Companies to shift AI goals in 2025 with setbacks inevitable, Forrester predicts [Video]

Forrester Research’s predictions for 2025 underscore a shift from 2024’s bold gen AI experiments to the pursuit of bottom-line gains, but not all progress will prove linear.

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Forrester Research this week unleashed a slate of predictions for 2025. Noting that companies pursued bold experiments in 2024 driven by generative AI and other emerging technologies, the research and advisory firm predicts a pivot to realizing value.

“2025 will be about the pursuit of near-term, bottom-line gains while competing for declining consumer loyalty and digital-first business buyers,” Sharyn Leaver, Forrester chief research officer, wrote in a blog post Tuesday. “Some leaders will pursue that goal strategically, in ways that set up their organizations for long-term success. Others won’t — and will come up against the limits of quick fixes.”

Forrester said most technology executives expect their IT budgets to increase in 2025. Savvy IT leaders, Leaver said, will use that boost to shore up fundamentals by buttressing infrastructure, streamlining operations, and upskilling …