Intelligence, resilience and security: 5 technology trends that will reshape your business

The recently published NTT DATA Technology Foresight 2025 report is an indispensable resource for leaders who seek to understand the transformative technology trends that are reshaping modern business.

The report traces the technology patterns that will become business realities, explains how they are likely to evolve and outlines potential scenarios and use cases across industries. NTT DATA experts also offer practical steps that leaders can take to start capitalizing on the potential of these trends.

Let’s dive into the five main trends that business leaders should watch closely. 

1. Enhanced humans

NTT DATA expects 2025 to be a defining year for AI in the workplace. The synergistic collaboration between humans and machines is shaping a future where people’s potential isn’t limited by time, task or knowledge. However, rather than replacing people, the report stresses that technology–human integration will improve employees’ productivity and the quality of their output while helping them to handle more complex and value-generating tasks.

Leading large language models (LLMs) such as GPT-4, Google’s Gemini and NVIDIA’s Nemotron-3 are among the technologies enabling the infusion of AI into daily work. In the year ahead, these models will continue to be refined and optimized for different applications. Other notable advances include GPT-4o, the latest version of OpenAI’s GPT, which supports multimodal inputs, real-time conversations, memory learning, advanced translation and emotion detection.

Retrieval-augmented generation will continue to improve LLMs’ accuracy, contextual understanding and cost-effectiveness by retrieving relevant external information and integrating it into responses. We can also expect digital humans — also known as AI avatars — to become more realistic and interactive.

• ALSO READ → Seize the moment: how to master your GenAI destiny

2. Ambient intelligent experiences

The report outlines how advances in AI, spatial computing and automation are allowing organizations to create “ambient intelligent experiences” that revolutionize how they connect with their audiences across touchpoints. Beyond improving customer service, these experiences allow organizations to anticipate their customers’ needs more proactively, optimize interactions and nurture meaningful emotional connections — all crucial in building customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Ambient intelligent experiences are made possible by technologies such as natural user interfaces, which use gestures, voice and touch to enable intuitive, human-centric digital interactions. Furthermore, AI-driven customer interfaces and intelligent personal assistants draw on the power of machine learning to analyze behavior in real time, adapting to user needs and providing personalized, conversational support and interactions by understanding natural language and detecting emotions.

Leading organizations are experimenting with smart sensors and radio-frequency identification technology to collect and track data across physical and digital touchpoints in real time and improve the flow of information along the customer journey.  

3. Digital sustainability for economic resilience

We foresee an emerging business strategy where environmental stewardship is tightly integrated with economic growth. This strategy is founded on the belief that digital sustainability not only supports ecological balance but also builds economic resilience, allowing organizations to better adapt to shifting market demands and regulations.

AI, IoT and blockchain lay the technology foundation for continuing advances in digital sustainability. For example, they enable the creation of trusted data spaces where organizations can securely and transparently exchange information as they build inclusive solutions. We can also expect more organizations to use advanced cooling technologies, energy-efficient hardware, renewable energy, virtualization and dynamic resource allocation to reduce their data centers’ environmental impact.

Increasingly, remote sensing technologies with high-resolution satellite and aerial imaging systems and advanced data-processing algorithms will be deployed to monitor environmental and resource conditions. At the same time, a new generation of smart grids that integrate sensors, IoT devices and algorithms will help communities to better distribute and manage electric power.

• ALSO READ → Unlock the potential of predictive analytics for industrial emissions monitoring

4. Cognitive cloud convergence

The report traces the shift toward a unified, intelligent cloud environment, where AI and cloud technologies intersect to simplify complex tasks, making processes more responsive, adaptable and resilient.

Specifically, it explores how AI-augmented software engineering, edge computing platforms and AI for IT operations are opening doors for organizations to improve operations, speed up decision-making and surface deeper insights from their data in real time.

However, NTT DATA experts warn that organizations must prepare to navigate new data privacy and security concerns that may arise due to the centralized nature of cloud systems. And, as they seek to unify disparate data sources and legacy systems in multiple cloud environments, they’ll need to overcome integration complexities while balancing the need for continual training with resource and budget constraints.   

5. Accelerated security fusion

The report introduces the concept of “accelerated security fusion”, an emerging approach to defending against increasingly sophisticated threats. This concept focuses on merging advanced technologies and methodologies to strengthen an organization’s cyberdefenses.

• ALSO READ → Strengthen your cyber resilience with Managed XDR from NTT DATA

In the year ahead, we expect organizations to deploy more proactive cyberdefense techniques such as threat intelligence, machine learning, cryptographic agility and advanced real-time analytics to neutralize threats early. We also anticipate an uptick in the adoption of digital identity-fortification technologies like multifactor authentication and biometric verification to secure user, device and application credentials. Meanwhile, advances in information safeguarding techniques and encryption, data-loss prevention and access-control policies promise to provide an additional layer of protection for sensitive data.   

Organizations will also double down on cyber-risk governance — that is, getting the right policies, roles and processes in place to identify, assess and mitigate cyber risks.

Navigating the uncertainties and blind spots

While the potential of the technology trends we explore in the report is exciting, they emphasize the importance of also remaining alert to their potential risks. We anticipate leaders will find support in the form of generative, AI-powered personas that will simulate realistic business environments and apply scenario-based planning to mitigate risk.

Yes, uncertainties will persist, but striving to comprehend future scenarios will decrease the likelihood of unexpected challenges and blind spots.

• ALSO READ → From SASE to GenAI: network and security trends to watch in 2025