Posey's Tips & Tricks
My Technology Predictions for 2025
Here are some very plausible (and one longshot) possibilities we may see come to fruition in 2025.
As a longstanding tradition, I kick off the new year by making some technology predictions for the next 12 months and to review the predictions that I made the previous year to see how I did. Even though numerous tech journalists make their own end of the year predictions, I like to do things a little bit differently from the others by adhering to three basic rules that I set for myself.
The first of these rules is that I do my best to try to avoid making the same predictions as everyone else. If you were to do a Web search on the phrase, “2025 technology predictions” you would likely find a lot of overlap between the various articles. While I can't 100 percent guarantee that none of my predictions match something that someone else has said (or will say), I do my best to try to be unique.
The second rule is that I try to stay away from making any predictions that are super obvious. For example, it wouldn't exactly be a stretch for me to predict that Microsoft is going to announce some new Surface hardware at its annual Surface event.
The third rule is that I always like to end my list of predictions with a longshot prediction. I'm talking about something that is plausible, but yet unlikely to occur. So with that said, let's get on with the predictions.
AI Adoption Takes a Brief Pause
Every list of tech predictions for the coming year that I have read has essentially said that AI adoption will see unprecedented growth over the coming year and that it shows no signs of slowing down. Even though this is not my longshot prediction, it might as well be, because I am going to be a contrarian and predict that some organizations and some software vendors take a brief pause to reconsider their AI strategies.
My guess is that because AI is evolving so rapidly and is being adopted at such a frantic pace, there will be those who pause to question whether what they are doing with AI is smart or beneficial. AI has the potential to displace millions of workers, upend entire industries, and put an end to personal privacy once and for all. It seems only prudent for organizations to consider whether the “AI everywhere” philosophy that everyone seems to be adopting is really the best course of action.
Don't get me wrong... I'm not suggesting that AI is going away or that we shouldn't be using AI. I am simply saying that I think that there will be a very deliberate effort to put some AI guardrails into place.
Microsoft Pulls Recall
Microsoft's Windows 11 Recall feature is easily one of the most controversial features ever to be added to an operating system. For those who might not be familiar with Windows Recall, it is a native Windows 11 feature designed for use on Copilot+ PCs. Windows Recall takes screen captures every few seconds and then uses AI to analyze each screen capture. Users can then use a search interface to locate something that they had been working on previously.
As you can imagine, having your PC create screen captures of absolutely everything that you do makes for a potential privacy nightmare. Even if you never do anything questionable on your PC, there are probably some types of sensitive information that you would prefer not to have exposed to AI. Just imagine a situation, for example, where Windows screen captures your online banking information, analyzes it with AI and then uses that information to financially profile you so that it can sell the profile to advertisers. To the best of my knowledge, Microsoft has no plans for doing anything like that. I only offer this example as a way of illustrating how the screen capture data can be used in ways that you might not approve of. Even if Microsoft handles the data responsibly, you can bet that there is someone out there who can't wait to exploit Windows Recall data.
Given all of the negative press surrounding Windows Recall, I am betting that Microsoft eventually scraps the feature altogether. Microsoft has already redesigned Windows Recall at least once as a way of addressing security and privacy concerns, but I am guessing that these concessions won't be sufficient to pacify those who would rather not have all of their activities screen captured.
Microsoft Goes Subscription Only
My third prediction is that Microsoft is going to gravitate toward a subscription-only licensing model for its software products. To date, it has been possible to purchase perpetual Windows licenses and you can even still get perpetual licenses for Microsoft Office. However, I look for these offerings to come to an end at some point.
I don't know exactly what that will look like. Microsoft may introduce a new version of Windows and make it subscription only as it phases out Microsoft Office licenses. My guess will be that Microsoft will instead, make the change gradually, making it so that only those who subscribe to Windows receive the latest features and non-security updates.
A Renewed Push to Automate Everything
Over the next year, I look for Microsoft to put a heavy emphasis on automation. Let's call it Digital Transformation 2.0. Microsoft 365 Copilot is getting some new capabilities (such as the ability to run scheduled tasks) that will lend themselves well to advanced automation. Combine this with improvements that Microsoft has been making to its Power Platform and the fact that you can now embed Python code into an Excel spreadsheet. It all seems like a recipe for automation everywhere. It's possible that tasks that simply could not be automated in the past will suddenly be able to be automated.
Teams Becomes a Platform
For this year's longshot prediction, I am predicting that Microsoft Teams evolves from being an application to becoming an entire platform. I look for Teams to become far more extensible than what we have seen thus far. I wouldn't even be surprised to see Microsoft embed low code or no code automation tools into Teams.
This extensibility and all of the recent AI integrations may make it so that each organization can adapt Teams to its own needs. For some organizations, Teams will remain little more than an online meeting platform. For others, Teams may function more like a CRM application. Ultimately, I think that Teams itself will function more like an operating system so that organizations can run various applications within the Teams platform, having those applications take full advantage of the Teams foundation.
If Teams does become far more powerful, as I am predicting, Microsoft may even break Teams off from Microsoft 365 and begin requiring a separate subscription for Teams, though in my opinion, doing so would be a big mistake for Microsoft.
About the Author
Brien Posey is a 22-time Microsoft MVP with decades of IT experience. As a freelance writer, Posey has written thousands of articles and contributed to several dozen books on a wide variety of IT topics. Prior to going freelance, Posey was a CIO for a national chain of hospitals and health care facilities. He has also served as a network administrator for some of the country's largest insurance companies and for the Department of Defense at Fort Knox. In addition to his continued work in IT, Posey has spent the last several years actively training as a commercial scientist-astronaut candidate in preparation to fly on a mission to study polar mesospheric clouds from space. You can follow his spaceflight training on his Web site.