’s next.
As in past years, IEEE Computer Society plans to revisit these predictions with a detailed scorecard to assess their accuracy and impact. This scorecard will be released later in 2025, showcasing an overview of how well the predictions panned out and providing insights into areas that require further exploration.
Download the report for a full breakdown of “The most significant technology predictions for 2025”.
