(PR) As 2025 kicks off, predictions abound on the technology innovations expected in the year ahead. In its new whitepaper, 101 Technology Trends That Will—and Won’t—Shape 2025, analysts from global technology intelligence firm ABI Research. ABI Research analysts identify 54 trends that will shape the technology market and 47 others that, although attracting vast amounts of speculation and commentary, are less likely to move the needle over the next twelve months. In the 5G Devices, Smartphones, and Wearables space, Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled Personal Computers (PCs) will become the new normal, but ARM-Based PCs will remain a minority segment.
“2024 has been marked by challenges, from global conflicts and inflationary pressures to political uncertainty. These factors have strained enterprise and consumer spending, leading to market inertia, short-term technology investments, sidelined capital, and the exposure of vulnerable suppliers,” says Stuart Carlaw, Chief Research Officer at ABI Research. “From a technology perspective, many industries and end markets are in that awkward stage of technology adoption where they are formulating implementation strategies, assessing solutions and partners, and trying to see if they have the resources needed to roll out solutions at scale. This is a particularly sensitive time, which tends to suggest 2025 will have tech implementers and end users on the brink of a period of a massive technology shift as they work through these issues.”
What Will Happen in 2025
AI PCs will become the new normal in 2025, moving from premium to standard market feature
The year 2025 will mark the one when AI-enabled PCs transition quickly from a “nice to have” feature to one of necessity, capturing approximately 60% of total PC shipments according to ABI Research forecasts. This dramatic shift will be driven by the convergence of several key factors: the proliferation of Neural Processing Units (NPUs) across different price tiers, the mainstream adoption of Large Language Models (LLMs) for everyday computing tasks, and the strategic launch of Microsoft’s Windows 12 in 2H 2025. Microsoft’s new Operating System (OS), optimized for AI workloads and deeper Copilot integration, will trigger a significant enterprise replacement cycle. The compelling proposition of AI PCs will be strengthened further by their superior power efficiency during AI workloads, offering extended battery life, while running increasingly sophisticated on-device AI applications.
What Won’t Happen in 2025
Arm-based PCs will not be more than a minority segment in 2025
ABI Research forecasts that Arm-based PCs will represent only 13% of total PC shipments in 2025, despite this being a pivotal year for Arm’s PC market expansion. While Qualcomm’s latest PC processors offer enhanced performance and AI capabilities, its market impact depends heavily on resolving ongoing Arm licensing disputes. x86 incumbents Intel and AMD will continue to rule the mass market and will maintain their significant advantage in software compatibility.
For more trends that will and won’t happen in 2025, download the whitepaper, 101 Technology Trends That Will—and Won’t—Shape 2025.
About ABI Research
ABI Research is a global technology intelligence firm uniquely positioned at the intersection of technology solution providers and end-market companies. We serve as the bridge that seamlessly connects these two segments by providing exclusive research and expert guidance to drive successful technology implementations and deliver strategies proven to attract and retain customers.
Discussion (15 replies)
Join Discussion →Hahahahahaha, you serious?
I don't really doubt that this could happen.
I mean, it doesn't mean people will use it in the manner that we think - not everyone is going to be running LLMs on their laptops on a daily basis. But like Apple, I think it's at 100% across the board in it's products for AI accelerators, and as been for many years now. It's been used for biometrics and stuff for some time now.
It's not whether it can have practical uses, but that the term AI has negative connotations. I doubt many people would willingly buy an "AI PC" unless it is forced upon them.
I can see it existing like physx, nobody giving any mind to it. I don't think of my PC as a physx PC, despite it having the capability to run physx.
Well, I seem to remember that at some point by the end 2025, some consumers won't have a choice. I could be wrong but I thought we had a story a few months back stating laptops/notebooks/etc would all feature AI/NPU CPUs by (edited: forgot we're in 2025) this year's end. I have a feeling the same will happen with OEM desktops as well plus a good measure of PC enthusiasts pre-builts since marketing seems to love using AI with everything.
I think that after a time personal builds will end up being the last space where we see minimal AI inclusion and even then I'm not sure for how long.
So never upgrade the CPU again and run linux? gotcha
Meh, what does this mean really, Cotana et al shoved everywhere and processors that run a bit faster as you do the same thing over and over, for sure I welcome the latter, dont know about the former, though AI can be useful.
Asking AI to order groceries and turn off the lights is a lot less of an issue than companies using it to review applications and such things, that needs to be outlawed soon, but it wont, and that will be an ever increasing problem for all of us.
My fear is using my data to build their models. With crap like recall running on your PC I don't believe we are fully in control anymore of our data. Just like Adobe granted themselves full unrestricted rights to your data in their EULA, MS will do the same. They don't give a frack that it is illegal, they are daring you to sue them.
Ever since Windows 10, I don't feel like I'm the customer, more like me and my data is the product.
and on that note, just saw this:
I think it's kind of funny - our IT dept at work won't let us use Gmail or DropBox or anything because they are worried about data confidentiality and security.
But they outsourced all our email to Microsoft and use the heck out of almost everything in the 365 suite. I have no idea if they allow/disallowed CoPilot AI stuff, haven't looked into it and I don't log into the online portal except when I have to.
Yeah after the umpteenth ransomeware attack, our corporate IT put the smack down on ANY person email / file services. Pretty sure they are all blocked on the firewalls, but that doesn't help when so many are working from home and not always on the vpn. Stupid salespeople.
Oh man don't get me started on people using AI then trying to discuss proprietary things and get AI summaries.. GUYS.. STOP IT!!
I guess the one good thing about outsourcing it. When it does inevitably have a problem, you can always point the finger to something outside.
But that only works for so long, until everyone else starts pointing the finger at the guy that made the decision to outsource in the first place.
Yea after a huge incident where i work right after we outsourced most of our it. Our CIO 'retired'.
When they outsourced, did they then opened the spigot of money? Im betting they did.
Rumors say yes.