14 Technology Trends for Businesses Heading into 2025
We continue with Digital Transformation, but now with new labels that allow us to capture the attention of the same audience with different themes—especially with AI.
AI is not new, but it is new to most people.
In 2024, AI celebrates its 68th anniversary. We only started paying attention two years ago for the simple reason that it began to resemble “someone” rather than just “something.”
*I invite you to explore the concept of “Creaxoma” in relation to AI.
However, we are falling short in Digital Transformation. Several studies confirm that:
70% of Digital Transformation implementations fail.
The main reason lies in underestimating Change Management, starting with the leaders themselves, as well as the belief that it is solely an IT issue and not a company-wide initiative.*
This means that out of 10 companies attempting Digital Transformation, only 3 succeed.
But for those that succeed, what’s the benefit?
According to Everis, 70% of companies that implemented Digital Transformation strategies increased their productivity by 40%.
So out of 100 companies that aim to implement Digital Transformation, only 30 succeed, and just 21 achieve a 40% productivity increase.
We don’t have the time or energy to visualize the future merely from a perspective of “wonder” without clear actions for the present.
That’s why I oppose the “Futurist” version of business; I prefer to be a “Futurologist.”
What’s the difference?
Futurist: Provides visibility into potential outcomes without clarity on what to do in the present, often for entertainment purposes.
Futurologist: Offers visibility into potential outcomes with clear guidance on what to do in the present to shape the future.
While there are already declared and identified trends for the coming decade, I believe it’s important to highlight only those with practical implications for today.
Here, I share my business technology trends based on this clarity, which you can hear (in Spanish) in the episode of Neurona Digital on the topic:
- Governance Algorithm
Start by identifying, neutralizing, and replacing the indifference toward technology within the organization. Technologies like AI will permeate various departments, either implementing or ignoring best practices, potentially exposing the organization to compliance risks.
Indifference toward technology stems from lack of definition.
Definition creates connection.
Technology implementation is no longer solely an IT responsibility; it creates rights and obligations for all areas and personnel in a company.
- Value Architecture
Regardless of the department we work in, everyone must be a value creator for the organization, both from business and technological perspectives.
Every employee can contribute to generating value.
Access to technology requires clarity of purpose. Technology doesn’t replace jobs, especially for thinkers—it demands that businesses take themselves more seriously with the understanding that:
Technology, people, ideas, leaders, processes, and customers that do not add value = subtract value.
- Configurative Transformation
While we’ve democratized access to technology, it’s time to do the same with neuroscience. One role of technology is to help us access our best selves:
Intelligence is a right, and neuroscience is the starting point.
Evaluating outcomes through binary moral lenses (good/bad) is no longer sufficient to understand organizational thought systems. Deeper insight is needed into mental configurations to provoke the best reactions.
Shift perspectives:
- From “A didn’t meet the goal” to “Why didn’t A meet the goal?”
- From “B couldn’t handle the challenge” to “Why hasn’t B overcome the challenge?”
- From “C doesn’t want to do it” to “Why doesn’t C want to do it?”
This involves evolving the way of thinking to identify errors and failures as “symptoms” rather than mere events.
All of the above is based on neuroscientific principles that propose the algorithm of human transformation, which begins with self-awareness.
Judge less and ask more to understand “systems of thought.”
- Neuro-Driven Communication
Being right is no longer enough; we also need strategy to communicate and elicit the smartest reactions.
The lack of communication within companies is a pandemic fueled by absurd rivalries between departments that ultimately share the same victories and defeats. Humanity has achieved its entire evolution through collaboration. Effective communication is not just a matter for marketing and advertising departments.
We need clarity about how the human brain works in order to influence it effectively.
Technology should help us become more human, not more impersonal. People are “someone,” not “something.”
Clarity, above all, is built; it is not just demanded or given. It is also fostered.
- Neutralizing Digital Bias & Digital Mastery
Being intelligent is not enough. We can evolve from the satisfaction of confirming that we are right to finding greater satisfaction in discovering that we were wrong. What contributes the most to a company is not experience but passion.
The worst bias is believing you have no bias…
We also need to develop wisdom in relation to technology, often referred to as “Digital Mastery.” This has implications such as:
- a) avoiding idealizing technology as the complete solution to a problem
- b) avoiding an addiction to the new that diminishes our ability to appreciate existing technology
- c) not underestimating the human factor, which ultimately gives value to technology itself
In short, we must embrace scientific thinking in everything we do to avoid believing lies as truths and truths as lies.
- AI Variations
There are already over 10,000 AI tools available that allow us to achieve more with less and optimize every resource. This is no longer news and cannot be the main character of this story. I believe our focus should be on:
Optimize the only NON-renewable resource: Time.
Whether it’s synthetic, analytic, general, or generative AI, our mind should focus on the problems to solve that are in front of us, not on the tools to achieve it. For this reason, I emphasize that for most people, the value of technology boils down to:
AI means: Investing attention and solving problems.
AI: Tools to solve problems, not to create new problems…
- Glocal Innovation VS “Geographic” Silos
The answers to our challenges are within the company itself and in your country. As a consultant, it is very satisfying to provide clarity on what is happening within a company, but the reality is that “they already knew it,” just with less clarity.
Today, to innovate, we need to develop the acquired taste for several skills:
- See problems as opportunities
- Develop genuine curiosity to understand the problems (#curioxoma)
- Build clarity < Data Driven >
We should be inspired by what is done in other parts of the world, but without comparing ourselves, as each problem has a unique configuration.
Distance disappears with technology, but we can fall into the trap of connecting with the distant and disconnecting from the nearby. That’s why we need:
Connect locally with global experience.
- Hiperautomatization
If automation exists, bureaucracy should die. But digital bureaucracy exists, and one of the main factors is the fear of making mistakes too quickly.
At this point, no thinking human being should be doing tasks that don’t require thinking. In reality, everyone thinks, but some people prefer to avoid thinking and opt to just repeat.
Speed is frightening, but it’s better to just have respect…
Before betting on “hyperautomation,” I recommend identifying the people in your company who perform tasks that don’t require thinking and start evolving them into tasks that do require thinking, or accept the inevitable reality that they will be replaced by technology. Why should a human who avoids thinking be surprised when they get fired?
The main contribution of a human is to think, not just to do.
Hyperautomation means turning on the “Turbo” of your organization…
That’s why when talking about NHNTT (No Humans Non Thinking Tasking), we need to be clear that tasks that don’t require thinking should simply no longer be assigned to humans.
So what do humans do with “hyperautomation”? We have more time to:
- a) think more
- b) think better
- c) think faster
- Neurodiversity:
The appreciation for diversity is what has allowed our algorithm called DNA to evolve and continue existing. However, diversity has been sexualized when, in reality, the issue of “gender” is just one element, but not the only one.
It is surprising how common it is for a work team, even within a company, to have people who are very similar. This is so limiting when it comes to data, problems, and new technologies.
Our diversity originates in our minds; we are unique from our code, the wiring of our brain (which changes every day), and other factors such as gender preferences.
Embracing neurodiversity means vaccinating ourselves against bias and losing sight of what is evident in the data provided by technology.
Diversity means recognizing elements such as generation, culture, education, and life preferences as contributions toward achieving objectivity.
Promoting neurodiversity ensures the evolution of your organization.
- Attention Based Leadership (ABL):
Motivation needs to be scientific. Inspiration is necessary, and it can only happen from “human to human,” but we must understand that there is an algorithm to respect in order to leverage attention—the energy our mind uses to “make things happen.”
Leadership needs to evolve from abusing attention to becoming experts at provoking strategic curiosity in the members of organizations.
How to abuse your collaborators’ attention?
- Say little with a lot
- Inform rather than communicate
- Hold long meetings
- Request reports as punishment
We need leadership that understands the mind, cognitive processes, and the mechanisms of stimulus for people. Leadership that starts at the beginning, with oneself. With you. One of the key skills is what I call SET (Self Energy Techfullness).
- Systemic CIO (IT inclusive) Evolution:
Technology leaders in companies need to be connected with the financial results of the organizations. Being an expert only in technology is not enough, as it fosters betting on technology rather than investing in it.
How can technology be called an “investment” if there is no financial run-up?
It’s no surprise that many CIOs report to CFOs, which I see as dangerous if the dynamic for improving technology is “holding on until it can’t anymore” and then investing the minimum required.
Some of the skills I believe CIOs or technology leaders need to have are:
- Data Storytelling: not only for presenting to the CEO but to all areas, considering their characteristics and biases.
- Technology Filters: at this point, you’ve probably been asked, “Which AI should we use?”
- Systemic Thinking: to offer transversal solutions rather than just taking orders.
- Time Smartness & Techfullness:
Since time is our non-renewable resource, I consider it to be the most important of all. However, it is not the one we waste the most, but rather the one that is most wasted in companies.
What’s the point of having AI that saves you hours if you procrastinate at work and are addicted to stress to meet deadlines?
We need to develop greater intelligence about time. Honestly, for many of us, technology takes more time than it saves. This is exactly what we need to avoid!
Time Smartness: it involves increasing our intelligence towards time, not increasing technology to waste it.
So, what is Techfullness?
It is the necessary maturity we need under the understanding that we are technology, and we need to calibrate ourselves to achieve more with the same or less time.
In a very short period, with technologies like BCI (Brain-Computer Interface), the distance between thinking or feeling to decide and making it happen will be shorter.
Imagine having a brain connected to a lot of technology and being “short-tempered.” I mean, today we have technology at hand, soon it will be at the level of thought.
Techfullness: preparing ourselves to think well and better as response times between technology and us shorten.
- All Sales Company
An employee who is disconnected from the results of the company is a root of indifference. Although people argue that “not everyone knows how to sell,” in reality, we have all convinced someone to do something for the sake of a benefit.
With technology, empowering employees to generate business is an accessible reality. Not transmitting this across the entire organization encourages leaving opportunities on the table.
Sales close deals, but every employee attracts sales for the organization.
Not only should every employee be a brand ambassador, but also a business hunter by the simple principle of reciprocity: “so that we all do well.”
- Self-Learning Leveraging LAAS Platforms:
With so many platforms available to learn about new technologies to become more efficient, what excuse can we accept today for ignorance when you have a smartphone in your hand? That’s why I believe that:
Ignorance is a choice…
LAAS (Learning As A Service) platforms allow us to obtain, increase, and acquire knowledge in such easy ways. However, people don’t take full advantage of them as they should.
How do we encourage people to be self-taught in companies?
- Don’t overwhelm people and encourage them to have learning spaces.
- Foster curiosity and not a culture of fear.
- Invest in these platforms: Coursera, Edx, Udemy, Netzun, etc.
- Foster a passion for knowledge… starting from the beginning.
